Terror management theory: A theoretical perspective on orgination, maintenance, and research

Research suggests that humans engage in several worldview defense mechanisms to shield against the terror associated with an awareness of mortality (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986). To mitigate anxiety, people strongly adhere to their cultural worldviews that allow them to boost their self-esteem. This self-esteem fosters a sense of immortality because the world is considered a \u27just place that will not harm someone that is living in adherence to cultural guidelines (Rosenblatt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, & Lyon, 1989). This paper provides a theoretical background for Terror Management Theory including its philosophical origination, the primary tenets of the theory, and the experimental methods used to manipulate death awareness

Scared to death: an examination of underlying terror following death awareness

According to Terror Management Theory, when mortality is made salient the potential to experience terror causes powerful worldview defenses to manifest to suppress this potential. Recently, however, the theory has been criticized because no actual evidence has been found to show this potential to experience terror. The current research used Galvanic Skin Response and a battery of self-report measures (e.g. negative affect, stress, fear, distress, etc.) to attempt to provide evidence of potential terror. The results were partially confirmatory suggesting that although mortality salience failed to evoke arousal, negative affect, and stress, it did evoke sadness and distress and suggests that terror is a highly complex combination of multiple negative components as well as physiological arousal. Interpretations and explanations of these results are discussed in accordance with previous Terror Management research

The relationship of religiosity to psychopathy: the predictive ability of religious orientation for stress and depression in college undergraduates

Evidence supports that different levels of religiosity are related to mental health outcomes. This study examines the relationship between religiosity and measures of psychological maladjustment. The current study compared participants\u27 scores on several measures of religiosity with scores on Locus of Control, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Obsessive-Compulsive tendencies. Multiple regressions analyses were conducted suggesting that Indiscriminate Proreligiousness, a measure of overall religiosity, was found to be negatively correlated with stress. Highly religious people were found to have more of an intrinsic religious orientation than either extrinsic or quest orientation

Attachment to God as a Function of Mortality Salience and Intrinsic Religiosity

The present study examined the association between intrinsic religiosity and attachment to God following mortality salience. Participants (N = 158) consisted of Christian individuals who were asked to complete the Religious Orientation Scale (Allport & Ross, 1967) as a measure of intrinsic religiosity, a word search puzzle to prime either death-related or neutral words, and the Attachment to God Inventory (Beck & McDonald, 2004). A moderated regression found a significant interaction between MS and intrinsic religiosity on avoidant but not anxious attachment to God. Specifically, following reminders of death, low intrinsic individuals were more avoidant toward God compared to high intrinsic individuals. These findings suggest that MS is associated with bolstering religious beliefs in order to cope with existential anxieties