PSYCH 333 - Terror Management Theory

Landay and Sullivan believed that personality is a

"Vital lie"

• An adaptive distortion of reality

• "Normal" personality is fundamentally irrational. Being normal is the most neurotic. People depressed and anxious all the time is the most real, since they actually understand what's happening.

Individual differences, including personality traits, play an important role in TMT research • The individualized worldview based on the dominant culture

Traditional Neuroticism

predicts higher levels of death-anxiety and more likely to ruminate about death

But from a TMT perspective tend to exhibit a lot of worries about their existence as well.

High traditional neuroticism predicts ______ to the physical aspects of being human

aversion

Because the physical reminds us of our limited, and mortal, bodies.

Interacts with MS to predict decreased interest in the physical (but not symbolic) aspects of sex, inhibitions of activities that elicit body awareness (e.g., exercise), and avoidance of physical stimulation (pleasant and unpleasant) (See Landau & Sullivan, 2015)

Mildly depressed (vs. non-depressed) individuals _______ _worldview defense after MS (Simon et al., 1996)

exxagerated

People with OCD would want to wash their hands more

Personal Need for Structure (PNS)

A dispositional preference for clear, coherent knowledge and a corresponding aversion to ambiguity and disorder

T/F A student with high PNS would make them want ambiguity in projects

False

Just world beliefs

Good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people

MS + PNS lead to more victim blaming (Landau et al., 2004)

MS + PNS lead to

more victim blaming

"people with cancer deserved it because of what they did"

MS _________ interest in a documentary with novel information for high-PNS participants (Vess et al., 2009)

decreased

When reminded of their mortality, low PNS want new things, high PNS want the same

ex. low PNS would try the weird thing on the menu, high PNS wants the same.

MS led low-PNS people to more _______ consumer choices but high-PNS people with _______items (Usta et al., 2010)

novelty, familiar

MS led low-PNS people to report ________ meaning in life when imagining exploring an ______ topic (Vess et al., 2009)

higher, unfamiliar

summary and test help

remember the three hypotheses and know how to distinguish them

Psychodynamic/Existential Perspective

Incorporates traits, motivation, evolutionary and biological concepts, (neo)psychoanalytic concepts, and attachment theory (and more)

Interdisciplinary

Existential Threat

"Anxiety is the existential awareness of nonbeing"

Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski 2 questions:

Why can't we all just get along?

Why is self-esteem so important?

Ernest Becker

wrote the books that terror management theory was developed from

Heavily influenced by neo-freudian thinkers

- Rank, Fromm, Adler, and Kierkegaard (neoFreudian before Freud)

Reformulation of the Oedipus Complex

Becker reinterpreted the Oedipus complex as a symbolic struggle with mortality, not just sexual desire. He saw the child's rebellion against the father as a fight for independence and symbolic immortality, trying to escape death anxiety and assert their own lasting identity.

Basic Elements of TMT (5 points)

Humans are animals (A drive towards survival, and the inevitable failure of this instinct)

Humans are different from other animals

Drive towards survival + knowledge of death = terror!

How do we cope/manage this terror?

Dual Component Anxiety-Buffering System

Cultural worldview, and self-esteem

both are FRAGILE

Cultural worldview

Socially-constructed, shared, symbolic conceptions of reality that infuse human existence with a sense of meaning, order, and permanence

Self-Esteem

The perception that one is an object of value in a meaningful world

Based on how well one meets the standards of their cultural worldview

Literal Immortality

The literal persistence of one's self (e.g., soul) after physical death

E.g., Heaven, reincarnation/transmigration, ancestral spirits

Symbolic Immortality

The persistence of one's abstract or symbolic self after physical death

E.g., Writing a book, having children, having your name on a building, transferring your identity to a larger, more resilient construct (e.g., one's country)

Answer to "why can't we all get along?"

Rival worldviews threaten our immortality systems

Accommodation, Assimilation, Derogation, Annihilation

Accomodation

incorporating aspects of other worldviews to one's own

Assimilation

Converting others to one's own worldview

Derogation

Belittling Rival Worldviews and their adherents

Annihilation

Eliminating Rival Worldviews

Answer to "why is self-esteem so important?"

It is a gauge for our immortality

3 Critical TMT Hypotheses

Mortality Salience (MS) Hypothesis

Death-Thought Accessibility (DTA)

Anxiety Buffer Hypothesis

Mortality Salience (MS) Hypothesis

If a construct reduces thoughts and concerns about death, then reminding people of death should increase their need for that construct

How they test for MS

Writing prompts (the most common), scales, locations, readings, and linguistic puzzles/activities

Control Conditions for MS studies

Dental pain (most common), watching TV, pain, meaninglessness, exam, failure, uncertainty, neutral stimuli (e.g., location; scale)

T/F MS Increases Worldview Defense

True

• Municipal judges who wrote about death suggested an average bond of $455 for prostitution (vs. $50 for the control condition) (Rosenblatt et al., 1989)

• MS increases protect of cultural artifacts (e.g., national flags and crucifixes) and anxiety in using them for inappropriate tasks (e.g., sifting oil and as a hammer) (Greenberg et al., 1995)

• MS led participants to allot more hot sauce to a "fellow participant" who expressed counterpolitical views (McGregor et al., 2008)

• MS increases support for martyrdom, extreme military actions, sacrificing innocent lives for a military end, and a personal willingness to participate in some of these actions (Pyszczynski et al., 2006)

T/F MS Increases Self-Esteem Striving

True

• MS increases peoples' strength but only for those who value being fit (Peters et al., 2005)

• MS led to overestimations of future financials worth (Kasser & Sheldon, 2000)

• MS increases risky driving for people who value their driving skills (Taubman Ben-Ari et al., 1999)

• MS increases desire for sun tans if associated with physical attractiveness (Routledge et al., 2004)

Death-Thought Accessibility (DTA) Hypothesis

If a construct reduces thoughts and concerns about death, then threatening that construct should increase the accessibility of death-thoughts

What did Canadians report after reading an anti-Canada website compared to an anti-Australia website?

Higher DTA (Schimel et al., 2007)

an apology from the author reduced that fear

Who reported higher DTA when shown inconsistencies in the Bible?

Religious fundamentalists (Friedman & Rholes, 2008)

same for when christians read articles suggesting Jesus is based on past narratives

What increases DTA in individuals according to Hayes et al. (2008)?

Receiving negative personality or possible career feedback.

Anxiety Buffer Hypothesis

If a construct reduces anxiety (including thoughts and concerns about death), then bolstering that construct should reduce anxiety

Initially understood within the context of self-esteem as the anxiety buffer

Religion as an anxiety buffer

• Literal (and symbolic) immortality

• Loving and protective supernatural agents

• An institution to identify with

• Social relationships

Participants given a large self-esteem boost reported no more anxiety to a graphic death video than those who watched a ______ video, proving that self-esteem ______ death-related anxiety.

neutral, buffers

Self-esteem boost ______ skin _______ levels before receiving painful electric shock

reduced, conductance