The Divergent Effects of Mortality Salience of Self versus Mortality Salience of Significant Others among Chinese

• Main Authors: Cheng, Ke-Xin, 程可心
• Other Authors: Sun, Chien-Ru
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/f48ck9

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 心理學系 === 106 === Terror Management Theory originated from the West which proposes that people manage their terror of death by defending their own cultural worldview. The present research employed two studies to examine how Chinese people manage the death-related anxiety of themselves and from their significant others. In Study 1, 119 participants were randomly assigned to a 3 (Manipulation: self mortality salience, mortality salience of significant other, or self toothache) x 2 (Comment of Chinese Culture: Praise or Criticism) factorial design. The dependent measure was how well an individual is defending the cultural values. The results indicated that participants who experienced the mortality salience of significant other had a significant tendency to defend the Chinese cultural values, and this tendency is higher than participants who experienced self mortality salience. In Study 2, we explored how Chinese people cope with the mortality salience by employing three types of behavior: enjoy life, maintaining important interpersonal relationships and doing good deeds. 60 Participants were randomly assigned to a 3 (Manipulation: self mortality salience, mortality salience of significant other, or self toothache) x 3 (behavior type: enjoy life, maintaining important interpersonal relationships or doing good deeds) mixed design. The experimental manipulation was a between-subjects variable, the behavioral type was a within-subjects variable, and the dependent variable was the participant’s degree of willingness to engage in different types behavior. As a result, it was found that participants who experienced the mortality salience of significant other were significantly less willing to do good deeds. These implications were also discussed.