An Experimental Study On The Function Of Fertility To Relieve Death Anxiety

One of humanity`s most distinguishing characteristics is the capacity to grasp the awareness of the inevitable death,according to terror management theory(TMT),the contradiction of the desire to self-preservation and inevitability of death elicits death anxiety,but death anxiety and death related thoughts are seldom floated into the consciousness for the function of defense mechanism.Terror management theory(TMT)defines defense mechanism system as a dual defense model consisting of proximal defense and distal defense,which is a tripartite security system comprising self-esteem,worldview and close relationships.Although these mechanisms have been tested and supported in different cultures over the world,is it reasonable to deny the existence of a defense mechanism which is exclusive to a certain culture and holds a unique position in dual defense model?Corresponding to death,the end of life,giving birth,the beginning of life,has been endowed with complex social and cultural significance in human society,especially the inheritance of the family line in Chinese culture,besides the biological significance of reproduction.This paper is aimed to explore the function of giving birth to deal with death anxiety and the relationship between giving birth and other defense mechanisms in the context of Chinese culture in order to explore the position of giving birth in dual defense model.Based on Mortality Salience hypothesis,if a mental structure provides protection against death anxiety,mortality salience should promote the desire for that structure.Study 1,a one factor design with mortality salience condition as independent variable(mortality salience vs.mortality not salience)and desire for offspring as dependent variable,was conducted to explore the influence of mortality salience on desire for offspring by supraliminal death prime,Study 2 was conducted to repetitively verify the result of study 1 by subliminal death prime,.The results of both studies showed that participants` desire for offspring in mortality salience condition is significantly higher than participants` in mortality not salience condition.According to fluid compensation,threats to one component of the defense system result in compensatory defensive activation of other components.Based on that,Study 3,a one factor design with worldview threat condition as independent variable(worldview threat vs.worldview not threat)and desire for offspring as dependent variable,was conducted to examine whether the compensatory relationship between the worldview and giving birth existed or not in order to explore the position of giving birth in dual defense model.The result showed that there was not significant differences between participants` desire for offspring in worldview threat condition and participants` in non-worldview threat condition.Taken above results into consideration,this paper demonstrates that(a)in the context of Chinese culture,mortality salience increase desire for offspring,and giving birth is one of the defense mechanism dealing with death anxiety;(b)there was not the compensatory relationship between the worldview and giving birth,and giving birth is not an independent component of remote defense mechanism.