Evidence For Terror Management Theory: The Study Of Mortality Salience On Worldview Defence

The hypothesis of "mortality salience on worldview defence" is one of important issues in terror management theory (TMT). It is assumption that, mortality salience will increase the individual to protect their culture worldview. Related researches show that:when reminded of their mortality people will react positively to persons and things that uphold their culture worldviews and negatively to those threaten their culture worldviews.This study focuses on the issue of "mortality salience on worldview defence" of TMT, and uses empirical research to test this hypothesis. First, we analyse the mortality salience questionnaire:the "mortality Attitudes Personality Survey"(Rosenblatt et al.,1989) to investigate the mortality Attitudes Personality of the students from two professional colleges in the local area and to provide the basis for the necessities of the TMT study. At the same time, we predict whether the subjects can finish the mortality salience questionnaire. Second, we make empirical test of "hypothesis of worldview defence" through test i and test ii. The first experiment adopts single factor experiment design to investigate whether the subjects will have negative reactions to the people and objects that are not having the Chinese cultural worldviews when the death remind starts. The second experiment takes double factors 2 (death remind operation and neutral remind operation) x 2 (with a delay task and no delay task) completely random experiment design. We investigate "whether the subjects will have negative reactions to the people and objects that are not having the Chinese cultural worldviews when the death remind starts" through the above two experiments from different worldview perspective. Furthermore, we investigate the necessarity of "delay task" in the experimental procedure.Through the collection and analysis of data, this study concluded:1. For death physical changes of this problem, most college students to view this worldview in materialism, some Individuals were trying to escape thingking the death.2.In addition to "neutral accept" and "approach to accept" two attitudes toward death outside, "escape accept", "low-grade accept", "death terror' and "death to escape" to death all represent the negative or passive attitude, and is trying to hold this attitude in the total number of four more, the subjects were groups terror management research is necessary.3. Student fear of death is mainly due to "fear of death can no longer make their own life goals to pursue or complete some, too late to complete the meaning of life, no time to experience a valuable experience" and "the fear of death itself, the fear of the unknown."4. Compared with neuter remind, under death remind conditions, individual to hold the Chinese cultural world outlook (western Christmas culture) things or people like degree is reduced and produce negative. evaluation.5. Compared with neuter remind, under death remind startup, in the Chinese culture background, northerners is not to support its northern cultural world outlook's people and things produce negative evaluation. After death remind, individual culture reminder outlook distal defense mechanism is not instantaneous generation, only in delay task before operation can produce death highlight the after effects.6. Conclusion 4 and 5 common confirmed some assumptions of death highlight world outlook, terror management theory in Chinese culture background with feasibility study.