Unintended effects of measuring implicit processes: The case of death-thought accessibility in mortality salience studies

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 257-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Hayes ◽  
Jeff Schimel
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Implicit Processes ◽  
Death Thought Accessibility

Towards an Anxiety-Buffer Disruption Approach to Depression: Attachment Anxiety and Worldview Threat Heighten Death-Thought Accessibility and Depression-Related Feelings

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 238-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Mikulincer ◽  
Uri Lifshin ◽  
Phillip R. Shaver
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Current Level ◽  
Death Thought Accessibility

Introduction: In two studies, we tested an anxiety-buffer disruption approach to depression, examining the effects of attachment insecurities, worldview threat, and death concerns on depression-related feelings. Method: In both studies, Israeli undergraduates reported on their attachment insecurities (anxiety, avoidance), were exposed to a worldview threat or a no-threat condition, and then rated their current level of depression-related feelings. Results: In Study 1 (N = 124), we also measured death-thought accessibility and found that a worldview threat (versus no-threat) heightened death-thought accessibility and depression feelings only among participants scoring relatively high on attachment anxiety, and that death-thought accessibility mediated the effects of worldview threat and attachment anxiety on feelings of depression. In Study 2 (N = 240), we randomly assigned participants to a mortality salience or a control condition and found that heightened death concerns caused more depression only when a worldview threat was present and participants' attachment anxiety was high. Discussion: The roles that disruption of anxiety buffering systems and death-related concerns play in depression were discussed.

scholarly journals Exploring the role of humor in the management of existential anxiety

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-448
Author(s):  
Jessica Morgan ◽  
Rebecca Smith ◽  
Amrik Singh
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Beneficial Effect ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Existential Anxiety ◽  
Induction Condition ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
Death Thought Accessibility

Abstract The current study addressed a topic that has both theoretical and applied importance, by examining the potential existential anxiety-buffering function of humor. Participants (N = 556; 55% female; M age = 37 years) completed a measure of trait coping humor before being randomly assigned to a mortality salience condition and a humor induction condition and then completing a measure of death-thought accessibility. ANOVA revealed main effects of trait coping humor, mortality salience and humor induction on death-thought accessibility in the expected directions. Coping humor interacted with mortality salience (F(1,439) = 14.47, p < 0.01) showing that low coping humor participants were more affected by the mortality salience manipulation. Coping humor also interacted with humor induction (F(1,439) = 8.94, p < 0.01) showing that low coping humor participants were more affected by the humor induction. Findings suggests that whilst trait coping humor appears to buffer the effects of mortality salience, those low in trait coping humor may benefit the most from interventions aimed at reducing existential anxiety via humor. The apparent beneficial effect of humor induction for individuals low in coping humor holds a promise of advancing our understanding of existential threat and, ultimately, providing a basis for interventions to improve mental health.

Using the Past to Promote a Peaceful Future

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 339-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clay Routledge ◽  
Jacob Juhl ◽  
Andrew Abeyta ◽  
Christina Roylance
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Death Thought Accessibility ◽  
Willingness To Engage ◽  
Existential Concerns

Recent research has demonstrated that nostalgia is a source of meaning in life that people utilize when managing existential concerns. The current studies further explored the existential function of nostalgia by testing the prediction that nostalgia decreases ideologically extreme defenses against existential threat (i.e., self-sacrifice on behalf of one’s nation or religion). Results supported this hypothesis. In Study 1, mortality salience increased willingness to engage in nationalistic self-sacrifice for those low, but not high, in trait nostalgia. In Study 2, manipulated nostalgia mitigated the relationship between death-thought accessibility and willingness to engage in religious self-sacrifice.

Patterns of Implicit Learning Below the Level of Conscious Knowledge

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Yordanova ◽  
Rolf Verleger ◽  
Ullrich Wagner ◽  
Vasil Kolev
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Learning ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Implicit Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Sleep Stages ◽  
Implicit Processing ◽  
Implicit Processes ◽  
Late Night ◽  
On Line ◽  
On Line Learning

The objective of the present study was to evaluate patterns of implicit processing in a task where the acquisition of explicit and implicit knowledge occurs simultaneously. The number reduction task (NRT) was used as having two levels of organization, overt and covert, where the covert level of processing is associated with implicit associative and implicit procedural learning. One aim was to compare these two types of implicit processes in the NRT when sleep was or was not introduced between initial formation of task representations and subsequent NRT processing. To assess the effects of different sleep stages, two sleep groups (early- and late-night groups) were used where initial training of the task was separated from subsequent retest by 3 h full of predominantly slow wave sleep (SWS) or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. In two no-sleep groups, no interval was introduced between initial and subsequent NRT performance. A second aim was to evaluate the interaction between procedural and associative implicit learning in the NRT. Implicit associative learning was measured by the difference between the speed of responses that could or could not be predicted by the covert abstract regularity of the task. Implicit procedural on-line learning was measured by the practice-based increased speed of performance with time on task. Major results indicated that late-night sleep produced a substantial facilitation of implicit associations without modifying individual ability for explicit knowledge generation or for procedural on-line learning. This was evidenced by the higher rate of subjects who gained implicit knowledge of abstract task structure in the late-night group relative to the early-night and no-sleep groups. Independently of sleep, gain of implicit associative knowledge was accompanied by a relative slowing of responses to unpredictable items suggesting reciprocal interactions between associative and motor procedural processes within the implicit system. These observations provide evidence for the separability and interactions of different patterns of processing within implicit memory.

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