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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
The Impact Of Traumatic Symptomology And Social Support On The Effective Management Of Death Anxiety, Emily Pauline Courtney
The Impact Of Traumatic Symptomology And Social Support On The Effective Management Of Death Anxiety, Emily Pauline Courtney
ETD Archive
Terror management theory (TMT) posits that people function effectively in the world, in part, by relying on social anxiety-buffer systems to protect against death awareness; however, a new extension called anxiety buffer disruption theory (ABDT), posits that traumatic experiences can overwhelm those buffers, leaving people vulnerable to death anxiety and at increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. To test these hypotheses, participants with low and high posttraumatic stress symptoms were identified and recruited using a general population pre-screen, prompted to engage in a relationship threat priming task (vs. control topic), and then asked to complete a standard measure …
Testing The Impact Of Post-Traumatic Stress On Existential Motivation For Ideological Close- And Open-Mindedness, Lauren M. Kahle
Testing The Impact Of Post-Traumatic Stress On Existential Motivation For Ideological Close- And Open-Mindedness, Lauren M. Kahle
ETD Archive
The present thesis builds on terror management theory and anxiety buffer disruption theory to propose that although existential motivation normally leads people to become more certain of their worldviews, traumatic experiences can disrupt those belief systems and cause people to respond to death-awareness by making an open-minded search for alternative belief systems instead. To test that hypothesis, groups of participants with low and high levels of traumatic stress were reminded of death (vs. a control topic condition), followed by an assessment of closed- and open-mindedness. Thus, the present research explored the previously untested hypothesis that increased awareness of mortality will …