Cancer and the threat of death: The cognitive dynamics of death-thought suppression and its impact on behavioral health intentions

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Volumn 92, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 12-29

  Arndt, Jamie ^a   Cook, Alison ^a   Goldenberg, Jamie L ^b,c   Cox, Cathy R ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA   (United States)

Author keywords

Cancer thoughts; Cognitive associations; Cognitive load; Construct accessibility; Contemplation; Death thoughts; Health threats; Screening intentions; Suppression; Terror management

Indexed keywords

ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE; ARTICLE; ATTITUDE TO DEATH; BEHAVIOR; BREAST SELF EXAMINATION; CLINICAL TRIAL; COGNITION; CONTROLLED CLINICAL TRIAL; CONTROLLED STUDY; DEFENSE MECHANISM; FEAR; FEMALE; HEALTH BEHAVIOR; HUMAN; NEOPLASM; PERCEPTIVE THRESHOLD; PSYCHOANALYSIS; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL; REACTION TIME; UNITED STATES;

ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE; ATTITUDE TO DEATH; BREAST SELF-EXAMINATION; COGNITION; DEFENSE MECHANISMS; FEAR; FEMALE; FREE ASSOCIATION; HEALTH BEHAVIOR; HUMANS; INTENTION; MISSOURI; NEOPLASMS; REACTION TIME; SUBLIMINAL STIMULATION;

EID: 33846000961     PISSN: 00223514     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.12     Document Type: Article

References (84)

1. Aarts, H., & Dijksterhuis, A. (2000). Habits as knowledge structures: Automaticity in goal directed behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 53-63.
2. American Cancer Society. (2003). American Cancer Society: Cancer Facts and Figures 2003. Retrieved August 20, 2003 from http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ STT/stt_0.asp
3. Arndt, J., Cook, A., & Routledge, C. (2004). The blueprint of terror management: Understanding the cognitive architecture of psychological defense against the awareness of death. In J. Greenberg, S. L., Koole, & T. Pyszczynski (Eds.), Handbook of experimental existential psychology (pp. 35-53). New York: Guilford Press.
4. Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., & Cook, A. (2002). Mortality salience and the spreading activation of worldview-relevant constructs: Exploring the cognitive architecture of terror management. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131, 307-324.
5. Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1997). Subliminal exposure to death-related stimuli increases defense of the cultural worldview. Psychological Science, 8, 379-385.
6. Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Simon, L., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1998). Terror management and self-awareness: Evidence that mortality salience provokes avoidance of the self-focused state. Personality and Social Psychological Bulletin, 24, 1216-1227.
7. Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Simon, L. (1997). Suppression, accessibility of death-related thoughts, and cultural worldview defense: Exploring the psychodynamics of terror management. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 5-18.
8. Arndt, J., Routledge, C., & Goldenberg, J. L. (2006). Predicting proximal health responses to reminders of death: The influence of coping style and health optimism. Psychology & Health, 21, 593-614.
9. Bargh, J. A., & Chartrand, T. L. (2000). The mind in the middle: A practical guide to priming and automaticity research. In H. T. Reis & C. M. Judd (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (pp. 253-285). New York: Cambridge University Press.
10. Bargh, J. A., Raymond, P., Pryor, J. B., & Strack, F. (1995). Attractiveness of the underling: An automatic power sex association and its consequences for sexual harassment and aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 768-781.
11. Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.
12. Bassili, J. N., & Smith, N. C. (1986). On the spontaneity of trait attribution. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 239-245.
13. Baum, A., & Andersen, B. L. (2001). Psychosocial intervention and cancer: An introduction. In A. Baum & B. L. Andersen (Eds.), Psychosocial interventions for cancer (pp. 3-14). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
14. Boney-McCoy, S., Gibbons, F. X., & Gerrard, M. (1999). Self-esteem, compensatory self-enhancement, and the consideration of health risk. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 954-965.
15. Bowen, D. J., Helmes, A., Powers, D., & Andersen, M. R. (2003). Predicting breast cancer screening intentions and behavior with emotion and cognition. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 22, 213-232.
16. Cameron, L. D. (1997). Screening for cancer: Illness perceptions and illness worry. In K. J. Petrie & J. A. Weinman (Eds.), Perceptions of health and illness: Current research and applications (pp. 291-322). Amsterdam: Hardwood Academic.
17. Cameron, L. D., & Leventhal, H. (1995). Vulnerability beliefs, symptom experiences, and the processing of health threat information: A self-regulatory perspective. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 1859-1883.
18. Centers for Disease Control. (2000). National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Retrieved June 17, 2003 from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ nhanes/databriefs/adultweight.pdf
19. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
20. Collins, A. M., & Loftus, E. F. (1975). A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing. Psychological Review, 82, 407-428.
21. Croyle, R. T., Sun, Y., & Hart, M. (1997). Processing risk factor information: Defensive biases in health-related judgments and memory. In K. J. Petrie & J. A. Weinman (Eds.), Perceptions of health and illness: Current research and applications (pp. 267-290). Amsterdam: Hardwood Academic.
22. Ditto, P. H., Jemmot, J. B., III, & Darley, J. M. (1988). Appraising the threat of illness: A mental representational approach. Health Psychology, 7, 183-200.
23. Empirisoft Corporation. (2002). MediaLab v2002 [Computer software]. New York: Author.
24. Erblich, J., Montogomery, G. H., Valdimarsdottir, H. B., Cloitre, M., & Bovbjerg, D. H. (2003). Biased cognitive processing of cancer-related information among women with family histories of breast cancer: Evidence from a cancer Stroop task. Health Psychology, 22, 235-244.
25. Fazio, R. H. (1990). A practical guide to the use of response latency in social psychological research. In C. Hendrick & M. S. Clark (Eds.), Research methods in personality and social psychology: Review of personality and social psychology (Vol. 11, pp. 74-97). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
26. Ferguson, M. J., & Bargh, J. A. (2004). Liking is for doing: The effects of goal pursuit on automatic evaluation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 557-572.
27. Ferrell, B. R., Grant, M., Funk, B., Otis-Green, S., & Garcia, N. (1998). Quality of life in breast cancer. Part II: Psychological and spiritual well-being. Cancer Nursing, 21, 1-9.
28. Fishbach, A., Friedman, R., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2003). Leading us not unto temptation: Momentary allurements elicit automatic goal activation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 296-309.
29. Foerster, J., & Liberman, N. (2001). The role of attribution of motivation in producing postsuppressional rebound. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 377-390.
30. Geeraert, N., Yzerbyt, V. Y., Corneille, O., & Wigboldus, D. (2004). The return of dispositionalism: On the linguistic consequences of dispositional suppression. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 262-272.
31. Gerrard, M., Gibbons, F. X., & Warner, T. D. (1991). Effects of reviewing risk-relevant behavior on perceived vulnerability among women marines. Health Psychology, 10, 173-179.
32. Gilbert, D. T., & Hixon, J. G. (1991). The trouble of thinking: Activation and application of stereotypic beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 509-517.
33. Goldenberg, J. L., Cox, C. R., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (2002). Understanding human ambivalence about sex: The effects of stripping sex of meaning. Journal of Sex Research, 39, 310-320.
34. Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., Schimel, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (2001). Clarifying the function of mortality-salience induced worldview defense: Renewed suppression or reduced accessibility of death-related thoughts? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 70-76.
35. Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., Simon, L., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (2000). Proximal and distal defenses in response to reminders of one's mortality: Evidence of a temporal sequence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 91-99.
36. Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public self and private self (pp. 189-212). New York: Springer.
37. Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Rosenblatt, A., Veeder, M., Kirkland, S., & Lyon, D. (1990). Evidence for terror management II: The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who threaten or bolster the cultural worldview. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 308-318.
38. Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Simon, L., & Breus, M. (1994). Role of consciousness and accessibility of death-related thoughts in mortality salience effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 627-637.
39. Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Pyszczynski, T. (1997). Terror management theory of self-esteem and social behavior: Empirical assessments and conceptual refinements. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 29, pp. 61-139). New York: Academic Press.
40. Hall, S. B. (2003). Comments and Review of the NHANES III body mass index changes. Retreived June 17, 2004, from http://www.halls.md/bmi/nhanes3.htm
41. Harmon-Jones, E., Simon, L., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & McGregor, H. (1997). Terror management theory and self-esteem: Evidence that increased self-esteem reduces mortality salience effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 24-36.
42. Higgins, E. T. (1996). Knowledge activation: Accessibility, applicability, and salience. In E. T. Higgins & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 133-168). New York: Guilford Press.
43. Jessop, D. C., Rutter, D. R., Sharma, D., & Albery, I. P. (2004). Emotion and adherence to treatment in people with asthma: An application of the emotional Stroop paradigm. British Journal of Psychology, 95, 127-147.
44. Klinger, M. R., & Greenwald, A. G. (1995). Unconscious priming of association judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 246-255.
45. Kruglanski, A. W., Shah, J. Y., Fishbach, A., Friedman, R., Chun, W., & Sleth-Keppler, D. (2002). A theory of goal systems. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 34, pp. 331-378). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
46. Kučera, H., & Francis, W. N. (1967). Computational analysis of presentday American English. Providence, RI: Brown University Press.
47. Landau, M. J., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., Cohen, F., Pyszczynski, T., Arndt, J., et al. (2004). Deliver us from evil: The effects of mortality salience and reminders of 9/11 on support for President George W. Bush. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1136-1150.
48. Liberman, N., & Foerster, J. (2000). Expression after suppression: A motivational explanation of postsuppressional rebound. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 190-203.
49. Lindberg, N. M., & Wellisch, D. (2001). Anxiety and compliance among women at high risk for breast cancer. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 23, 298-303.
50. MacLeod, C., & Hagan, R. (1992). Individual differences in the selective processing of threatening information and emotional responses to a stressful life event. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 30, 151-161.
51. Mann, T., & Ward, A. (2004). To eat or not to eat: Implications of the attentional myopia model for restrained eaters. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 90-98.
52. Mayo, R. M., Ureda, J. R., & Parker, V. G. (2001). Importance of fatalism in understanding mammography screening in rural elderly women. Journal of Women & Aging, 13, 57-72.
53. McKenna, M. C., Zevon, M. A., Corn, B., & Rounds, J. (1999). Psychosocial factors and the development of breast cancer: A meta-analysis. Health Psychology, 18, 520-531.
54. Mikulincer, M., & Florian, V. (2000). Exploring individual differences in reactions to mortality salience: Does attachment style regulate terror management mechanisms? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 260-273.
55. Mikulincer, M., & Florian, V. (2002). The effects of mortality salience on self-serving attributions: Evidence for the function of self-esteem as a terror management mechanism. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 24, 261-271.
56. Mikulincer, M., Florian, V., Birnbaum, G., & Malishkevich, S. (2002). The death-anxiety buffering function of close relationships: Exploring the effects of separation reminders on death-thought accessibility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 287-299.
57. Millar, M. G., & Millar, K. (1995). Negative affective consequences of thinking about disease detection behaviors. Health Psychology, 14, 141-146.
58. Olson, K. L., & Morse, J. M. (1996). Explaining breast self-examination practice. Health Care Women International, 17, 575-591.
59. Pennebaker, J. W. (1989). Confession, inhibition, and disease. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 22, pp. 211-244). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
60. Power, M. J., Stuessy, A., Mahony, T., & Brewin, C. R. (1991). The emotional priming task: Results from a student population. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14, 21-31.
61. Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (1999). A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts: An extension of terror management theory. Psychological Review, 106, 835-845.
62. Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., & Schimel, J. (2004). Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 435-468.
63. Race, K. E., & Silverberg, J. A. (1996). Toward a reliable measure of breast self-examination. Attitudes and performance barriers. Evaluation Review, 20, 541-551.
64. Ratcliff, R., & McCoon, G. (1994). Retrieving information from memory: Spreading activation theories versus compound-cue theories. Psychological Review, 101, 177-184.
65. Routledge, C., Arndt, J., & Goldenberg, J. L. (2004). A time to tan: Proximal and distal effects of mortality salience on sun exposure intentions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1347-1358.
66. Shah, J. Y., Freidman, R., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2002). Forgetting all else: On the antecedents and consequences of goal shielding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1261-1280.
67. Shah, J. Y., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2002). Priming against your will: How goal pursuit is affected by accessible alternatives. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 368-382.
68. Shah, J. Y., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2003). When opportunity knocks: Bottom-up priming of goals by means and its effects on self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1109-1122.
69. Shapiro, S. L., Lopez, A. M., Schwartz, G. E., Bootzin, R., Figueredo, A. J., Braden, C. J., & Kurker, S. F. (2001). Quality of life and breast cancer: Relationship to psychosocial variables. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 57, 501-519.
70. Simon, L., Greenberg, J., Harmon-Jones, E., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., Arndt, J., & Abend, T. (1997). Cognitive-experiential self-theory and terror management theory: Evidence that terror management occurs in the experiential system. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1132-1146.
71. Smith, G. E., Eggleston, T. J., Gerrard, M., & Gibbons, F. X. (1996). Sexual attitudes, cognitive associative networks, and perceived vulnerability to unplanned pregnancy. Journal Research in Personality, 30, 88-102.
72. Smith, R. A., Saslow, D., Sawyer, K. A., Burke, W., Costanza, M. E., Evans, W. P., et al. (2003). American Cancer Society guidelines for breast cancer screening: Update 2003. A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 53, 141-169.
73. Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797-811.
74. Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, 643-662.
75. Thorson, J. A., & Powell, F. C. (1990). Meanings of death and intrinsic religiosity. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 46, 379-391.
76. Tulving, E., Schacter, D. L., & Stark, H. A. (1982). Priming effects in word-fragment completion are independent of recognition memory. Journal of Experiment Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 8, 336-342.
77. Wegner, D. M. (1992). You can't always think what you want: Problems in the suppression of unwanted thoughts. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 25, pp. 193-225). San Diego, CA.: Academic Press.
78. Wegner, D. M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101, 34-52.
79. Wegner, D. M., Erber, R., & Zanakos, S. (1993). Ironic processes in the mental control of mood and mood-related thought. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1093-1104.
80. Weinstein, N. D. (1984). Why it won't happen to me: Perceptions of risk factors and susceptibility. Health Psychology, 3, 431-457.
81. Wenzlaff, R. M., & Wegner, D. M. (2000). Thought suppression. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 59-91.
82. Williams, J. M. G., Mathews, A., & MacLeod, C. (1996). The emotional Stroop task and psychopathology. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 3-24.
83. Williams, P. G., Wasserman, M. S., & Lotto, A. J. (2003). Individual differences in self-assessed health: An information-processing investigation of health and illness cognition. Health Psychology, 22, 3-11.
84. Yzerbyt, V. Y., Corneille, O., Dumont, M., & Hahn, K. (2001). The dispositional inference strikes back: Situational focus and dispositional suppression in causal attribution. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 365-376.