The Anxiety-Buffering Properties of Cultural and Subcultural Worldviews: Terror Management Processes among Juvenile Delinquents

• Authors: Lukasz Baka , Romuald Derbis , Molly Maxfield
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Terror management research indicates that people reminded of mortality strongly affirm values and standards consistent with their cultural worldview and distance themselves from values and standards inconsistent with it. However, limited research has addressed how individuals holding beliefs inconsistent with the dominant worldview cope with death-related anxiety. The present article aims to determine which worldview subcultural groups rely on when reminded of mortality: mainstream or subcultural? Juvenile delinquents living in residential reformatories in Poland were invited to participate in a terror management study examining the anxiety-buffering strategies of individuals belonging to a group largely outside mainstream culture. Following reminders of mortality, juvenile delinquents increased support for values consistent with the mainstream cultural worldview and decreased support for values consistent with the subcultural worldview, as compared to control conditions. The present results suggest that when faced with existential threat, the subcultural worldview does not provide an adequate anxiety buffer, leading members of this subcultural group to display increased identification with mainstream cultural values. Additionally, participants’ state anxiety following death reminders was mediated by mainstream cultural worldview defense.

Keywords

EN

terror management theory; cultural worldview; mortality salience; juvenile delinquents

• Publisher: Committee for Psychological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-11

Contributors

author

Lukasz Baka

• Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa

author

Romuald Derbis

• Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa

author

Molly Maxfield

• University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10059-012-0001-x