Handbook Of Experimental Existential Psychology

by Greenberg, Jeff; Koole, Sander L.; Pyszczynski, Tom

• ISBN13: 9781593850401
• ISBN10: 1593850409
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-05-26
• Publisher: The Guilford Press

Summary

Social and personality psychologists traditionally have focused their attention on the most basic building blocks of human thought and behavior, while existential psychologists pursued broader, more abstract questions regarding the nature of existence and the meaning of life. This volume bridges this longstanding divide by demonstrating how rigorous experimental methods can be applied to understanding key existential concerns, including death, uncertainty, identity, meaning, morality, isolation, determinism, and freedom. Bringing together leading scholars and investigators, the Handbook presents the influential theories and research findings that collectively are helping to define the emerging field of experimental existential psychology.

Author Biography

Jeff Greenberg is Professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona and associate editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He received his PhD from the University of Kansas in 1982. Dr. Greenberg has published many articles and chapters, focused primarily on understanding self-esteem, prejudice, and depression. In collaboration with Tom Pyszczynski and Sheldon Solomon, he developed terror management theory, a broad theoretical framework that explores the role of existential fears in diverse aspects of human behavior. He is coauthor of Hanging on and Letting Go: Understanding the Onset, Progression, and Remission of Depression and In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror, and is coeditor of Motivational Analyses of Social Behavior.

Sander L. Koole is Associate Professor of Psychology at the Free University in Amsterdam. He received his PhD in social psychology from the University of Nijmegen in 2000. Dr. Koole has published articles and chapters on self-affirmation, implicit self-esteem, terror management processes, and affect regulation. In collaboration with Julius Kuhl and other colleagues, his recent work has focused on personality systems interactions theory, an integrative perspective that seeks to understand the functional mechanisms that underlie human motivation and personality processes. Together with Constantine Sedekides, he was guest editor of a special issue of Social Cognition on The Art and Science of Self-Defense.

Tom Pyszczynski is Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He received his PhD in social psychology from the University of Kansas in 1980. In collaboration with Jeff Greenberg and Sheldon Solomon, Dr. Pyszczynski developed terror management theory. His recent research has focused on applications of terror management theory to questions about the need for self-esteem, prejudice and intergroup conflict, unconscious processes, anxiety, and ambivalence regarding the human body. He is coauthor of In the Wake of 9/11 and Hanging on and Letting Go.

Table of Contents

PART I. INTRODUCTION
Experimental Existential Psychology: Exploring the Human Confrontation with Reality	3	(10)
Tom Pyszczynski
Jeff Greenberg
Sander L. Koole
PART II. EXISTENTIAL REALITIES
The Cultural Animal: Twenty Years of Terror Management Theory and Research	13	(22)
Sheldon Solomon
Jeff Greenberg
Tom Pyszczynski
The Blueprint of Terror Management: Understanding the Cognitive Architecture of Psychological Defense against the Awareness of Death	35	(19)
Jamie Arndt
Alison Cook
Clay Routledge
A Multifaceted Perspective on the Existential Meanings, Manifestations, and Consequences of the Fear of Personal Death	54	(17)
Victor Florian
Mario Mikulincer
The Beast within the Beauty: An Existential Perspective on the Objectification and Condemnation of Women	71	(15)
Jamie L. Goldenberg
Tomi-Ann Roberts
Paradise Lost and Reclaimed: A Motivational Analysis of Human-Nature Relations	86	(18)
Sander L. Koole
Agnes E. van den Berg
Risk Taking in Adolescence: ``To Be or Not to Be'' Is Not Really the Question	104	(18)
Orit Taubman - Ben-Ari
Random Outcomes and Valued Commitments: Existential Dilemmas and the Paradox of Meaning	122	(19)
Ronnie Janoff-Bulman
Darren J. Yopyk
PART III. SYSTEMS OF MEANING AND VALUE
Religion: Its Core Psychological Functions	141	(15)
C. Daniel Batson
E. L. Stocks
In Search of the Moral Person: Do You Have to Feel Really Bad to Be Good?	156	(11)
June Price Tangney
Debra J. Mashek
An Existentialist Approach to the Social Psychology of Fairness: The Influence of Mortality and Uncertainty Salience on Reactions to Fair and Unfair Events	167	(15)
Kees van den Bos
Zeal, Identity, and Meaning: Going to Extremes to Be One Self	182	(18)
Ian McGregor
Nostalgia: Conceptual Issues and Existential Functions	200	(15)
Constantine Sedikides
Tim Wildschut
Denise Baden
Existential Meanings and Cultural Models: The Interplay of Personal and Supernatural Agency in American and Hindu Ways of Responding to Uncertainty	215	(16)
Maia J Young
Michael W. Morris
Cultural Trauma and Recovery: Cultural Meaning, Self-Esteem, and the Reconstruction of the Cultural Anxiety Buffer	231	(16)
Michael B. Salzman
Michael J. Halloran
Terror's Epistemic Consequences: Existential Threat and the Quest for Certainty and Closure	247	(16)
Mark Dechesne
Arie W. Kruglanski
The Ideological Animal: A System Justification View	263	(24)
John T. Jost
Grainne Fitzsimons
Aaron C. Kay
PART IV. THE HUMAN CONNECTION
The Terror of Death and the Quest for Love: An Existential Perspective on Close Relationships	287	(18)
Mario Mikulincer
Victor Florian
Gilad Hirschberger
Transcending Oneself through Social Identification	305	(17)
Emanuele Castano
Vincent Yzerbyt
Maria-Paola Paladino
Moral Amplification and the Emotions That Attach Us to Saints and Demons	322	(14)
Jonathan Haidt
Sara Algoe
Ostracism: A Metaphor for Death	336	(16)
Trevor I. Case
Kipling D. Williams
I-Sharing, the Problem of Existential Isolation, and Their Implications for Interpersonal and Intergroup Phenomena	352	(17)
Elizabeth C. Pinel
Anson E. Long
Mark J. Landau
Tom Pyszczynski
Bellezza in Interpersonal Relations	369	(16)
Robert A. Wicklund
Renate Vida-Grim
PART V. FREEDOM AND THE WILL
Being Here Now: Is Consciousness Necessary for Human Freedom?	385	(13)
John A. Bargh
Ego Depletion, Self-Control, and Choice	398	(13)
Kathleen D. Vohs
Roy F. Baumeister
Workings of the Will: A Functional Approach	411	(20)
Julius Kuhl
Sander L. Koole
The Roar of Awakening: Mortality Acknowledgment as a Call to Authentic Living	431	(18)
Leonard L. Martin
W. Keith Campbell
Christopher D. Henry
Autonomy Is No Illusion: Self-Determination Theory and the Empirical Study of Authenticity, Awareness, and Will	449	(31)
Richard M. Ryan
Edward L. Deci
Nonbecoming, Alienated Becoming, and Authentic Becoming: A Goal-Based Approach	480	(17)
Tim Kasser
Kennon M. Sheldon
PART VI. POSTMORTEM
The Best of Two Worlds: Experimental Existential Psychology Now and in the Future	497	(8)
Sander L. Koole
Jeff Greenberg
Tom Pyszczynski
Author Index	505	(12)
Subject Index	517