2

Life - Eros/Libido

Death - Thanatos/ Mortido

unconscious drives towardsaggression, self-destructiveness,and ultimately death

• 3-5: limited and inaccurate conception of death

  • understanding of nonfunctionality

  • no finality/ universality

  • magical thinking

• 5-10: understanding of finality and universality

  • irreversilty and universality emerge

  • causality is often understood

• 10-16: more complex understanding

  • universality is completely understood

• first: Nonfunctionality

• Last: Causality

• Applicability and Universality vary depending on personal/ situational factors

• direct experiences of death

• parental communication about death

• portrayals of death in the media and the arts

6 year olds understand universality, finality and causality

get that it applies to plants and animals, but not objects

seen more final and universal for animals than plants

Flower more final than weed, trees intermediate

Study 1 (Bruskin Associates): public speaking more often as common fear selected, but death more often as TOP fear

Study 2 (Burgess): study about phobias, public speaking more pressing concern than death

Thanatophobia: clinical fear of death

Necrophobia: dead or dying persons and/or things

• PTSD to Depression to obsessive-compulsive disorder

Online polls indicate that approximately 70% of North Americans fear death andthings associated with death (e.g., Statistic Brain Research Institute, 2016)

1. Death is seen as a radical transformation and separation.

2. Death is understood as an annihilation of the self.

3. Death is a threat to the realization of life’s basic goals andpropensities.

4. Death is a threat to the meaningfulness of life

• age, gender

• marital status, SES, occupation

• religiiousity

• psychological state/ health

• reduced sense of control (especially in western societies, being at the mercy of external forces beyond one’s control)

• pessimism

• lack of meaning in life, low self-esteem

• lack of purpose in life, regret

Who thinks more about death? older adults — death anxiety tends to decrease with age, despite increasing mortality salience

—> they have axxumulated more experience with loss and death

—> they have lived a long life an dacepting death as natural

BUT it increases again in older adults 80+ in nursing homes approaching death

Older adults fear the DYING PROCESS

Who is less likely to fear death? middle aged/ young adults

Does greater mortality ssalience lead to death anxiety? NO

Women report greater death anxiety than men, display a second spike during their early 50s

by 60, same concern

• some deny it, divert it (to other matters), or displace it

  • may do what society, religion tells them to do

  • may seek endless wealth or power/ material things

• self-actualize, live their lives with meaning and purpose

• Some overcome it entirely in creativity and connection

• others refuse the loan of life to avoid the debt of death

Mortality salience impacts our behaviours & cognitions

• death anxeity is biggest motivator in life

• unconscious motivation for the search for meaning

when presented with threat to mortality we either..

1. deny threat/ try to prolong life (PROXIMAL defenses, occurs when thought of death are conscious and in focus)

2. adhere more strongly to our worldviews and defend our self esteem (DISTAL defenses, occur when thought of death are out of conscious awareness)

Research: SUPPORTS this dual process model

1. people deny the threat —> reduced death thought accessibility (DTA)

2. later on DTA rebounds, which then leads to defense of worldview and self-esteem

Exception: high cognitive load: immediate increases in DTA

As cognitive resources are required for thought suppression —> death-related thoughts are quickly suppressed in the absence of cognitive load

findings from hundreds of studies have demonstrated support for TMT

studies mainly involved a mortality salience design, which leads to

• self enhancement

• greater defense of one’s country, culture, way of life

• greater adherence to political views, more conservative views/values

• stereotypical thinking about people of other races

• feelings of nationalism and discrimination

• aggression

• pursuit of higher social status

• consumerism, procrastination

• people reminded of mortality by illness, more stringly defend views/ act aggressively against those who dont

• death reminders increase feelings of nationalism and lead people to endorse more conservative political valiues (including anti-immigrant sentimentalities

• people tend to reinforce their political views in response to losing a loved one, stronger effect for conservatives

Study by Nilsson: death anxiety needed, effect of mortality salience insufficient, goes hand in hand with finding about conservatives as they tend to have heightened fear and disgust responses

• enhance thir physical health, prioritize positive goals

• live up to positive standards and beliefs

• build supportive relationships

• foster open-mided and growth-oriented behaviours

Higher trait mindfulness is associated with less defensive (more positive) responses to mortality salience

Mindfulness: Non-judgmental observation of present moment

• Methods:

  • Death Anxiety Scale to prime participants with mortality salience

  • World view defense, higher scores = higher defense

  • Comparison between

    • Non-Buddhists w/o meditation experience and Buddhists (mediation experience)

    • People whi participated in a 20 minute meditation exercise and no intervention

• Results:

  • Non-Buddhists more typcal defensive response

  • No defensive response in group with mediation

  • Meditation prevented death-thought accessibility from being suppressed initially and then rebounding —> general reduction of defensiveness

—> reduced thought suppression makes sense to find among people that observe thoughts without judgement

Humility = willingness to accept the self and life without comforting illusions, and by low levels of self-focus

higher humility —> reduced defensive responses, lower moral disengagement, reduced ned for self enhancement

Through meaning we overcome death anxiety

• search for meaning is primary motive in life

  
  

• people have a need for meaning

• threat to sense of meaning —> reaffirmation of alternative representations as a way to regain meaning

—> explains why people respond to threats to their mortality by investing in their self esteem and other sources of meaning

wong & tomer 2011, to bes manage thoughts and fears, we should

• avoid death anxiety by reducing threats

• approach life enhancing and meaning making goals