Alienation from vs connection to the Dasein: Existential angst of people with different worldviews

The purpose of the current study was to explore the relationship between Dasein, authenticity and death anxiety. Heidegger has defined Dasein, and implicated that there was a relationship between authenticity and Being-in-the-world. Those who were not connected to Being-in-the-world were indicated to be inauthentic against death anxiety. To test the existence of these connections, a Dasein Scale was developed in Study I. A question pool was developed by the researcher, and this pool was evaluated by 6 experts on psychology, and 6 laypersons to see whether the items were understandable, and whether they fit the dimension they were in. After this first evaluation of the questionnaire, the remaining items were used to collect data from a sample of 309 (220 females, 86 males). A principal component analysis was conducted on the data. As a result, a 5 component structure was obtained. These components were named Mitwelt, Extrovert Umwelt, Introvert Umwelt, Eigenwelt, and Überwelt. Internal consistency reliability and construct validity were assessed. Study II explored the relationship discussed above. In this study, participants' Dasein was measured, then, they were either exposed to their own mortality, or they were assigned to the control condition. After the manipulation, participants completed the Authenticity Scale. Data was collected from 138 participants (69 participants in experiment, 69 participants in control groups). At first, a correlation analysis was conducted to see the relationships between Dasein subscales and authenticity subscales. Then, a regression analysis was conducted to see whether Dasein dimensions predicted authenticity. Eigenwelt and Überwelt subscales were found to be predicting authenticity, indicating that connection to Eigenwelt and Überwelt would lead to higher authenticity. A moderating effect of death anxiety on the relationship between Dasein and authenticity was not observed. All in all, the current study revealed a possible research area in psychological literature. In addition, the developed which was developed to study Being-in-the-word is the first measurement tool to assess Dasein.