| dc.contributor.author | Juhl, Jacob Timothy | |
| dc.description.abstract | According to terror management theory, religious worldviews provide protection from
mortality concerns by providing feelings of literal immortality ( conscious life after death)
and symbolic immortality (the essence of one's self or identity living after death). Although
research has shown that both feelings of literal and symbolic immortality provide
protection from mortality concerns, no studies have sufficiently compared the relative
strength of these forms of immortality. To investigate their relative strengths as death
anxiety buffers, three studies made mortality (MS) or a control topic salient and then made
salient aspects of religion that provide symbolic or literal immortality ( or social
affiliation-Study 3). Subsequently, religious worldview defense (Study 1) and search for
meaning (Studies 2-3) were measured. In Study 1, results revealed that compared to the
salience of literal immortality (and neutral condition), the salience of symbolic immortality
increased religious worldview defense after MS. Studies 2 and 3 revealed that compared to
the salience of literal immortality (Study 2) or the social aspects of religion (Study 3), the
salience of symbolic immortality mitigated MS-engendered search for meaning. Taken
together, these studies suggest that feelings of symbolic immortality generally provide a
better defense against mortality concerns. | en_US |
| dc.publisher | North Dakota State University | en_US |
| dc.rights | NDSU policy 190.6.2 | en_US |
| dc.title | Literal vs. Symbolic Immortality: Exploring the Relative Strengths of Religious Paths to Death-Transcendence | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-03-01T17:28:23Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-03-01T17:28:23Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2010 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10365/33691 | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Fear of death. | en_US |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Death -- Psychological aspects. | en_US |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Faith -- Psychological aspects. | en_US |
| dc.rights.uri | https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf | en_US |
| ndsu.college | Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences | en_US |
| ndsu.department | Psychology | en_US |
| ndsu.program | Psychology | en_US |
| ndsu.advisor | Routledge, Clay | |
