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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Mortality Salience And The Effects Of Autonomy On Death Anxiety, Dylan Earlin Horner
Mortality Salience And The Effects Of Autonomy On Death Anxiety, Dylan Earlin Horner
ETD Archive
The present research built on prior work suggesting that mortality salience (MS) can undermine psychological well-being and explored the previously-untested hypothesis that autonomy can mitigate that effect. Specifically, the study investigated the effects of primed autonomy on measured death anxiety following a reminder of mortality. Participants (n = 119) were randomly assigned to either an MS or control condition and then, following a delay, were primed with the concept of either autonomy or being controlled. Death anxiety was then measured. Results found that MS increased death anxiety among those in the controlled prime condition, but not among those in the …
The Effects Of Mortality Salience And Autonomy Priming On Worldview Defensiveness, Joseph P. Conti
The Effects Of Mortality Salience And Autonomy Priming On Worldview Defensiveness, Joseph P. Conti
ETD Archive
Terror Management Theory posits that people are motivated to defend against death awareness by maintaining cultural beliefs and behaviors that transcend mortality— sometimes motivating hostile, even militaristic, defenses of one’s culture. In contrast, self-determination theory suggests that autonomous regulation (self-determination) serves as a platform for personal growth and well-being. However, the present thesis suggests that, in addition to fueling growth, self-determination may also help buffer against the awareness of mortality, thus mitigating the impact of death awareness on hostile cultural worldview defense. To test this hypothesis, American participants were randomly assigned to be reminded of mortality or a control topic, …
An Experimental Test Of Whether Mortality Salience Can Motivate Open-Mindedness Among Individuals With Intrinsic Goal Orientations, Mark Blades
ETD Archive
Terror management theory posits that when people are primed with thoughts of death, they will seek to abide by their cultural worldview beliefs. For example, mortality reminders motivate those with an extrinsic goal orientation to strive to accomplish culturally valued goals (e.g., wealth) and defend familiar cultural worldviews. But, as of yet, no research has investigated the possibility that MS might motivate those with an intrinsic goal orientation to strive instead to explore culturally, socially, or intellectually novel experiences and information. The present research hypothesized that MS would lead individuals with stronger extrinsic goal orientations to defensively prefer their familiar …