1. Introduction
Terror Management Theory
TMT (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) holds that a dual-
component system emerged to help people manage their awareness of
mortality by:
a) striving for a sense of personal value (i.e., self-esteem) within
b) a symbolically permanent cultural worldview.
Thus, TMT argues that people can manage the awareness of mortality by
maintaining the perception that one is an object of value in a seemingly
permanent system of meaning.
Buffering death-thought accessibility via self-affirmation
If cultural worldviews and self-esteem function to help manage the
awareness of mortality, then affirming the worldview and bolstering self-
esteem should buffer against death-
thought accessibility (DTA). Indeed,
prior research shows that mortality
salience leads to more death-thought
accessibility, unless first affirming
one’s belief systems and personal
value (self-affirmation; Schmeichel
& Martens, 2005).
Trauma and anxiety buffer disruption
Traumatic life experiences disrupt one’s
anxiety buffer functioning, breaking
down individuals’ sense of security in
their worldviews (Abdollahi et al,
2011). Thus, what was once an
effective buffer against the awareness
of mortality is likely no longer able to
provide and serve the same buffering function.
Hypotheses
1. Among low-trauma individuals, we expect the worldview buffer
system to function effectively: MS should increase DTA in the no-self-
affirmation condition, but that self-affirmation will function to buffer
against that increase.
2. Among high-trauma individuals, we expect the worldview buffer to
be disrupted: MS should increase DTA in the no-self-affirmation condition
and in the self-affirmation condition (indicating that it no longer serves to
buffer against increased DTA).
Method
Participants
Participants were recruited using a panel service to obtain a non-clinic sample.
Participants completed the following: trauma symptomology premeasure, MS
manipulation, self-affirmation manipulation, the death-thought accessibility dependent
variable, and a demographic questionnaire.
Trauma symptomology.
The Post-Traumatic Stress Check List – Civilian version (PCL-C) is a 17-item
self-report measure used to gauge the severity of the trauma symptoms related to a
single event. It assesses all the criteria for PTSD based on the DSM-IV, the daily
functioning of the individual, and their experiences in the immediate past (or an
otherwise specified time frame). Participants scoring a 25 and below were classified as
low trauma, whereas a score of 44 and above classified the participant as high trauma.
MS manipulation.
Next, one of three short-answer style questions will be presented to manipulate
mortality salience.
1. Mortality salience: participants will be presented with two open-ended prompts:
“please briefly describe the emotions that your own death arouses in you” and
“jot down, as specifically as you can, what you think will happen to you
physically as you die and once you are physically dead”
2. Control condition: participants in the control condition will receive the same two
prompts, but they will ask about dental pain instead of mortality.
Self-affirmation manipulation.
Next, one of two tasks will induce self-affirmation:
1. Self Affirmation: participants will rank order a dozen values, and then write about
their top-ranked value and how they excel at it;
2. No Self Affirmation: participants will rank order a dozen jelly-bean flavors, and
then write about their favorite flavor.
Death-thought accessibility
DTA was assessed using a word-stem completion task (Greenberg, et al., 1994),
whereby six word stems could be completed with either a neutral or a death-related
word.
For example, GRA_ _ could be completed as GRANT or GRAVE.
The effect of traumatic symptomology, mortality
salience, and self-affirmation on the effective
management of death-thought accessibility
Results
Methods prescribed by Aiken and West (1991) were
followed to regress death-thought accessibility on the
Trauma symptom 2 (low vs. high) x 2 (MS vs. control) x 2
(self-affirmation vs. control) design.
The following data patterns were found:
References
Abdollahi, A., Pyszczynski, T., Maxfield, M., & Luszczysnka, A. (2011). Posttraumatic
stress reactions as a disruption in anxiety-buffer functioning: Dissociation and
responses to mortality salience as predictors of severity of posttraumatic symptoms.
Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 3(4), 329.
Aiken, L., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions.
Newbury Park, California: Sage Publicatios, c1991.
Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need
for self-esteem: A terror management theory. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public self and
private self (pp. 189-212). New York: Springer-Verlag
Schmeichel, B. J., & Martens, A. (2005). Self-affirmation and mortality salience: Affirming
values reduces worldview defense and death-thought accessibility. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 31 (5), 658-667.
Adrienne R. Morgan & Kenneth E. Vail III
Cleveland State University Psychology Department
Research Day, April 2016, Cleveland, Ohio.
Contact: Adrienne R. Morgan Email: adrienne.morgan11@gmail.com
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MS
Dental pain
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