How is death and dying addressed in introductory psychology textbooks?
Coppola KM; Strohmetz DB The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey. Although psychologists have conducted a great deal of research on death and dying, little is known about how topics related to death and dying are introduced in psychology courses.We analyzed the amount and breadth of coverage given to topics related to death and dying in 28 introductory psychology textbooks published between 1995 and 2000.We coded for number of words included, the types of topics discussed, and authors cited. All textbooks included some information about death and dying, most frequently, suicide. Little consistency was found in references cited.We recommend that future textbooks include information to help students explore their own death attitudes, as well as providing more theory and empirical research findings on aspects of death and dying.
