Psy 403 Death/Dying Assignment
14 points Due 4/2 Tuesday
Please type responses. You may want to make own copy of goals worksheet, and may turn
that in with other sections of this paper.
There are two parts to this assignment
Life values
Write own obituary
Life/Values/Goals
1 As you think about death and dying, consider your death and how you see your life now.
Reflect on your life and answer the following questions. Please type. 4 pts
1 What three things would e said about you and your life if you died today?
2 Given the likelihood that you will not die today, and have time left to change some things in
your life, what three things would you most like to have said about you and your life?
3 If someone were to witness a week of your life, what assumptions would that person make
about your values—what matters to you?
4 What values do you hold that are not evident from the way you live your life?
5 What three goals are important to you as you plan your life?
6 What keeps you from achieving what you want for your life?
2 Write Your Own Obituary 10 pts
One of the most challenging and productive activities for this section on Death and Dying
involves confronting our own deaths. This is not as frightening as it may sound. It needs to be
pointed out that none of us will get out of dying eventually. We will all die, some sooner than
others. In the newspaper each day we read of people who died; the death notices and obituaries
try to capture the essence of people’s lives, a sort of summary of their existence.
Reading obituaries give information about what people view as areas that have had significant
impact on those they have known and cared about and that you they will be missed.
Two Procedures:
First obituary is realistic. What would be written about your life up to this point.
The second obituary is idealistic in that it permits you to anticipate many years of life. However,
it is difficult to capture 90 years in a short essay. You will have to carefully select the
accomplishments to include, and this is the value of the exercise.
This activity, it is hoped, will focus your attention on the fact that life is finite; we simply do not
know the borders.
Students may want to look at newspaper obituary sections for examples. The Fargo Forum
includes an online section of death notices and obituaries. Home town newspapers may do the
same. Please ask me if you want help with sources.