Personality measures were predicted to be susceptible to response distortion above and beyond volitional strategies of impression management. A 2 (Instruction Set) x 2 (Personality Feedback) x 2 (Mortality Salience) factorial design addressed social desirability biases in responding to personality measures. There were significant changes in all measures due to volitional (Fake Good) strategies. Thoughts of death lead to decreased distortion, but only on the measures sensitive to social desirability bias. Mortality Salience interacted with personality feedback, such that test responses were distorted in the opposite direction of the feedback, supporting Optimal Distinctiveness Theory. A significant interaction between Mortality Salience and Instruction Set suggests further attention be given to unconscious distortion in personality scores and that Terror Management Theory incorporate further research on individual differences. / Master of Science

Two experiments were conducted to assess the effects of self-construal and religious fundamentalism on terror management processes. It was found that both interdependent self-construal and religious fundamentalist beliefs offer protection against death-related thoughts and worldview defense following mortality salience. The implications for terror management theory are discussed.

Two experiments were conducted to assess the effects of self-construal and religious fundamentalism on terror management processes. It was found that both interdependent self-construal and religious fundamentalist beliefs offer protection against death-related thoughts and worldview defense following mortality salience. The implications for terror management theory are discussed.

Research has not explicitly examined the link between key components of terror management theory (TMT) and body image without the use of mortality salience. This project explored the link between cultural worldview, self-esteem, body image, and death anxiety. Multiple measures were used to create a structural equation model examining relationships between body image and death anxiety as mediated by body image in the context of TMT. The proposed model did not fit the data. Minor modifications were made to the model keeping within the proposed theoretical perspective. In the modified model the relationships between cultural worldview and death anxiety as mediated by body image were either non-existent or weak. Hierarchical regression analyses did suggest that some aspects of body image indeed did predict some, but not all dimension of death anxiety in this sample of young adults.

Terror management theory (TMT) seeks to understand religious worldview adherence, positing that worldview beliefs can abate existential threats such as mortality salience. Most research on TMT has employed young samples, so influences on older adults' experiences of mortality salience are unclear. Simultaneously, research on death anxiety shows that older people may view their own death more favorably than younger individuals do. Guided by the lifespan development perspective, I investigated whether the range of life experiences and interpretation of them might account for perceptions of death in old age. A multi-phase content analysis of in-depth interview transcripts from 16 adults aged 65+ focused on narratives of life events, religious worldviews, and death. The findings suggested how lifespan adversity, such as the death of a loved one, promoted growth in self and religious belief that enhanced participants' reported relationship with the sacred. In turn, participants' views of and beliefs about death were without fear, indicating the influence of highly individualized and deeply spiritual religious worldview beliefs on the abatement of death fear. These findings support extension of TMT to older people by identifying the impact of lifespan experiences with trauma and adversity as contributing to less superficial, more individualized conceptions of religious worldviews. Such worldviews, contingent upon growth from adaptation to lifespan experiences, may indeed lead to less death anxiety and reduce the effects of mortality salience in old age. / Master of Science

Surprisingly little experimental research has explored the psychological function of soul belief given its prevalence. As some have noted (e.g., Rank, 1930/1998), soul belief may have evolved to help individuals cope with existential concerns through promises of literal immortality. The research that has been conducted on the function of literal immortality shows that belief in an afterlife minimizes death-related concerns (Dechesne et al., 2003). I propose two separate hypotheses testing the psychological function of soul belief. Hypothesis 1 states that soul belief should minimize the threat of a death reminder (or mortality salience; MS); this hypothesis was supported in Study 1 where soul believers did not show an increase in death-thought accessibility (DTA) following MS, but low soul believers did show an increase. Hypothesis 2 states that soul belief should also offer protection from threats to symbolic immortality related to the prospect of the end-of-world. Studies 2, 3, 4, and 6 support the reasoning behind this hypothesis. However, Study 5 did not support Hypothesis 2. Considering the data that did support Hypothesis 2, soul believers showed less resistance to end-of-world arguments and also did not show an increase in DTA following such arguments; whereas, low soul believers respond to end-of-world arguments with more resistance and heightened DTA. The discussion focuses on interpretations of these findings and remaining questions.

Past research has examined the many ways individuals behave in response to unconscious primes. For instance, unconsciously activating stereotypes leads people to exhibit behavior that parallels the target stereotype (e.g., Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996; Dijksterhuis & van Knippenberg, 1998). Priming methodology has also been extended to inducing mortality salience, such that specific behaviors emerge in response to thinking about one’s own death. Two theories, socioemotional selectivity theory and terror management theory, hypothesize how individuals cope with thoughts about the end of life. The present study attempted to extend past research by comparing older and younger adults’ responses to unconscious mortality salience. Fifty-nine younger adults and 52 older adults were randomly assigned to one of two prime conditions: death prime or negative prime. The unconscious primes were administered through word searches, which contained 20 target words related to each prime. Defenses to the primes were assessed via suitability ratings and reaction times to a picture-caption task, which contained both neutral and emotional (positive and negative) captions paired with neutral pictures. A defense was operationalized as higher suitability ratings and faster reaction times to the positive captions, as well as lower suitability ratings and slower reaction times to the negative captions. Based on terror management theory, it was expected that individuals who were primed with death would display specific defensive behavioral responses as compared to those who were primed with negativity, regardless of age. Socioemotional selectivity theory, however, predicts that these defenses may also emerge when older adults are primed with negativity due to the increased tendency for older adults, relative to younger adults, to automatically implement default emotion regulatory goals. Analyses revealed that both younger and older adults embraced the neutral and positive captions after being primed with death. Participants primed with negativity were also more likely to embrace positivity. Age differences emerged such that younger adults were faster when reacting to emotional captions in the death condition than in the negative condition. Conversely, older adults primed with negativity reacted faster to emotional captions than those primed with death. Implications for terror management theory and socioemotional selectivity theory are discussed. Overall, both young and older adults displayed defenses to prime-activated threats of death and negativity. The implementation of death-related defenses was stronger for younger adults than the implementation of negativity-related defenses, but the opposite was true for older adults.

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This research applied insights from terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) to the world of sport. According to TMT, self-esteem buffers against the potential for death anxiety. Because sport allows people to attain self-esteem, reminders of death may improve performance in sport. In Study 1, a mortality salience induction led to improved performance in a “one-on-one” basketball game. In Study 2, a subtle death prime led to higher scores on a basketball shooting task, which was associated with increased task-related self-esteem. These results may promote our understanding of sport and provide a novel potential way to improve athletic performance.

Terror management theory research suggests that self-esteem acts as an anxiety buffer and high self-esteem can reduce implicit death thoughts and worldview defense. Self-compassion, it is argued, enhances wellbeing by making people feel safe and secure, while self-esteem makes people feel superior and sometimes unrealistically self-confident. Through a series of studies, this dissertation investigated buffering of death anxiety by self-compassion. Studies 1 and 2 investigated the role of trait (Study 1) and induced (Study 2) self-compassion in buffering existential anxiety by reducing implicit death thoughts. Studies 3 and 4 investigated the role of trait (Study 3) and induced (Study 4) self-compassion in buffering existential anxiety by reducing worldview defense. The series of studies did not support the proposed hypotheses, as they failed to replicate the expected mortality salience effects. Because of this, the effects of self-compassion on implicit death anxiety were also not evident. Possible reasons for failure to reject the null hypotheses are discussed and recommendation for future studies is given.