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True Self In Threat Resilience: Using Essentialist Self-Views To Neutralize Personal Morality Threats, Ellen S. Dulaney
True Self In Threat Resilience: Using Essentialist Self-Views To Neutralize Personal Morality Threats, Ellen S. Dulaney
College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations
course of this dissertation, I introduce the idea of the true self construct as a personalized route to individual meaning and stability at a time in history when external direction regarding values and purpose is in decline. Setting aside the question of the ontological status of the true self, I emphasize that beliefs about and representations of the true self have distinctive psychological impact and cite research supporting this assertion. I then review evidence of the aptness of such true self-orientations in supporting well-being, fulfillment of basic psychological needs, and resilience against threat. Across two studies, I investigated the effectiveness …
Exploring The Self-Referent Meaning Mechanisms Of Terror Management Theory And Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, Joseph A. Galluzzo
Exploring The Self-Referent Meaning Mechanisms Of Terror Management Theory And Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, Joseph A. Galluzzo
College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations
Two theories of mortality threat management propose distinct psychological mechanisms to cope with mortality concerns. Terror management theory suggests death prompts existential concern whereas socioemotional selectivity theory suggests a limited lifetime prompts hedonic concerns. Both reminders of the finality of life threaten self-existence, yet only terror management theory research has investigated the capacity for art to reaffirm self-referent meaning compromised by death awareness. In two studies, we explored the potential existential nature within death and limited-lifetime awareness and then examined self-referent meaning reaffirmation through naturalistic and surrealistic art in response to death awareness and limited-lifetime awareness. We found that limited-lifetime …
Meaning As A Buffer Against Adolescent Psychopathology, Ellen Shaina Dulaney
Meaning As A Buffer Against Adolescent Psychopathology, Ellen Shaina Dulaney
College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations
This thesis investigates the function of meaning in life in adolescence to ascertain whether specific psychological resources may protect youths against threats to subjective well-being. Meaning in life and the search for the meaning in stressful occurrences were independently examined for their influence on stress impact and depression symptomatology. 201 American middle-school and high-school students between 12 and 19 years of age were recruited for this study. Participants reported on questionnaires targeting frequency of negative life events; depressive symptoms; sense of meaning; and tendency to reframe stressors in terms of their meaning, termed “stressor meaning seeking”. It was expected that …
Morality Provides Meaning, Geoffrey Alexander Wetherell
Morality Provides Meaning, Geoffrey Alexander Wetherell
College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations
Previous separate models of meaning in life have suggested that meaning is composed of several components operating across levels of construal. For example, sometimes people might look to a component of meaning in a state of concrete construal to gain a sense of consistency or predictability, and at other times they may look to a component of meaning to create feelings of higher purpose in life. These models of meaning have the potential to shed light not only on the various facets of life that make people feel life is meaningful, but to discover the ways in which these components …
Meaning, Morality, And Fluid Compensation In Response To Attitude Threat, Geoffrey Wetherell
Meaning, Morality, And Fluid Compensation In Response To Attitude Threat, Geoffrey Wetherell
College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations
Research demonstrates that people desire a sense of existential meaning in life, and imbue attitudes with a sense of moral conviction. People want to protect their beliefs, because they help them to create a sense of meaning in life. No research however, has examined whether or not moral conviction, a facet of attitude strength associated with a sense of ultimate right or wrong, contributes to one's sense of meaning in life. Furthermore, no research has tested whether or not threatening attitudes leads people to imbue them with increased moral conviction, possible as a means of protecting attitudes, and the sense …