Read more
Handbook of Terror Management Theory provides an overview of Terror Management Theory (TMT), including critical research derived from the theory, recent research that has expanded and refined the theory, and the many ways the theory has been utilized to understand domains of human social life. The book uses TMT as a lens to help understand human relationships to nature, cultural worldviews, the self, time, the body, attachment, group identification, religion and faith, creativity, personal growth, and the brain.
The first section reviews theoretical and methodological issues, the second focuses on basic research showing how TMT enhances our understanding of a wide range of phenomena, and the third section, Applications, uses TMT to solve a variety of real world problems across different disciplines and contexts, including health behavior, aging, psychopathology, terrorism, consumerism, the legal system, art and media, risk-taking, and communication theory.
List of contents
Section 1: Testing the Contours of the Theory
1. A Consideration of 3 Critical Hypotheses
2. Distinguishing Proximal and Distal Responses to Death-Thoughts
3. Controversies and Alternative Theories
4. TMT Toolbox: A Guide to Doing TMT Research
Section 2: How TMT Helps us Understand
5. The Need to Structure the World
6. Our Relationship with Nature
7. The Self
8. The Self in Time: Nostalgia
9. Human Concerns about Sex, the Body, and Animality
10. Attachment and Romantic Relationships
11. Group Identification
12. Religion
13. Secular Cultural Worldviews
14. Affect, Meaning, and Well-Being
15. Psychological Growth, Creativity, and Exploration
16. Existential Neuroscience: Terror Management and the Brain
Section 3: Applications
17. Health Attitudes and Behavior
18. Aging and Coping with Mortality
19. Psychopathology
20. Terrorism, War, and Peace-Making
21. Consumerism
22. The Legal System
23. Art and Media
24. Death and Risk Taking
25. Communication Theory and Terror Management
About the author
Dr. Routledge is a leading expert in existential psychology. His work examines how the need for meaning and related psychological motives influence and are influenced by cognitive, affective, and self-regulatory proccesses, individual differences, momentous life expericnes, personal and professional goals, social relationships, spirituality and religiosity, entrepreneurship, innovation, prosocial behavior, and attitudes about the future. He is an award-winning scholar who has published over 100 academic papers and co-edited three books. He is the author of two books, Nostalgia: A Psychological Resource and Supernatural: Death, Meaning, and the Power of the Invisible World, and the TED-Ed animated lesson Why Do We Feel Nostalgia?Dr. Matthew Vess is a social psychologist and assistant professor of Psychological Science at Montana State University. His research broadly focuses on the basic processes underlying the pursuit for self-relevant meaning and value. He has published over 25 papers in some of the very best journals in social psychology (e.g., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology), many of which are directly relevant to and/or inspired by TMT. Dr. Vess has also taught graduate level courses on existential experimental psychology and includes a dedication section to TMT in his undergraduate social psychology courses.
