Stratum Contrasts and Similarities in Attitudes Toward Death

Abstract

Both survey and ethnographic data were used to explore attitudes toward death among members of varying social categories defined by race, age, social class, and sex. In the survey these four social stratum variables taken together explained relatively little variation in attitudes toward death, suggesting greater similarity across social categories than had been anticipated. However, analysis by age resulted in substantial differences, with middle-aged respondents (45-54 years) expressing greatest fears of death and the elderly (65-74) reflecting the least. Four themes summarize the results; (1) the middle-aged crisis evidenced by many individuals in confronting death, and the apparent resolution exhibited by elderly respondents; (2) the effects of biographical and historical events in shaping individual orientations toward death; (3) cultural heterogeneity within, as well as among, groups in death-rated attitudes; (4) age as a leveler of prior social distinctions, as aging individuals from various social categories deal with the inevitability of impending death.

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