A Reexamination of the Dimensionality of Death Anxiety

On the basis of factor analyses, critics have claimed that the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) is multi-dimensional. Heretofore, all analyses have involved the extraction of principal components, and all have employed orthogonal rotation procedures, precluding the possibility of a general factor. In the present study, 105 participants completed the DAS and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). The DAS was factored using the Big Jiffy factor analysis computer program, which allows for higher-order factors. A general factor, accounting for 29 percent of the extracted variance, was found. First-order factors were also important in the factor solution. The pattern of MMPI-DAS correlations further indicated that the confounding of factors greatly influences conclusions drawn about the nature of death anxiety.