Rooyesh-e- Ravanshenasi Journal(RRJ)

Abstract

Terror management theory attempts to answer two fundamental questions: Why do people have a strong tendency to love themselves and why do they avoid whom are not similar to them? According to this theory the man’s survival tendency is the answer of these two questions. This theory claims that people reduce terror of death by gaining sense of valuableness and also by being attracted to their cultural worldview. One of the hypotheses of this approach, named mortality salience, claims that a reminder of mortality and consequent 3-5 minute interval for making death thoughts accessible will produce an anxiety which people will attempts to manage by boosting their self-esteem. This hypothesis has been examined in this study. A sample of 45 female students of University of Tehran has been placed randomly in 3 groups (two experimental groups and one control group). Two experimental groups received mortality salience intervention (showing films of burial ceremony and two questions about their own death) and control group received an intervention irrelevant to death. After intervention, all three groups filled out Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale (RSES). First experimental group filled out the scale immediately after the intervention, while the second experimental group answered to the scale after an interval, because we wanted to examine the effect of this interval after the mortality salience intervention. Obtained results indicated that there is no significant difference between control group and experimental group without time interval (p = 0.001, H(2) = 24.57) although, mean value of the two groups is in significant difference from mean value of experimental group with time interval (p>0.05). In general, obtained results can be explained in this manner that creating a time interval can be along with reduction of proximity defenses (distraction, denial, etc.) and increase in accessibility of unconscious thoughts of death that can result in unconscious defenses in level of self-esteem.

Abstract

Terror management theory- which is a social psychology theory and inspired by evolutionary, psychodynamic and existential approaches - attempts to explain formation of sense of self and social behaviors with attention to survival tendency and escape from terror of death. This theory suggests two kinds of defenses in confrontation of death thoughts (proximal and distal defenses) and claims conscious thoughts of death bring proximal defenses (denial and distraction) and unconscious thoughts of death bring distal defenses (cultural worldview and enhancing self-esteem). Recent researches have showed death thoughts may cause people to reprioritize their goals. Conscious thoughts of death make intrinsic goals salience and unconscious thoughts of death highlights extrinsic goals (Sheldon & Kasser, 2008). This study aims to assess relation between consciousness levels of thoughts about death and goal orientations. Also a question to answer is if intrinsic motives mediate the relation between the two variables. Sample of this study consists of 45 female students of psychology of University of Tehran which have been placed in three 15-person-groups (two experimental groups and one control group). After a reminder of mortality, first experimental group filled out the goal list in next 10 years and second experimental group also filled out the goal list but after an interval which was designed to provoke their unconscious death thoughts. Control group also filled out the goal list, but they were received an intervention irrelevant to death. Then 200 people were asked to decide the subjects’ goal orientations on the basis of being intrinsic or extrinsic. results of U Mann-Whitney test for comparing the mean of two groups (p<0.1) indicate a significant difference, in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic goals, between the two groups: one with time interval (mean rank= 33.8) and the other one without time interval (mean rank= 67.22). in conclusion, if an individual has been confronted with a stimulus of motality salience reminders and in return unconscious thoughts of death have been have been evoked, he or she would choose extrinsic goals instead of intrinsic ones. these findings have been explained based on information processing through intervention methods.