RESUMEN
Death metaphors are a meaningful way to understand personal perceptions of death, an important construct affecting how people live. This study collected death metaphor data among 100 university students in Hong Kong in 2016 and compared the findings with another study reported in 2004. Interpersonally oriented death metaphors were still popular among students a decade later. There was a general decrease in positive perception of death and an increase in negative perception of death from 2004 to 2016. Death metaphors are useful tools in death education programs, especially in cultures where death is a taboo topic.
Asunto(s)
Actitud Frente a la Muerte , Metáfora , Estudiantes/psicología , Adolescente , Adulto , Femenino , Hong Kong , Humanos , Masculino , Universidades , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
Many Chinese words are pictographic in nature and Chinese people often tend to use metaphorical expressions to communicate emotional feelings. The assessment of death images and metaphors provides a meaningful way of understanding personal perceptions of death among the Chinese. The purpose of this study was to establish an instrument to assess the death metaphors of Hong Kong Chinese for assessment and empirical research. Thirty death metaphor statements in Chinese were created from items of the Revised Death Fantasy Scale (RDFS; J. McLennan & C. A. Stewart, 1997) and a previous pilot study in Hong Kong (S. M. Y. Ho, 2001). The item pool was administered to 100 undergraduates together with the Templer's Death Anxiety Scale. Seven out of the 10 highest scored death metaphor statements were from the items that had been created for this study. Descriptive statistics of individual items suggested an interpersonal dimension of death perception that is not emphasized in Western literature. Factor analysis generated a 18-item Death Metaphors Scale (DMS) with 2 9-item subscales: the Positive Metaphors (f = .85) and the Negative Metaphors (f = .81). The scores of DMS subscales are significantly correlated with the Templer's Death Anxiety Scale but not with corresponding scores of the RDFS. The DMS was considered a potentially useful instrument to study death metaphors among Chinese.