Psychological strategies of defence from the fear of death
Strategije psihološke odbrane od straha od smrti
Doktorand
Branković, Marija M.Mentor
Žeželj, IrisČlanovi komisije
Popadić, DraganPetrović, Nebojša
Dechesne, Mark
Metapodaci
Prikaz svih podataka o disertacijiSažetak
In the present study, we set out to explore the psychological strategies engaged to
defend oneself from the basic existential insight: the one of the inevitable personal
mortality. We wished to examine how young individuals reacted to reminders of
mortality and whether these reactions were also related to the socio-cultural context and
the important groups they identify with. For these goals, we applied the framework of
Terror management theory proposing that people achieve protection from a potentially
paralysing fear of death through investing in valued worldviews and maintaining a
positive image of themselves as part of these worldviews. Individuals who believe that
they are an important part of a meaningful universe can achieve a symbolic
transcendence of their inherently mortal nature.
We investigated the psychological strategies of defence in a series of five experiments,
with a total of 465 participants. After subtle reminders of personal mortality, we
investigated whether parti...cipants would engage in intensified efforts to enhance and
protect the collective self-image stemming from identification with an important group
(i.e. the ethnic group; Experiment II) or the individual self-image (Experiment III and
IV). We also explored whether the preference for individual vs. collective enhancement
would depend on personal value orientations, i.e. the level of individualism/
collectivism of the participants (Experiment V). To provide a more stringent test of the
basic tenets of the theory, we compared the effects of mortality reminders to reminders
of other existential concerns (i.e. life uncertainty), as well as more everyday concerns of
the participants (i.e. exam anxiety). We also investigated the cognitive and affective
mediating processes...
U aktuelnoj studiji želeli smo da istražimo strategije psihološke odbrane kojima se ljudi
služe prilikom suočavanja sa osnovnim egzistencijalnim uvidom: o neizbežnosti lične
smrtnosti. Želeli smo da ispitamo kako mlade osobe reaguju na podsetnike na vlastitu
smrtnost i da li su ove reakcije povezane sa socio-kulturnim kontekstom i značajnim
grupama sa kojima se identifikuju. U ovom cilju, sagledali smo istraživački problem u
okvirima teorije upravljanja strahom, koja pretpostavlja da ljudi postižu zaštitu od
potencijalno parališućeg straha od smrti kroz ulaganje u vrednovane poglede na svet i
očuvanje pozitivne slike o sebi samima, kao delu tih svetova. Osoba koja veruje da je
značajan deo smislenog univerzuma, time postiže simboličku transcendenciju vlastite
smrtne prirode...