Individual Differences in Coping with Mortality Salience in Germany vs. Poland: Cultural World View or Personal View Defense?

Abstract

We investigated the influence of personality and culture on effects of mortality salience (MS) over cultural worldview defense (CWVD). We hypothesized that CWVD reactions to MS differ between Germany and Poland because of the higher conservatism of the latter country, and that they are moderated by action vs. state orientation. In this study German (N=112) and Polish (N=72), participants were exposed either to MS or to a control condition (dental pain). Punishment ratings to trivial offences and serious social transgressions were measures of CWVD. Results showed that social transgressions in both conditions were more strongly punished in Poland than in Germany. Additionally, compared to the control condition, under MS action oriented punished serious transgressions more strongly in Germany whereas state oriented punished serious transgressions more strongly in Poland. That is, the effects of MS on CWVD are moderated by personality and culture. We interpret the opposite pattern of punishment to serious social transgressions given by action and state orientedin in Germany and Poland, respectively, according to the higher emotional autonomy of action-oriented persons in either culture.

When death is not a problem: Regulating implicit negative affect under mortality salience

“…Second, we showed that this affective reaction is moderated by individual differences in the ability to self-regulate negative affect. Whereas other studies already demonstrated the effects of affectregulation skills on coping strategies like cultural worldview defense (Gailliot et al, 2006;Kaz en et al, 2005;Wojdylo et al, 2014), we showed that the differences in affect-regulation actually influence the affective reaction towards death itself. We found implicit negative affect differ under mortality salience as a function of state versus action orientation.…”

“…An example item is: “When I am told that my work has been completely unsatisfactory: (a) I don't let it bother me for too long, or (b) I feel paralyzed.” Whereas option “a” reflects action orientation, option “b” reflects state orientation. The scale consists of twelve items (Cronbach's alpha = 0.78; for further information on reliability and validity see Diefendorff, Hall, Lord & Strean, ; Kuhl & Beckmann, , Wojdylo, Kazén, Kuhl & Mitina, ). For an overall score of action orientation, all action‐oriented responses were summed up.…”

“…In a previous exploration of cultural worldview defense in state‐ and action‐oriented indi‐viduals, Wojdylo et al . () found action‐oriented individuals to show higher emotional autonomy under mortality salience. Whereas state‐oriented individuals showed a cultural worldview defense in the way that they aligned punishment ratings of serious social transgressions with traditional cultural attitudes and values, action‐oriented individuals expressed higher autonomy by choosing punishments that were less in line with common attitudes in their cultural context under mortality salience.…”

Becoming who you are: An integrative review of self‐determination theory and personality systems interactions theory

“…In line with PSI theory, people high (rather than low) on demand‐related action orientation tend to be more effective in enacting difficult intentions, both in the laboratory (e.g., Jostmann & Koole, ; Kazén et al, ) and in everyday settings such as education, work, and sports (for a review, see Koole, Jostmann, & Baumann, ). Moreover, people high (rather than low) on threat‐related action orientation tend to be more effective in dealing with self‐threatening conditions, such as repeated failure (Brunstein & Olbrich, ; Kuhl, ), reminders of mortality (Koole & Van den Berg, ; Quirin, Bode, Luckey, Pyszczynski, & Kuhl, ), unfair situations (IJzerman & Van Prooijen, ;Wojdylo, Kazén, Kuhl, & Mitina, ), and motivational conflict (Baumann et al, ; Hermann & Brandstätter, ).…”

Autonomous vs. heteronomous mode of action control and task performance: The role of the situational context and action vs. state orientation

“…For the analyses of data I classified participants into two groups, state vs. action oriented. As in other research (e.g., Jostmann & Koole, 2006;Kazén, Baumann, & Kuhl, 2005;Wojdylo, Kazén, Kuhl, & Mitina, 2014), I split the sample at the conceptual midpoint of the AOD/SOD and AOF/ SOF subscales. The action control scales are not assumed to measure a continuous dimension from state to action orientation but it is proposed that one of two qualitatively different action control modes is associated with each pole of the continuum (Kazén et al, 2005).…”