Secure your buffers or stare at the sun? Terror management theory and psychotherapy integration.

Major, Rochelle J.; Whelton, William J.; Duff, Carlton T.

doi:10.1037/a0039631

Cited by 21 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…In an article by Major et al ( 2016 ), they explored the relationship of Terror Management Theory to mental health. Terror mismanagement or being unable to regulate death anxiety can result in a wide range of psychopathology.…”

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confidence: 99%

An investigation into the relationship between climate change anxiety and mental health among Gen Z Filipinos

et al. 2021

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Climate change and mental health concerns are both defining issues of the generation of today. It has been established that the worsening climate causes many environmental disasters and physical health problems. However, its psychological impacts are still not well understood. Climate change has brought about an emerging psychological phenomenon termed 'climate anxiety' or 'eco-anxiety,' which has been described as a "chronic fear of environmental doom" (Clayton et al., 2017, p. 68) due to the impact of climate change. This predictive cross-sectional study investigated the link between climate change anxiety and mental health among 433 Filipinos. A total of 145 males and 288 females aged 18 to 26 completed the Climate Change Anxiety Scale and the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-38). Results show a significant relationship between climate change anxiety and mental health, with climate change anxiety predicting 13.5% of the overall Mental Health Index variance. Significantly, climate change anxiety was associated with the MHI-38's global scale of Psychological Distress but not with the global scale of Psychological Wellbeing. The findings are discussed concerning the broader context of research on the mental health impacts of climate change.

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An investigation into the relationship between climate change anxiety and mental health among Gen Z Filipinos

et al. 2021

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“…In the third article, Rochelle Major, William Whelton, and Carlton Duff (2016) discuss the relevance of terror management theory (TMT; e.g., understanding how people function in the world while being aware of their inevitable death) to clinical psychology in general and, in particular, to psychotherapy integration. The authors suggest (a) that death anxiety should be addressed directly in treatment, (b) connecting to a higher meaning as a buffer against death anxiety, (c) that exposure techniques might be used with death-related thoughts, and (d) using the therapeutic relationship as a buffer against death anxiety.…”

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confidence: 99%

A conqueror by stealth: Introduction to the special issue on humanism, existentialism, and psychotherapy integration.

Shahar¹,

Schiller²

2016

Journal of Psychotherapy Integration

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In the last few decades, the existential-humanistic tradition in psychology-also known as the third force-has taken over the field of clinical psychology. It did so quietly, almost unassumingly, without resorting to monumental political arrangements ("empires") or bombarding psychologists with decisive messages about the approaches superiority. Evidence as to this "conquest by stealth" abound, and some are noted in this introduction. The purpose of this special issue is to appraise the link between The third force and the psychotherapy integration movement. Five articles touching on the links between humanistic-existential psychotherapy and, either other forms of therapy or explicitly integrative treatment modalities are published. A commentary by Barry Wolf addresses these articles and the potential for an additional impact of the humanistic-existential tradition on psychotherapy integration.

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“…Regarding implications for therapeutic treatment, common interventions for PTSD include cognitive processing therapy (Galovski, Wachen, Chard, Monson, & Resick, 2015) and prolonged exposure (Foa et al, 2005), which emphasize repeated mental and in vivo exposure coupled with anxiety management techniques. This and prior ABDT work (Yetzer & Pyszczynski, 2019) suggest effect treatment might also seek to restore anxiety buffer functioning (Iverach et al, 2014; Lewis, 2014; Major, Whelton, & Duff, 2016) by helping clients to rebuild effective sociocultural buffer systems, identify and commit to meaningful cultural belief systems, and (re)establish close social relationships.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Anxiety buffer disruption: Worldview threat, death thought accessibility, and worldview defense among low and high posttraumatic stress symptom samples.

Vail¹,

Goncy²,

Edmondson³

2019

Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy

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Objective: Decades of research suggest that people are able to function effectively in the world and maintain mental health and well-being, at least in part, by relying on effective sociocultural anxiety buffer systems to shield against the awareness of death. However, according to anxiety buffer disruption theory, posttraumatic stress reflects anxiety buffer disruption, signaling that sociocultural belief systems have been rendered unable to buffer the individual against death awareness. As such, we would not expect to see the normal responses to death awareness meant to bolster and defend those belief systems in participants with posttraumatic stress. Method: To test these hypotheses, we screened for posttraumatic stress in U.S. participants (n ϭ 4,150) and recruited individuals with low (n ϭ 193) and high (n ϭ 205) posttraumatic stress symptoms. Each group was randomly assigned to a worldview-threat or -support condition, followed by a standardized measure of death-thought accessibility (DTA) and worldview defense. Results: In the nonthreat (worldview-support) condition, individuals with high (vs. low) posttraumatic stress had elevated DTA. Further, among individuals with low posttraumatic stress, worldview threat (vs. -support) increased DTA, which in turn mediated an increase in worldview defense; however, among those with high posttraumatic stress, worldview threat did not increase DTA and its effect on worldview defense was substantially reduced. Conclusion: These findings supported the present hypotheses derived from anxiety buffer disruption theory, are important for understanding the existential dimension of posttraumatic stress, and may have implications for mental health. Clinical Impact StatementThis study suggests that people with low posttraumatic stress are normally able to function effectively in the world, in part, by relying on sociocultural anxiety-buffer systems to protect against death thought. In contrast, this study also finds that people with high posttraumatic stress had elevated death thought and did not appear to use extant sociocultural buffers to protect against death thought. In light of this and prior research, implications are that traumatic anxiety buffer disruption might contribute to PTSD symptoms by undermining one's otherwise functional sociocultural anxiety buffers.

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Secure your buffers or stare at the sun? Terror management theory and psychotherapy integration.

Cited by 21 publications

References 51 publications

An investigation into the relationship between climate change anxiety and mental health among Gen Z Filipinos

An investigation into the relationship between climate change anxiety and mental health among Gen Z Filipinos

A conqueror by stealth: Introduction to the special issue on humanism, existentialism, and psychotherapy integration.

Anxiety buffer disruption: Worldview threat, death thought accessibility, and worldview defense among low and high posttraumatic stress symptom samples.

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