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Handbook of Terror Management Theory

  • 1st Edition - November 10, 2018
  • Latest edition
  • Editors: Clay Routledge, Matthew Vess
  • Language: English

Handbook of Terror Management Theory provides an overview of Terror Management Theory (TMT), including critical research derived from the theory, recent research that has expanded… Read more

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Description

Handbook of Terror Management Theory provides an overview of Terror Management Theory (TMT), including critical research derived from the theory, recent research that has expanded and refined the theory, and the many ways the theory has been utilized to understand domains of human social life. The book uses TMT as a lens to help understand human relationships to nature, cultural worldviews, the self, time, the body, attachment, group identification, religion and faith, creativity, personal growth, and the brain.

The first section reviews theoretical and methodological issues, the second focuses on basic research showing how TMT enhances our understanding of a wide range of phenomena, and the third section, Applications, uses TMT to solve a variety of real world problems across different disciplines and contexts, including health behavior, aging, psychopathology, terrorism, consumerism, the legal system, art and media, risk-taking, and communication theory.

Key features

  • Examines the three critical hypotheses behind Terror Management Theory (TMT)
  • Distinguishes proximal and distal responses to death-thoughts
  • Provides a practical toolbox for conducting TMT research
  • Covers the Terror Management Health Model
  • Discusses the neuroscience of fear and anxiety
  • Identifies how fear motivates consumer behavior
  • Relates fear of death to psychopathologies

Readership

Students and researchers in social psychology. Also of interest to those in developmental, clinical, counseling, and cognitive psychology

Table of contents

Section 1: Testing the Contours of the Theory

1. A Consideration of 3 Critical Hypotheses

2. Distinguishing Proximal and Distal Responses to Death-Thoughts

3. Controversies and Alternative Theories

4. TMT Toolbox: A Guide to Doing TMT Research

Section 2: How TMT Helps us Understand

5. The Need to Structure the World

6. Our Relationship with Nature

7. The Self

8. The Self in Time: Nostalgia

9. Human Concerns about Sex, the Body, and Animality

10. Attachment and Romantic Relationships

11. Group Identification

12. Religion

13. Secular Cultural Worldviews

14. Affect, Meaning, and Well-Being

15. Psychological Growth, Creativity, and Exploration

16. Existential Neuroscience: Terror Management and the Brain

Section 3: Applications

17. Health Attitudes and Behavior

18. Aging and Coping with Mortality

19. Psychopathology

20. Terrorism, War, and Peace-Making

21. Consumerism

22. The Legal System

23. Art and Media

24. Death and Risk Taking

25. Communication Theory and Terror Management

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: November 10, 2018
  • Language: English

About the editors

CR

Clay Routledge

Dr. Routledge is a leading expert in existential psychology. His work examines how the need for meaning and related psychological motives influence and are influenced by cognitive, affective, and self-regulatory proccesses, individual differences, momentous life expericnes, personal and professional goals, social relationships, spirituality and religiosity, entrepreneurship, innovation, prosocial behavior, and attitudes about the future. He is an award-winning scholar who has published over 100 academic papers and co-edited three books. He is the author of two books, Nostalgia: A Psychological Resource and Supernatural: Death, Meaning, and the Power of the Invisible World, and the TED-Ed animated lesson Why Do We Feel Nostalgia?
Affiliations and expertise
North Dakota State University

MV

Matthew Vess

Dr. Matthew Vess is a social psychologist and assistant professor of Psychological Science at Montana State University. His research broadly focuses on the basic processes underlying the pursuit for self-relevant meaning and value. He has published over 25 papers in some of the very best journals in social psychology (e.g., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology), many of which are directly relevant to and/or inspired by TMT. Dr. Vess has also taught graduate level courses on existential experimental psychology and includes a dedication section to TMT in his undergraduate social psychology courses.
Affiliations and expertise
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University

View book on ScienceDirect

Read Handbook of Terror Management Theory on ScienceDirect