Terrorism, Death Anxiety and Anger; A Comparison of Police and Shopkeepers

Abstract

The present study was designed to find the association between terrorism catastrophizing, death anxiety and anger among police and shopkeepers. The total sample comprised of two hundred and seventy six (N=276) subjects, including one hundred and thirty five (n=135) police personnel and one hundred and forty one (n=141) shopkeepers using convenient sampling technique. The age range was 24 to 60 years. Terrorism catastrophizing scale, death anxiety scale, and Novaco anger scale were used for data collection. Both groups were individually interviewed and were contacted through proper channel. Association between terrorism catastrophizing, death anxiety and anger was investigated among police personnel and shopkeepers. Comparison was made between police personnel and shopkeepers regarding terrorism catastrophizing, death anxiety and anger. Results revealed that there was no significant difference between the scores of shopkeepers and police personnel on terrorism catastrophizing and anger, however police personnel showed slightly higher scores on death anxiety as compared to shopkeepers. Simple linear regression of the data revealed terrorism catasrophizing as a predictor of death anxiety among police personnel and shopkeepers. Significant negative association between anger and terrorism catastrophizing among police personnel predicts controlled fear at the time of crises and steadfastness in fighting spirit. Findings suggests that police is as vulnerable to consequences of traumatic events as any other individual or professional, yet police of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is determined in taking risks as shown in negative association between anger and terrorism catestrophizing.

Keywords

• Terrorism catastrophizing
• anger
• death anxiety
• police
• shopkeepers