Incidents of reality: Sources of ontological stress and concern

Sonja A. Ruznisky and Patrick C. Thauberger

Social Science & Medicine, 1982, vol. 16, issue 9, 1005-1011

Abstract: This study provided initial data on the hierarchical order among various existential-ontological stresses; compared these stresses to Spielberger Trait vs State anxiety; and, examined these stresses with respect to Eysenck's extraversion and neuroticism dimensions as well as Eysenck's social favorability response bias. Death in the immediate family emerged as the highest ranked items on the 69 open-ended item scale. Data on 139 males, 244 females, plus 4 individuals without recorded gender (median age approx. 29.5 years) indicated little overlap as well as little difference between State and Trait anxiety measures. Approximately one-eighth of the correlations between the Incidents of Reality items and both the Eysenck and Spielberger scales were statistically significant though all were of slight magnitude. Data were further compared for correspondence to the Holmes-Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale. For the nine items judged as common, the Spearman rank-order correlation ([varrho] = 0.867) indicated support for the cross-reliability of the two scales. Overall, stress to ontological issues is both positive and negative in direction. A number of points based on these findings are discussed with reference to various conceptions in ontology.

Date: 1982
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(82)90369-0
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:16:y:1982:i:9:p:1005-1011

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().