Running Head: TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY

Nova Southeastern University Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences PSYC 3760 Prof. Lena Hall Mohamad Safi 04/25/2012

TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY Abstract:

Throughout human history there has always been a numerous amount of theories concerning the inevitable fact that every life comes with a death sentence. The following investigation will examine how self esteem and cultural worldviews interfere with the way people live their lives. The terror management theory is of particular interest to many researchers. It demonstrates how fear of the inevitable and unknown, which is death, can make us have stronger belief systems in order to cope with the anxiety that is produced because of that fear. Further on, this paper shall also explain the how self esteem is conceptualized in different cultures and how this can be a problem.

TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY Introduction:

Throughout human history there has always been a numerous amount of theories concerning the inevitable fact that every life has a death sentence. People must somehow find meaning to their lives; otherwise, they might get caught up in what is now known as the terror management theory (TMT). This particular theory examines how the awareness of mortality plays a tremendous role in the way people live. The awareness of death is unique to humans and it seems to be a universal concern. TMT underlies the importance of developing and maintaining culture and self-esteem as the primary resource to cope with death (Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, 2004). TMT has attracted the interest of scholars in a variety of disciplines throughout the world and has generated research on a range of topics far beyond the original scope of the theory. A substantial body of empirical evidence now supports the basic tenets of TMT. Becker conducted some research in 1975 that states how humans tend to confront death and tragedy symbolically, through the creation of culture. Culture can be considered as a symbolic perceptual construct that is shared by groups of people in order to buffer the anxiety associated with the awareness of death. Since death is the only certainty in this uncontrollable universe people live within a shared symbolic conception of the universe to help them cope with the fact that they will eventually die. Darwin argued that all living organisms are instinctively driven toward selfpreservation and continued experience. Humans are unique in many ways; one of our features is that we have a highly sophisticated level of intellectual abilities. Carver and Scheier (1981) discussed three particular cognitive abilities that help provide flexibility and adaptability to our species. The three cognitive aptitudes that were discussed are:

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the ability to conceptualize reality in terms of causality, the ability to conceive of future events, and the ability to reflect upon ourselves. In other words, by applying a causal structure to the world and by anticipating future events can help provide a basis for predicting future outcomes. However, our high capacity of intellectual abilities can also cause us to recognize problems that are out of our control; like the inevitable death that awaits us all. Death can occur prematurely or unexpectedly and this is something that can cause a lot of anxiety. The capacity to imagine future outcomes is a perceptual source of potential anxiety (Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, 1997). Knowing that bad things happen all the time makes people want to have some type of assurance that such outcomes will be spared or that they will not occur to them. Without such assurance you can be certain that many people would experience a paralyzing terror and there would be chaos throughout the world. Another interesting factor that distinguishes our complex species is that we are cultural animals. Many animals live in societies but only humans have cultures. We are born into different cultures, which in turn means that there are different worldviews. These cultural worldviews provide people with order, stability, meaning and permanence. In other words, any culture in which you are born into will provide you with some type of perspective that will enable you to minimize the anxiety caused by the fear of death. For many cultures, religion is a very powerful resource to maintain stability within the population. For example, any religion in which you are promised eternal happiness after death, like Christianity or Islam, can easily be explained as a defense mechanism for coping with the most certain and inescapable event of dying.

TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY Terror Management Theory

Sheldon Solomon, Tom Pyszczynski, and Jeff Greenberg first proposed TMT in 1989. They indicate that people follow cultural worldviews and beliefs in order to suppress death and mortality-related thoughts. This theory is inspired by the work of Ernest Becker, who wrote his Pullitzer Prize winner, The Denial of Death, in 1973. In this masterpiece, Becker asserts that, as intelligent animals, humans are able to

perceive the inescapable event of their deaths. Therefore, humans tend to spend their lives building and believing in cultural worldviews that illustrate how to make themselves stand out as individuals in order to give their lives significance and meaning. Deaths nature is essentially unknowable, causing people to spend most of their time and energy trying to explain, forestall, and avoid it. Nobody really knows what happens when we die, this creates an anxiety in humans. It can strike at unexpected and random moment. Becker also posits that individuals
would be restricted by the fear of their inevitable death if they could not develop a system to overcome their terror of mortality. TMT also suggests that individuals must feel that they are significant contributors to this worldview and derive their sense of selfesteem according to whether or not they meet culturally determined standards (Pyszczynski, Solomon & Greenberg, 2003). Self Esteem Self-esteem is the feeling that one is a valuable and essential agent in a universe that is fundamentally meaningful. Therefore, TMTs conception of self-esteem hinges on the notion that self-esteem is socially constructed and maintained; that self-esteem is

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unintelligible irrespective of the particular culture that fostered those beliefs about the self, and of the other individuals within that culture that socially validate an individuals self-esteem. Thus TMT is coherent with most notions of cultural relativism, in that there are as many ways that an individual can obtain and maintain self-esteem as there are cultural systems to frame it. This is precisely why self-esteem can be so tenuous and fragile: the very existence of other cultures and other esteemed individuals within those cultures threatens the very stability and validity of ones own self-esteem, and hence, their sense of invulnerability (especially in the face of death). In sum, self-esteem serves as an anxiety buffer. Emotions in TMT Terror management theory is interested in the effect of fear in producing cultural worldview defense. Fear is a basic emotion typically associated with an active fight or flight response to a specific set of categorically similar primes (Curtis & Biran, 2001). Other discrete emotions have been conceptually linked to terror management, but have yet to be studied directly. Jealousy, often linked to romantic love (particularly in monogamous relationships) ought to be heightened under conditions of mortality salience (Greenberg et al., 1986; Solomon et al., 1991). Shame guilt and humiliation are all associated with threats to self-esteem, a core terror management defense mechanism (Goldenberg et al., 2000; Greenberg et al., 1986; Solomon et al., 1991). Anger and contempt have been neither directly examined nor hypothesized as outcomes of terror management theory, but both are likely accentuated by the outsider rejection mechanisms triggered by distal defense. Goldenberg et al. (2000) argue that pride, especially that related to body image, is explained by existential anxiety, but no

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studies yet conducted have examined pride as an outcome of mortality salience. Future research ought to examine these and other discrete emotions in the context of terror management theory. References Becker, Ernest (1973). The denial of death (1st ed.). New York, NY: The Free Press. Goldenberg, J. L., & Routledge, C. (2009). Bronze is beautiful but pale can be pretty: The effects of appearance standards and mortality salience on suntanning outcomes. Health Psychology, 28(6), 746-752. 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. 189212). New York, NY: Springer-Verlag. Hewstone, M., Rubin, M., & Willis, H. (2002). Intergroup bias. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 575-604. Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., & Schimel, J. (2004). Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 435468.