TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page                                                                                                                       i

Certification page                                                                                                        ii

Dedication                                                                                                      iii

Acknowledgement                                                                                               iv

Table of Contents                                                                                                         v

List of tables                                                                                            vi

Abstract                                                                                                  vii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION                                                                     

Introduction                                                                                                                  1

Statement of the Problem                                                                          19

Purpose of the Study                                                                                      19

Operational Definition of Terms                                                                           20

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

THEORETICAL REVIEW

Terror Management Theory                                                                        21

Becker’s Existential View of Death Theory                                             24

Regret Theory of Death                                                                          25

Meaning Management Theory                                                                 26

Theory of Identity Development                                                                     28

EMPIRICAL REVIEW

HIV/AIDS and Death Anxiety                                                                      28

Locus of Control and Death Anxiety                                             34

Religious Affiliation and Death Anxiety                                                  36

SUMMARY OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW                                                        41

HYPOTHESES                                                                                                            42

CHAPTER THREE: METHOD

Participants                                                                                                 43

Instrument                                                                                                  43

Procedure                                                                                             45

Design and Statistics                                                                            45

CHAPTER FOUR

Result                                                                                                          46

CHAPTER FIVE

Discussion                                                                                                    50

Implications of the study                                                                            53

Limitations of the study                                                                               54

Suggestions for further studies                                                               55

Conclusion                                                                                   56

REFERENCES                                                                                                            58

APPENDICES

A.            Demographic data Death Anxiety questionnaire

B            .          Cronbach’s alpha and split half reliability for Death Anxiety scale   Correlation between (DAS) and (STAI)

D.           Religious Affiliation Scale

E.            Locus of Control Scale

F.            Regression table

vi

LIST OF TABLES

1.   Table (1): ANOVA summary of HIV/AIDS status, locus of control and religious affiliation as factors in death anxiety among adults in Nsukka Local Government Area.

2.   Table (2): Mean scores of HIV/AIDS Positive and Negative Groups on Death Anxiety.

3.  Mean (M) scores/standard deviation (SD) of locus of control and religious affiliation on death anxiety

ABSTRACT

The study investigated HIV/AIDS status, locus of control and religious affiliation as factors in death anxiety among three hundred and ninety (390) adults in Nsukka Local Government Area. It was hypothesized that HIV/AIDS status, locus of control and religious affiliation will not be a significant factor in death anxiety among adults in Nsukka Local Government Area. Three instruments were used for data collation in this study: The Death anxiety scale, Locus of control of behaviour scale, and Religious affiliation scale. Analysis of variance was used for data analysis and showed HIV/AIDS as a significant and contributing factor in death anxiety (F (1, 382) = 8.71, p < .001), where HIV/AIDS positive persons scored higher in death anxiety than HIV/AIDS negative persons. The result also indicated locus of control and religious affiliation as not a significant factor in death anxiety. Further, a very significant interaction was found between locus of control and religious affiliation (F (1, 382) = 10.93, p < .01) Discussions emphasized the implications of the findings in the management of persons living with HIV/AIDS, and suggestions were made for further studies.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Death anxiety is becoming one of the greatest challenges facing HIV/AIDS patients. Confronting death and the anxiety generated by knowledge of its inevitability is a universal psychological quandary for humans (Lehto & Stein, 2009). What individuals believe to be true of his or her existence could be a significant factor in moderating his or her level of death anxiety. Carpenito-Moyet (2008) defined death anxiety as the state in which an individual experiences apprehension, worry, or fear related to death and dying. Moorhead, Johnson, Maas and Swanson (2008) on the other hand posit death anxiety as vague uneasy feeling of discomfort or dread generated by perceptions of a real or imagined threat to one’s existence.

Greenberg, Pyszczynski, Solomon, Simon and Breus, (1994) posit death anxiety to have six attributes: Emotion, cognitive, experiential, developmental, socio-cultural shaping and source of motivation. Lehto and Stein (2009) noted that its characteristics may overlap and cluster in three identified categories: Stressful environments such as war or the experience of unpredictable circumstances, diagnosis of a life-threatening illness or the experience of a life threatening event, and experiences with death and dying.

However, studies has pointed out that there exists a positive association between Human Immune Deficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) status and death anxiety (Hintze, Templer, Cappelletty & Frederick, 1993; Catania, Turner, Choi, & Coates, 1992; Franks, Templer, Cappelletty, & Kauffman, 1990; Hayslip, Luhr, & Beyerlein, 1991; Hintze, Templer, Cappelletty, & Frederick, 1993).). HIV/AIDS has been a topic of interest, greatly discussed and researched due to its’ impact on human beings. Lehto and Stein (2009) indicated HIV/AIDS as a life-threatening illness which can trigger death anxiety. It is transmitted through direct contact with infected blood, use of unsterilized sharp objects, sexual contact, oral, anal or vaginal, direct contact with semen or vaginal and cervical secretion, through infected mothers to infants during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding.

People living with HIV/AIDS are most likely to face some psychological, physical and social challenges. The psychological effects of living with HIV or being a HIV positive includes: Fear, loss, grief, guilt, denial, anger, anxiety, low self-esteem, stigmatization, depression, suicidal behaviour and thinking. Additional negative correlates of stigmatization for HIV-positive people are depression, anxiety, loneliness, suicidal ideation, and poor treatment adherence (Murphy, Austin, Greenwell, 2006; Relf, Mallinson, Pawlowski, Dolan, & Dekker, 2005).

They see themselves as undesirable by others who view them as “contagious”. This in itself is an emotional situation that can cause infected people to withdraw, not disclose their feelings, and become socially isolated. Inevitably this may lead to an emotional breakdown because these feelings continue to be suppressed. Infected persons are normally in fear because they have to adjust to a new lifestyle.

In this study, locus of control is also one of the variables of interest to be highlighted. The term locus of control was first introduced in the 1950’s by a psychologist Julian Rotter. In conceptualizing the term locus of control refers to a person’s basic belief system about the influences that affect outcomes in their lives. In the field of psychology, Locus of control is considered to be an important aspect of personality. Locus of control is a belief about whether the outcomes of our actions are contingent on what we do (internal control orientation) or on events outside our personal control (external control orientation) (Zimbardo, 1985). It is classified into internal and external locus of control. Osterman, Bjorkqvist, Lagerspetz, Charpentier, Caprara, Pastorelli (1999) affirmed that internal locus of control is composed of dependent events mostly related to one’s permanent characteristics and external locus of control is related to the feeling that outcomes are a result of fate, luck, chance, or in control of others.