Virtually every mental health problem carries stigma, but suicide appears to run so counter to our accumulative, achievement-oriented society, that it poses even greater threat of stigma. While suicide is inherently troubling in that it opposes the fundamental human instinct for self-preservation, the tendency to stigmatize and reject individuals affected by suicide appears to be counterproductive and excessive. Hence, the purpose of this three-manuscript dissertation is to gain a more nuanced understanding of suicide attitudes from an exploratory and terror management theory perspective. More specifically, this dissertation attempts to answer three general questions: (1) how do suicide attitudes differ from other stigmatized deaths – namely, unintentional opioid overdose, (2) does death anxiety and baseline self-esteem impact attitudes toward suicide, and (3) can the effects of death anxiety on suicide attitudes be reversed by temporarily boosting self-esteem? To address the first question, Study 1 compares suicide attitudes to attitudes toward opioid overdose death – another type of stigmatized death that has emerged as a major public health issue in the U.S. in recent years. Study 2 addresses the second question by examining the effect of mortality salience on attitudes toward suicide and by investigating whether participants’ baseline self-esteem will moderate this effect, in keeping with the theory’s claim that self-esteem buffers against death anxiety. Building on the theoretical assumptions of the second study, Study 3 tests whether the effects of death anxiety on suicide attitudes can be reversed by temporarily bolstering the participant’s self-esteem using experimental manipulation. In other words, can cultural worldview validation and self-esteem enhancement inhibit the awareness of personal death and promote prosocial attitudes and behavior? All three proposed studies used quantitative research strategies to examine the research questions detailed above. Study 1 used a traditional questionnaire method to explore and compare attitudes toward suicide and drug overdose death; whereas Study 2 and 3 employed an experimental design to test the MS hypothesis on suicide attitudes. Participants were recruited online using an inexpensive crowdsourcing service called Amazon MTurk. Findings from these studies could have important implications for how we understand the psychological underpinnings of suicide stigma and contribute to the growing body of evidence of the role of existential mortality concerns in hostile attitudes and discriminatory behavior. Not only are we confronted with death reminders in our everyday lives, the topic of suicide is inherently a reminder of death – making the problem of death anxiety even more relevant and unavoidable. These findings could expand our understanding of how cultural worldview and self-esteem are relevant to mitigating death anxiety, and the relationship between death anxiety and suicide.

Research on existential mortality fears has indicated that death reminders impact individuals at the cognitive and behavioral levels. One way people cope with this threat is through cherishing cultural values that provide life with meaning. However, little research has explored how death reminders impact cultural standards regarding gender. These cultural values often manifest through various means by male and female groups. Guided by terror management theory, which posits that people address threats to their existence by engaging in culturally-sanctioned behaviors to enhance their self-esteem, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of mortality salience (MS) on male participants' propensity for sexism and attitudes towards those with atypical gender stereotypes. Participants (n = 136) were recruited from courses at a local university and were selected based on the assumption that they had been exposed to media depicting death-related events. A quantitative research design was used to examine differences between the experimental MS and control pain salience conditions, and to assess effect sizes. Results from a MANOVA indicated that MS was associated with significantly higher sexism scores (F = 15.322, p < .001) as measured by the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, and with less favorable ratings of peers (as measured by a common opinion rating scale used in previous research in this area) who violated traditional gender stereotypes (F = 13.459, p < .001). The findings imply existential threats may contribute to negative stereotyping based on gender and enhance conservative views of gender stereotypes. Implications for social change are discussed involving the reduction of intolerance and prejudice directed at those who hold opposing worldviews.

As the U.S. population ages the number of family caregivers is expected to rise. Family caregivers are a valuable source of informal healthcare services for patients and the public, in terms of reducing healthcare costs. However, research suggests family caregiving is not only financially costly for individuals, but associated with a number of medical and mental health risks, with spouses at higher risk for negative outcomes compared to other family members. Traditional evidence-based therapies for stress in family caregivers have been shown to be minimally efficacious with spouses. No therapies take into account the existential nature of spouse caregiver stress, including the potential nonconscious role of loss of life meaning/purpose and death anxiety. This study of multiple baseline design preliminarily explored the effects of a novel 8-week Terror Management Theory integrated existential psychotherapy (TIE) on stress and nonconscious mechanisms believed to function as buffers for existential anxiety, in five women with spouses receiving cancer treatment. Methods included ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of anxiety and self-esteem states via text message sent three times daily – and intermittent assessment of death anxiety, self-compassion, meaning in life, and quality of life at baseline, intervention, immediate post, and 1-month follow-up. Visual and statistical analyses indicated significant between-phase trend changes in anxiety and self-esteem within participants, although direction of changes varied across participants. Additionally, changes in death anxiety, self-compassion, meaning in life, and quality of life between phases varied across participants in directions inconsistent with intervention aims and participants’ subjective impressions of intervention-related changes. Mixed findings point to the complexity of spouse caregiver psychology and highlight the need for more effective therapies with this population. Results may also guide future research and development of existentially-informed therapies.

The aim of the current thesis was to explore the possible link between System Justification Theory (SJT) and Terror Management Theory (TMT) in gender context and from the perspective of intergroup relations in a sample of Turkish university students. Having recently attracted research attention, the relation between the two theories is based on the effect of mortality salience (MS) on the tendency to justify the existing system. Accordingly, three research questions were investigated to see whether (1) ambivalent sexism toward women (hostile and benevolent sexism / HS and BS, respectively) and gender-group favoritism (on both explicit and implicit measures / expGF and impGF, respectively) were related to gender-specific system justification (GSJ), and whether (2) gender and (3) MS moderated the relation of GSJ to ambivalent sexism and gender-group favoritism. Based on the literature, it was hypothesized that (1) GSJ would predict HS, BS, expGF, and impGF, and that these predictions would be stronger (2) among women than among men and (3) when mortality is made salient as compared to when it is not. The hypotheses were tested with 185 participants (86 men, 99 women) who completed a questionnaire package including the demographic information form, GSJ Scale, MS manipulation, Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, and a scale measuring expGF along with a computer-administered task for impGF. The results revealed that higher levels of GSJ predicted higher levels of benevolent and hostile attitudes toward women as well as higher levels of explicit ingroup favoritism and lower levels of favoritism toward women. Only GSJ &ndash / HS and GSJ &ndash / expGF relationships were moderated by gender. The moderating role of MS was not observed in any of the four relationships. However, GSJ scores were found to be unevenly distributed across MS conditions, thereby, casting doubt on the reliability of the results concerning the moderating role of MS. The findings, as well as the contributions and limitations of the study, were discussed.

This dissertation examines rhetorics of heroism and immortality as they are negotiated through a variety of (new) media contexts. The dissertation demonstrates that media technologies in general, and videogames in particular, serve an existential or “death denying” function, which insulates individuals from the terror of mortality. The dissertation also discusses the hero as a rhetorical trope, and suggests that its relationship with immortality makes it a particularly powerful persuasive device. Chapter one provides a historical overview of the hero figure and its relationship with immortality, particularly within the context of ancient Greece. Chapter two examines the material means by which media technologies serve a death denying function, via “symbolic immortality” (inscription), and the McLuhanian concept of extension. Chapter three examines the prevalence of the hero and villain figures in propaganda, with particular attention paid to the use of visual propaganda in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Chapter four situates the videogame as an inherently heroic, death denying medium; videogames can extend the player’s sense of self, provide quantifiable victory criteria, and allow players to participate in “heroic” events. Chapter five examines the soldier-as-hero motif as it appears in two popular genres, the First Person Shooter, and Role-Playing Game. Particular attention is paid to the Call of Duty series and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Chapter six outlines an “epistemological exercise,” which attempts to empirically test the claims made in the previous chapters via Terror Management Theory, an experimental paradigm which examines the relationship between mortality, self-esteem, and ideology. The conclusion discusses how videogames can contest prevailing views of the heroic, and calls for a departure from contemporary game design practices.

The present study tested the mortality salience (MS) hypothesis of Terror Management Theory (TMT) on attitudes towards allowance of headscarf in the universities. Sample of the current study consisted of 208 university students. Religious, secular and liberal views were evaluated by participants. The results of 2 (Attitude: Supporters, Opponents) X 2 (Condition: Mortality salience, Control) ANOVAs showed that despite the lack of significant main effect of condition and interaction effect, MS tended to lead supporters of headscarf to evaluate both religious and secular essay more favorably but the liberal essay less favorably. On the contrary, opponents of headscarf tended to become supportive of the secular essay but critical of the religious and liberal essay following MS. Findings were discussed considering past literature and alternative theoretical perspectives.

Over 20 years of research on terror management theory has demonstrated that reminders of death (mortality salience; MS) heighten individuals' investment in prioritized bases of value and meaning. Research in this vein has shown that MS intensifies people's efforts to demonstrate personal value on tasks relevant to their self-esteem ("self-esteem striving"). Though much work illustrates that such responses function to mitigate death-related concerns, to date no work has directly assessed the particular regulatory mechanisms that implement MS-induced self-esteem striving. The present study aimed to do so by measuring neural indices of performance monitoring. During a tasked framed as diagnostic of self-esteem relevant attributes, participants were randomly assigned to receive subliminal primes of the word death or of control terms. Response-locked brain signals were recorded to assess reactivity to correct and incorrect responses during the task. Results showed that death-primed (vs. control) participants exhibited greater neural reactivity following error commission as indexed by larger amplitude of the Error Related Negativity (ERN). Death-primed (vs. control) participants also exhibited intensified behavioral efforts to improve their performance following error commission (i.e., post-error slowing, post-error accuracy), effects that were likely mediated by the activity of neural mechanisms that generate the ERN. Furthermore, among death-primed participants, behavioral improvements on the self-esteem relevant task correlated with attenuations in death thought accessibility. Receiving death primes did not influence neural reactivity to correct responses (Correct Related Negativity; CRN) nor did it heighten a neural index of explicit error awareness (Error Positivity; Pe). Together these findings suggest that MS-induced self-esteem striving is implemented via automatic monitoring and avoidance of errors. The role of avoidance motivation in self-esteem striving is thus discussed.

This dissertation examines rhetorics of heroism and immortality as they are negotiated through a variety of (new) media contexts. The dissertation demonstrates that media technologies in general, and videogames in particular, serve an existential or “death denying” function, which insulates individuals from the terror of mortality. The dissertation also discusses the hero as a rhetorical trope, and suggests that its relationship with immortality makes it a particularly powerful persuasive device. Chapter one provides a historical overview of the hero figure and its relationship with immortality, particularly within the context of ancient Greece. Chapter two examines the material means by which media technologies serve a death denying function, via “symbolic immortality” (inscription), and the McLuhanian concept of extension. Chapter three examines the prevalence of the hero and villain figures in propaganda, with particular attention paid to the use of visual propaganda in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Chapter four situates the videogame as an inherently heroic, death denying medium; videogames can extend the player’s sense of self, provide quantifiable victory criteria, and allow players to participate in “heroic” events. Chapter five examines the soldier-as-hero motif as it appears in two popular genres, the First Person Shooter, and Role-Playing Game. Particular attention is paid to the Call of Duty series and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Chapter six outlines an “epistemological exercise,” which attempts to empirically test the claims made in the previous chapters via Terror Management Theory, an experimental paradigm which examines the relationship between mortality, self-esteem, and ideology. The conclusion discusses how videogames can contest prevailing views of the heroic, and calls for a departure from contemporary game design practices.

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Social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) is one of the most influential social psychological theories of group behavior and intergroup relations. Early social identity research focused on many different group processes; however, the motivation behind group identification was not fully explored. Researchers have proposed a variety of accounts for why people join and identify with groups. This dissertation unravels the relationship between, on the one hand, mortality salience, self-related uncertainty and self-esteem, and on the other group identification and ingroup defense. The general hypothesis derived from uncertainty-identity theory (Hogg, 2010) is that uncertainty and not fear of death or pursuit of self-esteem motivate people to identify with and defend their groups, and that identification mediates the relationship between uncertainty and defense of the group. Experiment 1 (N = 112) tested the relationship between uncertainty and self-esteem on defense of the ingroup, with the additional test of the mediating effects of identification with the group between uncertainty and ingroup defense. Results showed that uncertainty and not self-esteem motivate people to identify with a group, to defend their group, and that group defense is mediated by identification. Experiment 2 (N = 112) provided a replication of the typical TMT study, which suggests that self-esteem will buffer the effects of mortality salience on ingroup defense, with the additional test of the mediating effects of identification between mortality salience and defense of one's group. As predicted, mortality salience only increased identification and defense of the group when self-esteem was not enhanced, as well, the interactive effects of mortality salience and self-esteem on defense was mediated by identification. Experiment 3 (N = 294) was a combination of both Experiments 1 and 2 and tested the hypothesis that uncertainty would moderate the relationship between self-esteem and mortality salience on group identification and ingroup defense. Exactly as predicted, only under high uncertainty the typical TMT results are demonstrated. Results across these three experiments demonstrate that self-uncertainty plays a significant role in reactions to mortality salience, and support uncertainty-identity theory's analysis of the role of self-uncertainty in ideological conviction and group behavior.