Attitudes towards Death: Age, Regional and Gender Differences

The paper presents research data on attitudes towards death among intellectuals -students and academic staff of arts and humanities universities of Moscow, Yerevan and Rome, i.e. cultural centers where Christian confessions have traditionally been predominant. The degree of optimism/pessimism in the subjects' attitudes towards death was assessed with an approved scale, the full version of which is reproduced in the paper. Regional differences in the subjects' attitudes towards death can be interpreted not only in terms of cultural- historical traditions, but also in terms of modern social economical settings of different regions. Age (youth/maturity) and gender differences are closely related to the regional ones. In Rome, the level of opti- mistic attitudes increases with age, while in the post-Soviet countries it tends to decrease and become ambiva- lent in late adulthood, as it is in Moscow and Yerevan. At the same time, in Rome high levels of optimistic atti- tudes towards death are typical both for men and women, whereas in Moscow and in Yerevan ambivalent atti- tudes are mostly common for men and for women respectively.

1. Argail M. Psikhologiia schast'ia. 2-e izd. [The psycholo- gy of happiness. 2nd ed .] St. Petersburg: Piter, 2003. — 271 p.
2. Bakanova A.A. Otnoshenie k zhizni i smerti v kritich- eskoi zhiznennoi situatsii. Diss… kand. psikhol. nauk: 19.00.11. [Attitude to life and death in critical situations. Diss ... cand. psychol. Sciences: 19.00.11] St. Petersburg., 2000. — 203 p.
3. Belorusov S.A. Psikhologiia strakha smerti [Psychology of fear of death] [electronic resource] Available at: http:// hpsy.ru/public/x1211.htm (Accessed 29.10.2013 )
4. Zhit' bez strakha smerti [Live without fear of death]. Psychologies. 2013. № 91. — P. 108—131.
5. Kiubler-Ross E. O smerti i umiranii. [On Death and Dying] Kiev: Sofiia, 2001. — 320 s.
6. Reingol'd Dzh.S. Mat', trevoga i smert'. Kompleks tragicheskoi smerti. [Mother, anxiety and death. Complex tragic death]. Moscow: PER SE, 2004. — 384 p.
7. Rubinshtein S.L. Bytie i soznanie. Chelovek i mir. [Being and consciousness. Man and the world ]. St. Petersburg: Piter, 2003. — 512 p.
8. Frankl V. Chelovek v poiskakh smysla. [Man 's Search for Meaning]. Moscow: Progress, 1990. — 368 p.
9. Fromm E. Chelovek dlia samogo sebia. [Man for Himself] Moscow: AST; Astrel', 2011. — 349 p.
10. Kholmogorova A.B. Strakh smerti: kul'tural'nye istochniki i sposoby psikhologicheskoi raboty [Fear of death : culture sources and methods of psychological work]. Moskovskii psikhoterapevticheskii zhurnal. [Moscow psy- chotherapeutic magazine], 2003. № 2. — P. 120—131.
11. Ekzistentsial'naia psikhologiia [Existential Psycholo- gy] / Pod red. R. Meia. Moscow.: Aprel' Press; publ. "EKSMO-Press", 2001. — 624 p.
12. Ialom I. Vgliadyvaias' v solntse: zhizn' bez strakha smerti. [Looking into the sun: a life without fear of death] Moscow: Eksmo, 2012. — 352 p.