Terror Management Theory

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The terror management theory is a theory within the social psychological research on the subject of "fear of death" and was developed in the late 1980s by S. Solomon, J. Greenberg and T. Pyszczynski. It deals with typical reaction patterns (management) that people develop when dealing with fear of death and the awareness of their own mortality (terror).

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The theory is that the awareness of his own mortality (mortality salience ) a paralyzing fear caused by two coping mechanisms is kept under control, which also known as " cultural are called anxiety buffer":

  1. The cultural worldview : Through social norms , higher meaning , transcendence or the hope of immortality, this can create a structure and value standards that give the individual a feeling of security .
  2. The self-esteem : This can be done by faith and a life according to the values of these standards belief be purchased and is one emotional level of self-preservation.

The cultural worldview consists of a complex system of specific beliefs about the reality experienced by the individual. Due to the fact that this belief system is not an irrevocable truth , but only a social network of subjective attitudes , confirmation from other people (social consensus ; shared convictions) is required. However, if this world view is threatened, for example by the contrary opinion of a third person, this leads to a stereotypical perception of this person, increased support for people with their own world view and a more negative evaluation of people with other convictions.

When a person is experimentally the attention made more accessible for their own death ( Mortality Salience ; MS), that is to defend one's cultural worldview the need. In a study by Pyszczynski et al. (2006) it could be shown that after the induction of MS, American students are more likely to support a military preventive strike against Iran with more civilian casualties than a control group without this manipulation. In the same study, Iranian students were asked about their attitudes towards suicide bombings. These individuals reported a positive attitude towards such behavior and an increased willingness to participate in such an attack themselves after being induced to have MS.

literature

  • J. Greenberg, S. Solomon, T. Pyszczynski: Why do people need self-esteem? Converging evidence that self-esteem serves an anxiety-buffering function. In: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1992.
  • T. Pyszczynski, A. Abdollahi, S. Solomon, J. Greenberg, F. Cohen, D. Weise: Mortality Salience, Martyrdom, and Military Might: The Great Satan Versus the Axis of Evil. In: Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin. Volume 32, No. 4, 2006, pp. 525-537.
  • S. Solomon, J. Greenberg, T. Pyszczynski: The cultural animal: Twenty years of Terror Management Theory and research. In: J. Greenberg, SL Koole, T. Pyszczynski (Eds.): Handbook of experimental existential psychology. Guilford, New York 2004, pp. 13-34.
  • J. Greenberg, S. Solomon, T. Pyszczynski: The worm in our heart. How knowledge of mortality affects our lives. DVA, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-421-04725-0 .

Web links

See also

Self-determination theory (SDT), demarcation from terror management theory