The Anxiety-Buffering Properties of Cultural and Subcultural Worldviews: Terror Management Processes among Juvenile Delinquents

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukasz Baka ◽  
Romuald Derbis ◽  
Molly Maxfield
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Present Article ◽  
State Anxiety ◽  
Juvenile Delinquents ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Management Study ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Management Processes ◽  
Mainstream Culture

The Anxiety-Buffering Properties of Cultural and Subcultural Worldviews: Terror Management Processes among Juvenile Delinquents Terror management research indicates that people reminded of mortality strongly affirm values and standards consistent with their cultural worldview and distance themselves from values and standards inconsistent with it. However, limited research has addressed how individuals holding beliefs inconsistent with the dominant worldview cope with death-related anxiety. The present article aims to determine which worldview subcultural groups rely on when reminded of mortality: mainstream or subcultural? Juvenile delinquents living in residential reformatories in Poland were invited to participate in a terror management study examining the anxiety-buffering strategies of individuals belonging to a group largely outside mainstream culture. Following reminders of mortality, juvenile delinquents increased support for values consistent with the mainstream cultural worldview and decreased support for values consistent with the subcultural worldview, as compared to control conditions. The present results suggest that when faced with existential threat, the subcultural worldview does not provide an adequate anxiety buffer, leading members of this subcultural group to display increased identification with mainstream cultural values. Additionally, participants' state anxiety following death reminders was mediated by mainstream cultural worldview defense.

Considering the roles of affect and culture in the enactment and enjoyment of cruelty

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spee Kosloff ◽  
Jeff Greenberg ◽  
Sheldon Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Cultural Framework

Research on aggression and terror management theory suggests shortcomings in Nell's analysis of cruelty. Hostile aggression and exposure to aggressive cues are not inherently reinforcing, though they may be enjoyed if construed within a meaningful cultural framework. Terror management research suggests that human cruelty stems from the desire to defend one's cultural worldview and to participate in a heroic triumph over evil.

scholarly journals Religiosity, values, and acculturation

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 367-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derya Güngör ◽  
Marc H. Bornstein ◽  
Karen Phalet
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Ethnic Identification ◽  
Religious Dimension ◽  
Heritage Culture ◽  
Culture Maintenance ◽  
Mainstream Culture

We address the understudied religious dimension of acculturation in acculturating adolescents who combine a religious Islamic heritage with a secularized Christian mainstream culture. The religiosity of 197 Turkish-Belgian adolescents was compared with that of 366 age-mates in Turkey (the heritage culture) and 203 in Belgium (the mainstream culture) and related to cultural values, acculturation orientations, and ethnic identification. Belgian adolescents showed lower and declining religiosity with age, whereas Turkish and Turkish-Belgian adolescents were more religious regardless of age. Acculturating adolescents reaffirmed religion as compared with monocultural adolescents in Turkey. Religious reaffirmation was related to cultural values of interdependence, heritage culture maintenance, and ethnic identification.

scholarly journals Mindfulness of Death as a Tool for Mortality Salience Induction with Reference to Terror Management Theory

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 353
Author(s):  
Hyun Gong Moon
Keyword(s):  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Mindfulness Of Death

In this article, I argue that “mindfulness of death” (maraṇasati) can be a tool to induce mortality salience and can have a positive psychological impact. The mindfulness of death is described in detail in the early Buddhist texts Aṅguttara Nikāya and Visuddhimagga. The texts stress that death should be consciously connected with temporality and mindfulness. Here, I look at the mindfulness of death in relation to the mortality salience of terror management theory. “Mortality salience” is a term proposed in terror management theory that means “the state of conscious activation of the thoughts of death”. In addition, after conscious activation of the thought of death, I examine the psychological changes, such as the increase of pro-social attitudes which emphasizes ethics and morality, and the emphasis on the intrinsic value of life due to the operation of a cultural worldview and self-esteem. In this paper, I conclude that mindfulness of death can be an effective tool to induce mortality salience.

To the Victors Go the Existential Spoils: The Mental-Health Benefits of Cultural Worldview Defense for People WHO Successfully Meet Cultural Standards and Valued Goals

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 276-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Hubley ◽  
Joseph Hayes ◽  
Mary Harvey ◽  
Santina Musto
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Worldview Defense ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Mental Health Benefits ◽  
Cultural Standards

Introduction: Research in support of terror management theory suggests that mortality concerns will activate symbolic defenses associated with cultural worldviews, and when these defenses are activated, mental health will benefit. However, no study to date has examined this process in full. We filled this gap, while testing the moderating effect of feeling successful vis-à-vis cultural value-standards. Method: In two studies, we hypothesized that participants who feel successful at meeting cultural standards would engage cultural worldview defense (WVD) following mortality salience (MS), and as a consequence of their defensiveness, would experience greater mental health. Results: In Study 1, MS increased pro-American WVD only among relatively wealthy participants, which in turn reduced death-thought accessibility. In Study 2, MS increased pro-American WVD only among participants primed with felt success (vs. failure), which in turn reduced anxiety and depression. Conclusions: Culture can relieve death-related distress and promote mental health to the extent that it provides feelings of success.

Mortality Salience and Symbols of Cultural Worldview Affect the Desirability of a Stressful Job: The Ironic Consequences of Terror Management

2012 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 717-723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittney Wirth-Petrik ◽  
R. Kim Guenther
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Dental Pain ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Job Description ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Public Health Campaigns

In a study of terror management theory, participants first responded to prompts asking them to imagine their own death or dental pain and later rated the desirability of a generic job described explicitly as extremely stressful. The job description included either an American or foreign company logo. As predicted by terror management theory, the participants shown an American logo ironically desired the stressful job more, having been prompted with reminders of death than with reminders of dental pain. This study is the first to examine terror management theory's prediction of the influence of symbols of cultural worldview on health-related decisions. The authors discuss possible implications of the findings for making unintentionally stress-inducing decisions and for public health campaigns.

scholarly journals The cultural values of architectural form in terms of current conditions of building technologies including prefabricated buildings

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-332
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Radziewanowski
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Large Volume ◽  
Alpine Region ◽  
Architectural Form ◽  
Winter Olympics ◽  
Construction Methods

The present article concerns the problem of the contradiction between striving to maintain in the designed and implemented buildings of large volume in Polish area around the Tatras, in which it is justified to use current building technologies, including prefabricated buildings construction methods, and the need to continue the characteristic architectural forms of Tatra region. The demonstrated examples of architectural formation of buildings constructed during the interwar period-made for the needs of International Winter Olympics FIS, they used of the typical patterns of farms for the Alpine region. Such on example provides the evidence for the cultural pressure of a new function, i.e. skiing. Such an influence cannot be easily and consistently opposed in terms of logic performance of Tatra style current examples.

Existential Meaning and Terror Management

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheldon Solomon ◽  
Jeff Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Psychological Disorders ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Symbolic Immortality ◽  
Religious Extremism ◽  
Human Awareness

Terror management theory (TMT) posits that the uniquely human awareness of death engenders potentially debilitating existential terror that is “managed” by subscribing to cultural worldviews providing a sense that life has meaning as well as opportunities to obtain self-esteem, in pursuit of psychological equanimity in the present and literal or symbolic immortality in the future. In empirical support of TMT, research has demonstrated that: self-esteem serves to buffer anxiety in general, and about death in particular; reminders of death increase defense of the cultural worldview and efforts to bolster self-esteem; threats to the cultural worldview or self-esteem increase the accessibility of implicit death thoughts; conscious and non-conscious thoughts of death instigate qualitatively different defensive processes; death reminders increase hostility toward people with different beliefs, affection for charismatic leaders, and support for political and religious extremism; and death reminders magnify symptoms of psychological disorders.

scholarly journals Are we truly special and unique? A replication of Goldenberg et al. (2001)

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 191114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Rodríguez-Ferreiro ◽  
Itxaso Barberia ◽  
Jordi González-Guerra ◽  
Miguel A. Vadillo
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Link Type ◽  
Aversive Situation

According to the mortality salience hypothesis of terror management theory, reminders of our future death increase the necessity to validate our cultural worldview and to enhance our self-esteem. In Experiment 2 of the study ‘I am not an animal: Mortality salience, disgust, and the denial of human creatureliness’, Goldenberg et al. (Goldenberg et al. 2001 J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 130 , 427–435. ( doi:10.1037/0096-3445.130.3.427 )) observed that participants primed with questions about their death provided more positive evaluations to an essay describing humans as distinct from animals than control participants presented with questions regarding another aversive situation. In a replication of this experiment conducted with 128 volunteers, we did not observe evidence for a mortality salience effect.

scholarly journals Nothing or the opposite: intersecting terror management and objective self‐awareness

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Silvia
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
The Self ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Relevant Word ◽  
Eventual Death ◽  
Word Completion

The human capacity for self‐awareness allows people to envision their eventual death and thus creates the potential for debilitating anxiety. Terror management research has shown that self‐awareness exacerbates the experience of mortality salience. I suggest that self‐awareness alone can induce mortality salience through dialectical thinking. If constructs include a concept and its opposite, then focusing on one aspect should also increase awareness of the opposite. Focusing on the existing object self should thus lead to the recognition of the non‐existent self that is implied. In study 1, participants experienced one of two self‐awareness manipulations (exposure to a mirror, perceiving the self as distinctive) or no manipulation; mortality salience was measured using a death‐relevant word completion task. Both self‐awareness conditions reported significantly higher mortality salience than the control condition. In study 2, participants exposed to their reflection reported increased death salience and life salience (as measured by death‐ and life‐relevant word completion tasks) than a control group, which directly suggests that self‐awareness leads people to dialectically consider opposing facets of the self. Terror management and objective self‐awareness theories might thus be more intimately tied than was previously thought. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document