Term
Two Questions Inspiring Terror Management Found in Becker's Work |
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Definition
- Why are people so concerned with self-esteem?
- Why do people cling to cultural beliefs and have such a difficult time coexisting with others different then themselves?
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Term
TMT Assertions on Evolution by Natural Selection |
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Definition
| we are products of evolution by natural selection, having acquired over long periods of time, adaptations that rendered individual members of the human species able to successfully compete for resources necessary to survive and reproduce in respective niches |
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Term
What Makes Humans Different Than Other Animals? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| we are alive and we know that we are alive and this sense of "self" enables us to reflect on past, ponder future, and function in present |
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Term
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Definition
| we are troubled with the realization that we all will die and that we are relatively helpless and vulnerable to death |
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Term
Two Main Proponents of Terror Management Theory |
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Definition
- cultural worldviews
- self-esteem
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Term
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Definition
| humany constructed beliefs about reality shared by individuals in a group that serve to reduce overwhelming anxiety resulting from awareness of death |
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Term
Three Major Components of Cultural Worldview |
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Definition
- offer us with an account of the origin of universe or thoery of reality that is meaningful, stable, just, sensible, and good
- provide prescriptions of appropriate conduct, standards of value, morality that are most important element of how we value each other
- we are guranteed with safety and security if we abide by these norms and values in this life and beyond this life through symbolic and/or literal mortality
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Term
Symbolic Immortality - Seven Testaments to One's Existence |
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Definition
- being a part of a culture that will endure after we die
- great works or art or science
- buildings
- monuments
- fortunes
- properties
- having children
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Term
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Definition
| procured via various afterlives promised by almost all organized religions |
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Term
Two Things Cultural Worldviews Provide us With Relating to Self-Esteem |
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Definition
- sense of enduring meaning
- basis for perceiving oneself to be a person of worth within the world of meaning to whih one subscribes
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Term
Relationship Between Cultural Worldviews and Self-Esteem |
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Definition
| through meeting or exceeding standards of values, norms, and social roles derived from culture, self-esteem is bolstered as one comes to believe that they are of value in world of meaning |
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Term
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Definition
| consist of the belief that one is a person of value in a world of meaning gained by subscribing to cultural worldviews |
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Term
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Definition
| buffer anxiety, especially death-anxiety |
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Term
How Might Self-Esteem Reduce Death-Related Anxiety? |
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Definition
| Anxiety is reduced by holding cultural worldviews that often provide us with a sense of immortality and in adhearing to these worldviews we are validated, accepted, and praised bolstering self-esteem and giving us value in a world of meaning |
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Term
Human Evolutionary Development of Cultural Worldviews |
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Definition
| bipedalism led to exploration using hands, alterations in brain size, constriction of birth canal leading to young needing protection, changing family and social groups as we now needed to live large groups leading to self-reflective consciousness |
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Term
self-reflective consciousness |
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Definition
| in process of trying to figure out what others were thinking and feeling in order to better predict and control behavior, forebearers became aware of own existence and inevitability of death |
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Term
Five Steps Involving Infant Development of Cultural Worldviews |
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Definition
- care and affection in unconditioned fashion
- affection becomes contingent upon behavior in context of safety and socialization process
- child becomes conditioned to equate good with being safe and bad with anxiety and insecurity
- realize parents will die and can't protect them forever
- self-esteem then maintained through satisfying standards of values or cultural worldviews
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Term
Two Requirements of Effective Terror Management |
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Definition
- faith in cultural worldview or meaningful conception of reality
- belief that one is meeting standards of value prescribed by that worldview (self-esteem)
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Term
Two Empirical Assessments of Terror Management Theory |
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Definition
- self-esteem as anxiety buffer hypothesis
- mortality salience hypothesis
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Term
Self-Esteem as Anxiety Buffer Hypothesis |
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Definition
| if self-esteem functions to buffer anxiety, then raising self-esteem should reduce anxiety in response to subsequent threats |
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Term
Self-Esteem as Anxiety Buffer Study Example - Independent and Dependent Variables |
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Definition
- IV 1 - self-esteem (false personality feedback/neutral)
- IV 2 - anxiety (graphic footage of autopsy/neutral)
- DV - anxiety inventory
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Term
Self-Esteem as Anxiety Buffer Study Example - Results |
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Definition
- elevating self-esteem reduced anxiety
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Term
Mortality Salience Hypothesis |
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Definition
| if cultural worldviews and self-esteem provide beliefs about nature of reality that function to reduce anxiety associated with awareness of death, then asking people to ponder their won death (MS) should increase the need for protection provided by such beliefs |
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Term
Mortality Salience Study Example - Independent and Dependent Variables |
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Definition
- IV - Mortality Salience (Death Reminder/Dental Pain)
- IV - Cultural Worldview (Member Cultural Group - Christian/Member of Cultural Group - Jew)
- DV - Reported Fondness
Note: All participants were Christian |
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Term
Mortality Salience Study Example - Results |
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Definition
- MS participants reported greater fondness for for Christian target and more adverse reactions to Jewish target
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Term
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Definition
| exaggerated evaluation of similar and different others following MS |
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Term
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Definition
- ask participants to ponder their own death
- show participants footage of automobile accident
- proximity to a funeral home
- subliminal death primes
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Term
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Definition
- if self-esteem serves to buffer anxiety, then worldview defense following MS should be significantly reduced or eliminated in individuals who have high self-esteem (dispositional or situationally induced)
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Term
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Definition
- if self-esteem serves to buffer anxiety associated with the awareness of death, then and MS induction should increase efforts to procure self-esteem
- MS led liberals, committed to tolerance, respond more favorably to someone who challenged their worldviews
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Term
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Definition
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Term
How Terror Management Theory Can Be Explained in Terms of Cognitive Processes Underliying Cultural Worldview Defense in Response to MS |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| self-esteem reduces anxiety in response to threatening circumstances |
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Term
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Definition
| reminders of death engender exaggerated need for the anxiety-buffering properties of cultural worldviews, which is turn reflected by increased regard for worldview bolstering people and behaviors, as well as increased disdain for worldview threatening people and behaviors |
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Term
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Definition
| momentarily elevated or dispositionally high self-esteem reduces or eliminates worldview defenses following MS |
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Term
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Definition
| MS instigates efforts to bolster self-esteem |
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Term
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Definition
| MS effects are instigated by heightened accessibility of implicit death thoughts and the function of terror management processes is to reduce the accessibility of such thoughts |
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