I am curious about the different academic uses of terror management theory as asserted by Ernest Becker in the 1970s and further proposed by social psychologists Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, and Tom Pyszczynski. How has the psychological conflict posed by the theory been applied in, for example, social psychology or political science or cultural studies? I am imagining that the anxiety around death and existence could possibly be applied to the existential threats and anxieties imagined by hegemonies (e.g. the white anxiety and fragility demonstrated by many white people's participation in conversations around race).
http://www.alternet.org/culture/why-white-people-freak-out-when-theyre-called-out-about-race
Hi Zoe,
a very interesting question.
I have heard about the theory that the perspective of young men concerning their chance to participate on social prosperity plays a crucial role on war formation. There are several authors who argue in this way. e.g.
Gunnar Heinsohn: Söhne und Weltmacht. Terror im Aufstieg und Fall der Nationen, Orell und Füssli, Zürich 2003
From my point of view I would like to add that the attractiveness of terror organizations especially for young men is partially based on the increasing uncertainty and fragility of manhood in a modern world. So joining such organization is than an expression of recovering the safety, precision, clarity and simplification of their gender role.
Kind regards
Volker
I am investigating how terror management might impact on compassion in health care; although not using an experimental approach like TMT's originators, instead I am using observational work to identify whether mortality salience primes within the acute hospital ward setting impact in any observable way upon distancing, prejudice, interprofessional-conflict - suspect that TMT explains many current issues in care but it is very hard to replicate the complexity of the clinical world experimentally, which in my opinion is a downside to the current TMT corpus - I have no idea if it will show anything! I hope to use a symbolic interactionist approach to the field to investigate this. As far as I know TMT has not been studied qualitatively in-vivo, but I would be very happy to hear form anyone who knows contrary to this?
Some work that I find interesting on terror management theory relates to the appeal of tragedy. The idea that people view tragic media or read tragic stories makes little sense from a hedonic perspective. If we are trying to manage our emotions via the media or escape from the stress of life - why watch tragedy? We published a paper in Media Psychology when I was co-editing the journal which applied terror management theory to this issue. The reasoning is that if people's own mortality is salient, reading or viewing stories about other people's mortality should shift the focus to other people and decrease the threat associated with thinking about your own mortality. That is what the research demonstrated. Here is the citation for that study:
Goldenberg, J. L., Pyszczynski, T., Johnson, K. D., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (1999). The appeal of tragedy: A terror management perspective. Media Psychology, 1(4), 313-329.
I don't know if other people find this interesting, but I thought it was a fascinating study.
Dear Zoe
TMT could be employed by educators to foster learners' self esteem, self efficacy motivation , self regulation and autonomy through reduction of debilitative emotional drawbacks like stress, uncertainty and anxiety. TMT can create meaning, order direction and purpose in the curriculum and classroom activities, so that learner's are impervious to obsessive preoccupations about their future , their role in the society and the justification of the time and energy they allocate to their education. TMT can be an epistemological ontological clarification of learners' relationship to the environment, significant others, knowledge itself , and their future philosophical questions with respect to their worldviews. Its should be pointed out that TMT is a double edged sword which can also be potentially used for manipulative repressive agents creating insecurity, fright and anxiety to render people hopeless and then provide them with the necessary goods and services for which they have to be mentally emotionally or materially pay. Production and dissemination of an ''ideological oasis'' and mental emotional havens by TMT could be the response to intentional inculcation of anxiety, confusion and vulnerability.
good luck with your research\
a.
I am utilizing Terror Management as a centerpiece to a mechanistic theory of addiction and recovery. The working paper and the summary of the paper can be found on my page. We are hoping to publish this year.
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