1,721,015 research outputs found
Putting the terror in terror management theory: evidence that the awareness of death does cause anxiety and undermine psychological well-being
No full textRooted in the writings of existentialists, terror management theory states that the awareness of death has the potential to create debilitating anxiety and compromise psychological well-being and that psychological buffers (e.g., self-worth) protect against these aversive effects. Hundreds of studies have supported the theory. However, until recently, little work has focused on the central assertion that the awareness of death causes anxiety and undermines well-being. We review a recent program of research that fills this critical void in the literature. This work has demonstrated that experimentally heightening the awareness of death increases anxiety and decreases well-being for individuals who lack appropriate psychological buffers.<br/
The awareness of death reduces subjective vitality and self-regulatory energy for individuals with low interdependent self-construal
No full textExistentialists have proposed that defining the self in terms of social groups—interdependent self-construal—helps maintain adaptive psychological functioning in the face of death awareness. Supporting this idea, research has demonstrated that when the awareness of death is experimentally heightened, individuals display greater investment in their social groups. No research, however, has directly tested the fundamental assertion that the awareness of death aversely effects psychological functioning for those without an interdependent self-construal. To provide an initial test of this claim, we examined the extent to which the awareness of death compromises the subjective sense of energy and aliveness (i.e., vitality) and self-regulatory energy at varying levels of interdependent self-construal. Specifically, in two experiments, we measured interdependent self-construal, experimentally heightened the awareness of death, and subsequently measured subjective vitality (Study 1) and self-regulation (Study 2). Results demonstrated that heightened death awareness reduced subjective vitality and self-regulation, but only for individuals with low, not high, levels of interdependent self-construal
Structured terror: further exploring the effects of mortality salience and personal need for structure on worldview defense
No full textPrevious research indicates that people respond to heightened death-related cognition with increased defense of predominant cultural beliefs (cultural worldview defense). However, recent research indicates that individual differences in personal need for structure (PNS) impact responses to threatening thoughts of death such that those high, but not low, in PNS respond to death thoughts by seeking a highly structured, clear, and coherent view of the world. Research has yet to fully consider the extent to which PNS affects the cultural worldview defenses typically exhibited after death is rendered salient. The current 3 studies examine the potential for PNS to determine the extent to which people respond to mortality salience with increased worldview defense. In all three studies PNS was measured and mortality salience induced. Subsequently, university-related (Study 1) or religious (Studies 2 and 3) worldview defense was assessed. Only individuals high in PNS responded to mortality salience with increased worldview defense
Finding the terror that the social self manages: interdependent self-construal protects against the anxiety engendered by death awareness
No full textExistentialists have theorized that defining one’s self in terms of the broader groups to which one belongs (i.e., interdependent self-construal) helps prevent humans’ awareness of death from causing anxiety. Consistent with this assertion, research has shown that when death-awareness is experimentally heightened, people’s investment in their social groups increases. However, no research has tested the central assertion that high levels of interdependent self-construal attenuate the effect of heightened death-awareness on anxiety. In two experiments, we assessed participants’ interdependent self-construal, then experimentally heightened death awareness, and subsequently assessed death anxiety (Study1) and unspecified anxiety (Study 2). Results showed that heightened death awareness increased death anxiety and unspecified anxiety, but only for those with a low, not high, interdependent self-construa
Self-sacrifice as self-defense: mortality salience increases efforts to affirm a symbolic immortal self at the expense of the physical self
No full textThe increasing occurrence of suicide bombing attacks highlights a question that has received little direct empirical attention in social psychology. Why are people willing to sacrifice their lives to advance an ideological agenda? The current research suggests that willingness to self-sacrifice reflects efforts to manage death awareness by investing in a symbolic identity that provides some form of immortality. If willingness to self-sacrifice is a response to death awareness then increasing the salience of death thoughts should lead to an increase in willingness to self-sacrifice for a death-transcending symbolic identity (e.g. one's nation). Further, if self-sacrifice after mortality salience (MS) is a striving for symbolic immortality then having participants imagine an alternative way to transcend death should moderate this effect. Support for these hypotheses was found as MS increased willingness of British participants to self-sacrifice for England, but only when an alternative route to symbolic immortality was not provided. Implications are briefly discussed
When death thoughts lead to death fears: mortality salience increases death anxiety for individuals who lack meaning in life
No full textResearch derived from terror management theory demonstrates that subtle reminders of mortality increase strivings for meaning. It is argued that such strivings reflect efforts to prevent the anxiety that death reminders may otherwise cause. However, no research has directly tested the assertions that subtle mortality primes increase death anxiety and perceptions of meaning in life moderate this effect. The current study examined these predictions. Meaning in life was measured, death cognition primed, and death anxiety assessed. A mortality prime increased death anxiety, but only for individuals who lack perceptions of meaning in life. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed
The effects of nostalgia and avoidant attachment on relationship satisfaction and romantic motives
No full textThe current research tested whether attachment-related avoidance interacts with nostalgia to predict individuals’ orientation towards romantic relationships. In Study 1, participants were in a relationship, and in Study 2, participants were single. In both studies, attachment-related avoidance and anxiety were measured and participants were assigned to a nostalgia or control induction. Subsequently, participants indicated their relationship satisfaction (Study 1) or desire to pursue a romantic relationship (Study 2). Results revealed that there was a negative relationship between attachment-related avoidance and high levels of relationship satisfaction (Study 1) and relationship desire (Study 2) in the nostalgia condition, but not in the control condition. These findings build upon previous research on attachment and nostalgia to suggest that attachment-related avoidance greatly influences how nostalgia affects romantic relationship-oriented outcomes. Nostalgia appears to orient low avoidant individuals towards relationships and high avoidant individuals away from relationships
Exploring the effects of self-esteem and mortality salience on proximal and distally measured death-anxiety: a further test of the dual process model of terror management
No full textThe dual process model of terror management theory posits that proximal and distal defenses prevent death-related cognition from leading to death-anxiety. Further, the theory identifies self-esteem as a trait level resource that helps people avoid the awareness of death-anxiety. However, to date, no studies have examined the proximal and distal effects of death-related cognition and self-esteem on death-anxiety. In the present study, we assessed trait self-esteem, manipulated the awareness of death (mortality salience), and measured death-anxiety either immediately (proximally) or after a delay/distraction task (distally). Mortality salience did not lead to increased death-anxiety immediately after the mortality salience, but did so after a delay. Furthermore, this distal increase in death anxiety was only observed at low levels of self-estee
Looking back to move forward: nostalgia as a psychological resource for promoting relationship goals and overcoming relationship challenges
No full textPrevious research has shown that nostalgia is a highly social emotion that provides a sense of social connectedness. In the present research, we tested a social motivational function of nostalgia. Specifically, across 7 studies we found converging evidence that nostalgia mobilizes social goals. In Study 1, nostalgia increased the importance people assigned to relationship goals and how optimistic they felt about achieving these goals. In Study 2, nostalgia increased intentions to pursue goals of connecting with friends. In Study 3, experimentally-induced pessimism about achieving relationship goals instigated nostalgia. In Study 4, we found evidence that it is the interpersonal nature of nostalgia that is associated with striving to connect with others. Specifically, nostalgia about aspects of the past that were high in sociality was associated with intentions to interact with others, whereas nostalgia for aspects of the past that were low in sociality was not. In Study 5, nostalgic reflection increased friendship-approach goal striving relative to reflecting on ordinary social memories, but did not increase friendship-avoidant goal striving. Finally, in Studies 6 and 7, we found evidence that social-efficacy mediated the effect of nostalgia on striving to connect with others and striving to overcome interpersonal challenges. Together, these findings establish nostalgia as catalyst for social goal pursuit and growth
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