Examining the Terror Management Health Model: The Interactive Effect of Conscious Death Thought and Health-Coping Variables on Decisions in Potentially Fatal Health Domains

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Volumn 36, Issue 7, 2010, Pages 937-946

  Cooper, Douglas P ^a   Goldenberg, Jamie L ^b   Arndt, Jamie ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI   (United States)

Author keywords

health optimism; mortality salience; response efficacy; terror management; terror management health model

Indexed keywords

ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR; ATTITUDE TO DEATH; ATTITUDE TO HEALTH; AWARENESS; CONSCIOUSNESS; DEATH; DEFENSE MECHANISM; FEAR; FEMALE; HEALTH BEHAVIOR; HUMAN; MALE; OPTIMISM; PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL; SELF CONCEPT; SYMBOLISM;

ADAPTATION, PSYCHOLOGICAL; ATTITUDE TO DEATH; ATTITUDE TO HEALTH; AWARENESS; CONSCIOUSNESS; DEATH; DEFENSE MECHANISMS; FEAR; FEMALE; HEALTH BEHAVIOR; HUMANS; MALE; MODELS, PSYCHOLOGICAL; OPTIMISM; SELF CONCEPT; SYMBOLISM;

EID: 84988535625     PISSN: 01461672     EISSN: 15527433     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0146167210370694     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. Arndt J., Cook A., Goldenberg J. L., Cox C. R. (2007). 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, 92, 12–29.
2. Arndt J., Cox C. R., Goldenberg J. L., Vess M., Routledge C., Cooper D. P., Cohen F. (2009). Blowing in the (social) wind: Implications of extrinsic esteem contingencies for terror management and health. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1191–1205.
3. Arndt J., Goldenberg J. L. (in press). When self-enhancement is in the driver's seat: Using the terror management health model to understand health behavior. In Ed. Sedikides C., Alicke M. (Eds.), The handbook of self-enhancement and self-protection. New York, NY: Guilford.
4. 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 and Health, 21, 593–614.
5. Arndt J., Schimel J., Goldenberg J. L. (2003). Death can be good for your health: Fitness intentions as a proximal and distal defense against mortality salience. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 1726–1746.
6. Aspinwall L. G., Brunhart S. M. (1996). Distinguishing optimism from denial: Optimistic beliefs predict attention to health threats. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 993–1003.
7. Aspinwall L. G., Kemeny M. E., Taylor S. E., Schneider S. G., Dudley J. P. (1991). Psychosocial predictors of gay men's AIDS risk-reduction behavior. Health Psychology, 10, 432–444.
8. Becker M. H. (Ed.). (1974). The health belief model and personal health behavior. Health Education Monographs, 2, 324–473.
9. Bern D. J. (1972). Self-perception theory. In Ed. Berkowitz L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 6, pp. 1–62). New York, NY: Academic Press.
10. Carver C. S., Pozo C., Harris S. D., Noriega V., Scheier M. F., Robinson D. S., Clark K. C. (1993). How coping mediates the effect of optimism on distress: A study of women with early stage breast cancer. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 375–390.
11. Carver C. S., Scheier M. F., Weintraub J. K. (1988). Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 267–283.
12. Cox C. R., Cooper D. P., Vess M., Arndt J., Goldenberg J. L., Routledge C. (in press). Bronze is beautiful but pale can be pretty: The effects of appearance standards and mortality salience on sun-tanning outcomes. Health Psychology.
13. Goldenberg J. L., Arndt J. (2008). The implications of death for health: A terror management model of behavioral health promotion Psychological Review, 115, 1032–1053.
14. Goldenberg J. L., Arndt J., Hart J., Routledge C. (2008). Uncovering an existential barrier to breast self-exam behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 260–274.
15. Goldenberg J. L., Routledge C., Arndt J. (2009). Mammograms and the management of existential discomfort: Threats associated with the physicality of the body and neuroticism. Psychology and Health, 24, 563–581.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. Greenberg J., Solomon S., Arndt J. (2008). A basic but uniquely human motivation: Terror management. In Ed. Shah J. Y., Gardner W. L. (Eds.), Handbook of motivation science (pp. 114–134). New York, NY: Guilford.
19. Greenberg J., Solomon S., Pyszczynski T. (1997). Terror management theory of self-esteem and social behavior: Empirical assessments and conceptual refinements. In Ed. Zanna M. P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 29, pp. 61–139). New York, NY: Academic Press.
20. Leary M. R., Tchividjian L. R., Kraxberger B. E. (1994). Self-presentation can be hazardous to your health: Impression management and health risk. Health Psychology, 13, 461–470.
21. Leventhal H. (1970). Findings and theory in the study of fear communications. In Ed. Berkowitz L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 5, pp. 119–186). New York, NY: Academic Press.
22. Mayo Clinic. (n.d.). Skin cancer. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/skin-cancer/DS00190/DSECTION=risk-factors.
23. McGregor I., Zanna M. P., Holmes J. G., Spencer S. J. (2001). Compensatory conviction in the face of personal uncertainty: Going to extremes and being oneself. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 472–488.
24. Moser R. P., Arndt J., Han P., Waters E., Amsellem M., Hesse B. (2009). Avoidance of doctors, cancer-related mortality salience and associated factors: United States prevalence estimates from a nationally representative survey. Manuscript submitted for publication.
25. Proulx T., Heine S. J. (2006). Death and black diamonds. Meaning, mortality, and the meaning maintenance model. Psychological Inquiry, 17, 309–318.
26. 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.
27. Radcliffe N. M., Klein W. M. P. (2002). Dispositional, unrealistic and comparative optimism: Differential relations with the knowledge and processing of risk information and beliefs about personal risk. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 836–846.
28. Rippetoe P. A., Rogers R. W. (1987). Effects of components of protection motivation theory on adaptive and maladaptive coping with a health threat. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 596–604.
29. Rogers R. W. (1983). Cognitive and physiological processes in fear-based attitude change: A revised theory of protection motivation. In Ed. Caccioppo J., Petty R. (Eds.), Social psychophysiology: A sourcebook (pp. 153–176). New York, NY: Guilford.
30. Rogers R. W., Prentice-Dunn S. (1997). Protection motivation theory. In Ed. Gochman D. S. (Ed.), Handbook of health behavior research (Vol. 1, pp. 113–132). New York, NY: Plenum.
31. Rosenstock I. M. (1974). The health belief model and preventive health behavior. Health Education Monographs, 2, 354–386.
32. 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.
33. Self C. A., Rogers R. W. (1990). Coping with threats to health: Effects of persuasive appeals on depressed, normal, and antisocial personalities. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 13, 343–357.
34. Stephenson M. T., Witte K. (1998). Fear, threat, and perceptions of efficacy from frightening skin cancer messages. Public Health Review, 26, 147–174.
35. Ben-Ari Taubman O., Findler L. (2005). Proximal and distal effects of mortality salience on willingness to engage in health promoting behavior along the life span. Psychology and Health. 20, 303–318.
36. Taylor S. E., Kemeny M. E., Aspinwall L. G., Schneider S. G., Rodriguez R., Herbert M. (1992). Optimism, coping, psychological distress, and high-risk sexual behavior among men at risk for acquiring immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 460–473.
37. Vess M., Arndt J., Cox C. R., Routledge C., Goldenberg J. L. (2009). The terror management of medical decisions: The effect of mortality salience and religious fundamentalism on support for faith-based medical intervention. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 334–350.
38. Watson D., Clark L. A. (1994). The PANAS-X: Manual for the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule–Expanded Form. Unpublished manuscript, University of Iowa, Iowa City.
39. Witte K. (1992). Putting the fear back into fear appeals: The extended parallel process model. Communications Monograph, 59, 329–349.
40. Witte K. (1998). Fear as motivator, fear as inhibitor: Using the EPPM to explain fear appeal successes and failures. In Ed. Andersen P. A., Guerrero L. K. (Eds.), The handbook of communication and emotion (pp. 423–450). New York, NY: Academic Press.