Scared to death: an examination of underlying terror following death awareness
Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Abstract: According to Terror Management Theory, when mortality is made salient the potential to experience terror causes powerful worldview defenses to manifest to suppress this potential. Recently, however, the theory has been criticized because no actual evidence has been found to show this potential to experience terror. The current research used Galvanic Skin Response and a battery of self-report measures (e.g. negative affect, stress, fear, distress, etc.) to attempt to provide evidence of potential terror. The results were partially confirmatory suggesting that although mortality salience failed to evoke arousal, negative affect, and stress, it did evoke sadness and distress and suggests that terror is a highly complex combination of multiple negative components as well as physiological arousal. Interpretations and explanations of these results are discussed in accordance with previous Terror Management research.
Author: Robert B. Arrowood
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2340233344