38-4 A Pilot Study of the Stroop Interference Effects on Death-related Words among Undergraduate Students
Self-reported scale is the most commonly used measure of death anxiety. However, the validity of self-reported scale rests on the presumption of honesty on the part of the respondents. For most people, death carries a certain degree of threat. Consequently, even if the respondents do not intent to be deceptive, their responses are unconsciously influenced by defense mechanism, positive illusion, and/or social expectation. In view of the above, the presented pilot study attempts to adopt the research paradigm based on emotional Stroop task, which distinguishes itself from a self-report scale. Through interviewing 10 undergraduate students, the investigator of the study formulated the structure of a death-related words Stroop task. The task was further developed based on death-related terms provided by another 50 undergraduate students. Later, 106 undergraduate students participated in the test of the Stroop task. The results of the pilot study revealed that the death-related terms influenced the interference effect of the participants, but the effect did not correlate with the participants' score on the self-reported scale. In addition, the pattern of gender difference on the Stroop task was in direct oppose of that based on the self-reported scale. The results of the study are discussed and concrete suggestions for further research are put forward.
Keywords
death ； death anxiety ； interference effects ； Stroop task
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