A Terror Management Perspective on the Role of Death-Related Anxiety in Psychological Dysfunction

REFERENCES

• Abdollahi , A. , Pyszczynski , T. , Maxfield , M. , & Luszczynska , A. ( 2011 ). Posttraumatic stress reactions as a disruption in anxiety-buffer functioning: Dissociation and responses to mortality salience as predictors of severity of posttraumatic symptoms. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy , 3 , 329 – 341 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• American Psychiatric Association . ( 2000 ). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (Revised ed.) , 4th . Washington, DC : Author .
   Google Scholar
• Arndt , J. , Cook , A. , & Routledge , C. (2004). The blueprint of terror management: Understanding the cognitive architecture of psychological defense against the awareness of death. In J. Greenberg , S. L. Koole & T. Pyszczynski (Eds.), Handbook of experimental existential psychology (pp. 35–53). New York, NY : Guilford.
   Google Scholar
• Baumeister , R. F. , & Leary , M. R. ( 1995 ). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation . Psychological Bulletin , 117 , 497 – 529 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Becker , E. ( 1973 ). The denial of death . New York, NY : Free Press .
   Google Scholar
• Benight , C. C. , & Bandura , A. ( 2004 ). Social cognitive theory of posttraumatic recovery: The role of perceived self-efficacy . Behaviour Research and Therapy , 42 , 1129 – 1148 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Bergner , R. M. ( 2005 ). World reconstruction in psychotherapy . American Journal of Psychotherapy , 59 , 333 – 349 .
   PubMedGoogle Scholar
• Brown , N. O. ( 1985 ). Life against death: The psychoanalytical meaning of history ( ed.) , 2nd . Middleton, CT : Wesleyan University Press .
   Google Scholar
• Byrne , D. ( 1971 ). The attraction paradigm . New York, NY : Academic Press .
   Google Scholar
• Chatard , A. , Pyszczynski , T. , Arndt , J. , Selimbegović , L. , Konan , P. N. , & Van der Linden , M. ( 2012 ). Extent of trauma exposure and PTSD symptom severity as predictors of anxiety-buffer functioning. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Practice, Research, and Policy , 4 , 47 – 55 . doi: 10.1037/a0021085
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Cox , C. R. , Goldenberg , J. L. , Arndt , J. , & Pyszczynski , T. ( 2007 ). Mother's milk: An existential perspective on negative reactions to breast-feeding . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 33 , 110 – 122 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Coyne , J. C. ( 1976 ). Depression and the response of others . Journal of Abnormal Psychology , 85 , 186 – 193 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Crocker , J. , Brook , A. T. , Niiya , Y. , & Villacorta , M. ( 2006 ). The pursuit of self-esteem: Contingencies of self-worth and self-regulation . Journal of Personality , 74 , 1749 – 1771 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Crocker , J. , & Wolfe , C. T. ( 2001 ). Contingencies of self-worth . Psychological Review , 108 , 593 – 623 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Debats , D. L. ( 1999 ). Sources of meaning: An investigation of significant commitments in life . Journal of Humanistic Psychology , 39 , 30 – 57 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Dieperink , M. , Leskela , J. , Thuras , P. , & Engdahl , B. ( 2001 ). Attachment style classification and posttraumatic stress disorder in former prisoners of way . American Journal of Orthopsychiatry , 71 , 374 – 378 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Edmondson , D. ( 2009 ). From shattered assumptions to weakened worldviews: Evidence of anxiety buffer disruption in individuals with trauma systems (Unpublished doctoral thesis) . University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT .
   Google Scholar
• Ehlert , U. , Gaab , J. , & Heinrichs , M. ( 2001 ). Psychoneuroendocrinological contributions to the etiology of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and stress-related bodily disorders: The role of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis . Biological Psychology , 57 , 141 – 152 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Ehntholt , K. A. , Salkovskis , P. M. , & Rimes , K. A. ( 1998 ). Obsessive–compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders, and self-esteem: an exploratory study . Behaviour Research and Therapy , 37 , 771 – 781 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Frankl , V. E. ( 1959 ). Man's search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy . Boston, MA : Beacon .
   Google Scholar
• Fredrickson , B. L. , & Roberts , T. ( 1997 ). Objectification theory: Toward understanding women's lived experiences and mental health risks . Psychology of Women Quarterly , 21 , 173 – 206 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Fredrickson , B. L. , Roberts , T. , Noll , S. M. , Quinn , D. M. , & Twenge , J. M. ( 1998 ). That swimsuit becomes you: Sex differences in self-objectification, restrained eating, and math performance . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 75 , 269 – 284 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Freud , S. ( 1976 ). The future of an illusion . New York, NY : Norton . (Original work published 1927)
   Google Scholar
• Freud , S. ( 1991 ). Civilization and its discontents . In A. Dickson (Ed.), Sigmund Freud: 12. Civilization, society, and religion (pp. 245 – 341 ). New York, NY : Penguin . (Original work published 1930)
   Google Scholar
• Galea , S. , Ahern , J. , Resnick , H. , Kilpatrick , D. , Bucuvalas , M. , Gold , J. , & Vlahov , D. ( 2002 ). Psychological sequelae of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City . New England Journal of Medicine , 346 , 982 – 987 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Gibb , B. E. , & Coles , M. E. ( 2005 ). Cognitive vulnerability-stress models of psychopathology: A developmental perspective . In B. L. Hankin & J. R. Z. Abela (Eds.), Development of psychopathology: A vulnerability-stress perspective (pp. 104 – 135 ). Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage .
   Google Scholar
• Goldenberg , J. L. ( 2005 ). The body stripped down: An existential account of the threat posed by the physical body . Current Directions in Psychological Science , 14 , 224 – 228 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Goldenberg , J. L. , Hart , J. , Pyszczynski , T. , Warnica , G. M. , Landau , M. , & Thomas , L. ( 2006 ). Ambivalence toward the body: Death, neuroticism, and the flight from physical sensation . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 32 , 1264 – 1277 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Goldenberg , J. L. , Kosloff , S. , & Greenberg , J. ( 2006 ). Existential underpinnings of approach and avoidance of the physical body . Motivation and Emotion , 30 , 127 – 134 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Goldenberg , J. L. , Pyszczynski , T. , Greenberg , J. , Solomon , S. , Kluck , B. , & Cornwell , R. (2001). I am not an animal: Mortality salience, disgust, and the denial of human creatureliness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , 130, 427–435.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Goldenberg , J. , Pyszczynski , T. , McCoy , S. , Greenberg , J. , & Solomon , S. ( 1999 ). Death, sex, love, and neuroticism: Why is sex such a problem? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 77 , 1173 – 1187 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• González-Isasi , A. , Echeburúa , E. , Limiñana , J. M. , & González-Pinto , A. ( 2012 ). Predictors of good outcomes in patients with refractory bipolar disorder after a drug or a drug and cognitive-behavioral treatment . Comprehensive Psychiatry , 53 , 224 – 229 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Greenberg , J. , Pyszczynski , T. , & Solomon , S. ( 1986 ). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory . In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public self and prívate self (pp. 189 – 212 ). New York, NY : SpringerVerlag .
   Google Scholar
• Greenberg , J. , Pyszczynski , T. , Solomon , S. , Pinel , E. , Simon , L. , & Jordan , K. ( 1993 ). Effects of self-esteem on vulnerability-denying defensive distortions: Further evidence of an anxiety-buffering function of self-esteem . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 29 , 229 – 251 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Greenberg , J. , Solomon , S. , & Arndt , A. ( 2008 ). A basic but uniquely human motivation: Terror management . In J. Y. Shah & W. L. Gardner (Eds.), Handbook of motivation science (pp. 114 – 134 ). New York, NY : Guilford .
   Google Scholar
• Greenberg , J. , Solomon , S. , Pyszczynski , T. , Rosenblatt , A. , Burling , J. , Lyon , D. , Pinel , E. ( 1992 ). Why do people need self-esteem? Converging evidence that self-esteem serves an anxiety-buffering function . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 63 , 913 – 922 . doi:
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Harlow , L. L. , Newcomb , M. D. , & Bentler , P. M. ( 1986 ). Depression, self-derogation, substance use, and suicide ideation: Lack of purpose in life as a mediational factor . Journal of Clinical Psychology , 42 , 5 – 21 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Harmon-Jones , E. , Simon , L. , Greenberg , J. , Pyszczynski , T. , Solomon , S. , & McGregor , H. ( 1997 ). Terror management theory and self-esteem: Evidence that increased self-esteem reduced mortality salience effects . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 72 , 24 – 36 . doi:
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Hayes , J. , Schimel , J. , Arndt , J , & Faucher , E. H. ( 2010 ). A theoretical and empirical review of the death thought accessibility concept in terror management research . Psychological Bulletin , 136 , 699 – 739 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Hazan , C. , & Shaver , P. ( 1987 ). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 52 , 511 – 524 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Heinrich , L. M. , & Gullone , E. ( 2006 ). The clinical significance of loneliness: A literature review . Clinical Psychology Review , 26 , 695 – 718 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Horney , K. ( 1950 ). Neurosis and human growth: The struggle toward self-realization . New York, NY : Horton .
   Google Scholar
• Jacobi , F. , Wittchen , H. U. , Hölting , C. , Höfler , M. , Pfister , H. , Müller , N. , & Lieb , R. ( 2004 ). Prevalence, co-morbidity and correlates of mental disorders in the general population: results from the German Health Interview and Examination Survey (GHS) . Psychological Medicine , 34 , 597 – 611 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Janoff-Bulman , R. ( 1992 ). Shattered assumptions: Towards a new psychology of trauma . New York, NY : Free Press .
   Google Scholar
• Kesebir , P. , Luszczynska , A. , Pyszczynski , T. , & Benight , C. C. ( 2011 ). Posstraumatic stress disorder involves disrupted anxiety-buffer mechanisms . Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology , 30 , 819 – 841 .
   Google Scholar
• Ketterer , M. , Rose , B. , Knysz , W. , Farha , A. , Deveshwar , S. , Schairer , J. , & Keteyian , S. J. ( 2011 ). Is social isolation/alienation confounded with, and non-independent of, emotional distress in its association with early onset of coronary artery disease? Psychology, Health, & Medicine , 16 , 238 – 247 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Khan , A. A. , Jacobson , K. C. , Gardner , C. O. , Prescott , C. A. , & Kendler , K. S. ( 2005 ). Personality and comorbidity of common psychiatric disorders . British Journal of Psychiatry , 186 , 190 – 196 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kierkegaard , S. ( 1957 ). The concept of dread ( W. Lowrie , Trans. ). Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press .
   Google Scholar
• Kosloff , S. , Solomon , S. , Greenberg , J. , Cohen , F. , Gershuny , B. , Routledge , C. , & Pyszczynski , T. ( 2006 ). Fatal distraction: The impact of mortality salience on dissociative responses to 9/11 and subsequent anxiety sensitivity . Basic and Applied Social Psychology , 28 , 349 – 356 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kotov , R. , Gamez , W. , Schmidt , F. , & Watson , D. ( 2010 ). Linking “big” personality traits to anxiety, depressive, and substance use disorders: A meta-analysis . Psychological Bulletin , 136 , 768 – 821 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lima , A. R. , Mello , M. F. , & de Jesus Mari , J. ( 2010 ). The role of early parental bonding in the development of psychiatric symptoms in adulthood . Current Opinion in Psychiatry , 23 , 383 – 387 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Loo , R. ( 1984 ). Personality correlates of the fear of death and dying scale . Journal of Clinical Psychology , 40 , 120 – 122 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Mascaro , N. , & Rosen , D. H. ( 2008 ). Assessment of existential meaning and its longitudinal relations with depressive symptoms . Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology , 27 , 576 – 599 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Maxfield , M. , Pyszczynski , T. , Cox , C. , Kluck , B. , Greenberg , J. , Solomon , S. , & Weise , D. (2007). Age related differences in responses to thoughts of one's own death: Mortality salience and judgments of moral transgressions. Psychology and Aging , 22, 341–353.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Maxfield , M. , Pyszczynski , T. , Greenberg , J. , Pepin , R. , & Davis , H. P. ( 2012 ). The moderating role of executive functioning in older adults’ responses to a reminder of mortality . Psychology and Aging , 27 , 256 – 263 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• May , R. ( 1967 ). Man's search for himself . New York, NY : Norton . (Original work published in 1953)
   Google Scholar
• Mikulincer , M. , & Florian , V. ( 2000 ). Exploring individual differences in reactions to mortality salience: Does attachment style regulate terror management mechanisms? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 79 , 260 – 273 . doi:
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Mikulincer , M. , Florian , V. , & Hirschberger , G. ( 2003 ). The existential function of close relationships: Introducing death into the science of love . Personality and Social Psychology Review , 7 , 20 – 40 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Mikulincer , M. , Florian , V. , & Hirschberger , G. ( 2004 ). The terror of death and the quest for love -An existential perspective on close relationships . In J. Greenberg , S. L. Koole & T. Pyszczynski (Eds.), Handbook of experimental existential psychology (pp. 287 – 304 ). New York, NY : Guilford .
   Google Scholar
• Muehlenkamp , J. J. , & Saris-Baglama , R. N. ( 2002 ). Self-objectification and its psychological outcomes for college women . Psychology of Women Quarterly , 26 , 371 – 379 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Noll , S. M. , & Fredrickson , B. L. ( 1998 ). A meditational model linking self-objectification, body shame, and disordered eating . Psychology of Women Quarterly , 22 , 623 – 636 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• O'Connor , M. , & Elklit , A. ( 2008 ). Attachment styles, traumatic events, and PTSD: A cross-sectional investigation of adult attachment and trauma . Attachment & Human Development , 10 , 59 – 71 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Ozer , E. J. , Best , S. R. , Lipsey , T. L. , & Weiss , D. S. ( 2003 ). Predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder and symptoms in adults: A meta-analysis . Psychological Bulletin , 129 , 52 – 73 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Prager , E. , Bar-Tur , L. , & Abramowici , I. ( 1997 ). The sources of meaning profile (SOMP) with aged subjects exhibiting depressive symptomatology . Clinical Gerontologist , 17 , 25 – 39 .
   Google Scholar
• Pyszczynski , T. , Greenberg , J. , Koole , S. , & Solomon , S. ( 2010 ). Experimental existential psychology: Coping with the facts of life . In S. T. Fiske , D. T. Gilbert , & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (Vol. 1, ed. , 5th , pp. 724 – 757 ). Hoboken, NJ : Wiley .
   Google Scholar
• Pyszczynski , T. , Greenberg , J. , & Solomon , S. ( 1999 ). A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts: An extension of terror management theory . Psychological Review , 106 ( 4 ), 835 – 845 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Pyszczynski , T. , & Kesebir , P. ( 2011 ). Anxiety buffer disruption theory: A terror management account of posttraumatic stress disorder . Anxiety, Stress, & Coping , 24 , 3 – 26 . doi:
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Rank , O. ( 1958 ). Beyond psychology . New York, NY : Dover Books . (Original work published in 1941)
   Google Scholar
• Rounsaville , B. J. , Weissman , M. M. , Prusoff , B. A. ( 1981 ). Psychotherapy with depressed outpatients: Patient and process variables as predictors of outcome . British Journal of Psychiatry , 138 , 67 – 74 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Saltzman , M. B. , & Halloran , M. J. ( 2004 ). Cultural trauma and recovery: Cultural meaning, self-esteem, and the reconstruction of the cultural anxiety buffer . In J. Greenberg , S. L. Koole & T. Pyszczynski (Eds.), Handbook of experimental existential psychology (pp. 231 – 246 ). New York, NY : Guilford .
   Google Scholar
• Sanchez , D. T. , & Crocker , J. ( 2005 ). How investment in gender ideals affects well-being: The role of external contingencies of self-worth . Psychology of Women Quarterly , 29 , 63 – 77 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Schmeichel , B. J. , & Martens , A. ( 2005 ). Self-affirmation and mortality salience: Affirming values reduces worldview defense and death-thought accessibility . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 31 , 658 – 667 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Shedler , J. ( 2010 ). The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy . American Psychologist , 65 , 98 – 109 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Silver , R. C. , Holman , E. A. , McIntosh , D. N. , Poulin , M. , & Gil-Rivas , V. ( 2002 ). Nationwide longitudinal study of psychological responses to September 11 . Journal of the American Medical Association , 288 , 1235 – 1244 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Simon , L. , Arndt , J. , Greenberg , J. , Pyszczynski , T. , & Solomon , S. ( 1998 ). Terror management and meaning: Evidence that the opportunity to defend the worldview in response to mortality salience increases the meaningfulness of life in the mildly depressed . Journal of Personality , 66 , 359 – 382 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Simon , L. , Greenberg , J. , Harmon-Jones , E. , Solomon , S. , & Pyszczynski , T. ( 1996 ). Mild depression, mortality salience and defense of the worldview evidence of intensified terror management in the mildly depressed . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 22 , 81 – 90 . doi:
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Solomon , S. , Greenberg , J. , & Pyszczynski , T. ( 1991 ). A terror management theory of social behavior: The psychological functions of self-esteem and cultural worldviews . In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 24. , pp. 93 – 159 ). New York, NY : Academic Press .
   Google Scholar
• Steger , M. F. , Mann , J. R. , Michels , P. , & Cooper , T. C. (2009). Meaning in life, anxiety, depression, and general health among smoking cessation patients. Journal of Psychosomatic Research , 67, 353–358.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Strachan , E. , Schimel , J. , Arndt , J. , Williams , T. , Solomon , S. , Pyszczynski , T. , & Greenberg , J. ( 2007 ). Terror mismanagement: Evidence that mortality salience exacerbates phobic and compulsive behaviors . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 33 , 1137 – 1151 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sullivan , H. S. ( 1953 ). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry . New York, NY : Norton .
   Google Scholar
• Tanielian , T. L. , Jaycox , L. H. , Schell , T. L. , Marshall , G. N. , Burnam , M. A. , Eibner , C. , … Vaiana , M. E. ( 2008 ). Invisible wounds of war: Summary and recommendations for addressing psychological and cognitive injuries . Santa Monica, CA : RAND .
   Google Scholar
• Waskowic , T. D. , & Chartier , B. M. ( 2003 ). Attachment and the experience of grief following the loss of a spouse . Omega , 47 , 77 – 91 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Widiger , T. A. , & Trull , T. J. ( 1992 ). Personality and psychopathology: An application of the five-factor model . Journal of Personality , 60 , 363 – 393 .
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Williams , K. D. , & Nida , S. A. ( 2011 ). Ostracism: Consequences and coping . Current Directions in Psychological Science , 20 , 71 – 75 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Yalom , I. ( 1980 ). Existential psychotherapy . New York, NY : Basic Books .
   Google Scholar