Death Anxiety, Locus of Control and Life Satisfaction in the Elderly: Toward a Definition of Ego-Integrity

Abstract

In order to test Erikson's statements regarding ego integrity vs. despair, twenty men and twenty women from each of three residential settings (general community, public housing and nursing homes) were given life satisfaction, locus of control and death anxiety scales. Erikson's hypothesis of internal control, high life satisfaction and low death anxiety was supported only by the public housing data. The remaining data supported a conflicting hypothesis based on the work of Monosoff and Sterns. Although it appears that age segregated group living does desensitize the elderly to death anxiety it was necessary to propose the functioning of other variables, i.e., health status and “independence,” in order to integrate these findings. It was also noted that there were no sex differences in death anxiety, that years of schooling was not related to death anxiety, and that age was negatively related to death anxiety for the total sample.

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