EXPLORING THE TERROR MANAGEMENT FUNCTION OF BASIC NEED-SATISFACTION _______________________________________ A Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia _______________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts _____________________________________________________ by KENNETH E. VAIL III Dr. Jamie Arndt, Thesis Supervisor MAY 2011 The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the thesis entitled EXPLORING THE TERROR MANAGEMENT FUNCTION OF BASIC NEED-SATISFACTION presented by Kenneth E. Vail III, a candidate for the degree of master of arts, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor Jamie Arndt Professor Laura King Professor Kennon Sheldon Professor Todd Schachtman Professor Dan Turban ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Many thanks to Professor Jamie Arndt for his patience and careful guidance. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................................. ii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ v ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. vi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................ 1 Terror management theory Basic psychological needs Basic need-satisfaction as an existential buffering mechanism The present research 2. STUDY 1 ........................................................................................................... 10 Method Results Discussion 3. STUDY 2 ........................................................................................................... 14 Method Results Discussion 4. STUDY 3 ........................................................................................................... 18 Method Results Discussion 5. STUDY 4 ........................................................................................................... 20 Method Results iii Discussion 6. STUDY 5 ........................................................................................................... 26 Method Results Discussion 7. GENERAL DISCUSSION ................................................................................. 34 Ruling out alternatives and competing hypotheses Healing the wound: The role of TMT in politics, healthcare reform and the notion of liberty Life and death: Toward integrating TMT and SDT within a dual motive system Limitations Conclusion NOTES......................................................................................................................... 44 APPENDIX 1. PERSONALITY PROFILES.............................................................................. 45 2. ANTI-US ESSAY .............................................................................................. 47 REFERENCES............................................................................................................. 48 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Figure 1............................................................................................................... 57 2. Figure 2............................................................................................................... 58 3. Figure 3............................................................................................................... 59 4. Figure 4............................................................................................................... 60 5. Figure 5............................................................................................................... 61 v Abstract Self-determination theory suggests that experiencing autonomy, competence, and relatedness are basic psychological needs. Drawing from terror management theory, the present research considers whether need-satisfaction helps protect individuals against the awareness of death. After death reminders, those with higher need-satisfaction displayed lower worldview defense (Study 1) and lower death-thought accessibility (Study 2). Death reminders also increased the desire to experience need-satisfaction (Study 3) and influenced motivation to approach, or avoid, an environment based on whether it was perceived as more, or less, need-supportive than the status quo (Study 4). A fifth study showed that death reminders increased worldview defense among those valuing extrinsic, but not intrinsic (need-satisfying), goals. Study 5 also demonstrated that this effect was eliminated when extrinsically oriented participants were given need-satisfying feedback. Together, these studies demonstrate that need-satisfaction, including need-satisfying social environments and goal orientations, is capable of serving a terror management function. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. vi Consider the fact that plants need sunlight, soil, and water. To be sure, when these needs are being satisfied any gardener will gladly boast that his or her plants are much more likely to grow and flourish as a result. But when these botanical needs are not being met most any gardener will instead sound off dire warnings of horticultural death and destruction. In this way, satisfying the prerequisite for a thriving garden simultaneously allays the gardener’s fears of the advent of a frondescent wasteland. Through an extensive line of programmatic research, self- determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) has established the basic psychological needs to experience competence, autonomy, and relatedness as prerequisite for gains in personal growth and well-being. Indeed, similar to the way plants need sunlight, soil, and water, much previous SDT research shows that people need to feel a sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness before they can psychologically flourish and grow (Ryan, 1995). But why are these needs needed? As was the case with our gardener, it may be that autonomy, competence, and relatedness are needed, in part, because their satisfaction helps provide psychological equanimity in the face of existential threat. On this very note, some have argued that the basic prerequisite for growth and well-being is, in fact, psychological security and protection from the awareness of death (e.g., Greenberg, Pyszczynski, Solomon, 1995; Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Goldenberg, 2003; Pyszczynski, Solomon, Greenberg, Stewart- Fouts, 1996). As of yet, however, relatively little previous research has explored how the growth- oriented and the defense-oriented approaches might intersect. Therefore, as an initial effort toward the integration of these two approaches to human motivation, the present research utilizes both SDT and terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, et al., 1990) to explore the potential protective functions of the basic psychological need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. 1 Terror management theory Based largely on the work of Becker (1973), TMT proposes that psychological mechanisms emerged to help manage and alleviate the uniquely human awareness of mortality. One primary mechanism for managing death awareness is the creation and maintenance of culture. Cultural beliefs and ways of life offer the possibility that some aspect of the self could be preserved beyond death, either by leaving some mark on the world (e.g., taking part in the glory of one’s nation, important accomplishments, influencing others, etc.) or through religious promises of immortality (e.g., heaven, paradise, reincarnation, etc.). Having adopted such cultural worldviews, the degree of self-esteem then provides feedback about whether the individual is worthy enough to qualify for literal or symbolic death transcendence. According to one of the more generative hypotheses stemming from this theoretical foundation, if the cultural worldview in fact helps to buffer death awareness, then when people are aware of death they should rely particularly heavily on their cultural beliefs. For example, people reminded of death bolster faith in the enduring viability of their culture by exaggerating social consensus of their beliefs (Pyszczynski, et al., 1996), by derogating critics of one’s worldview or followers of a rival cultural belief (Greenberg, et al., 1992; Greenberg et al., 1990), or by supporting the annihilation of those threatening one’s culture (Hayes, et al., 2008; Pyszczynski et al., 2006). Similarly, TMT posits that if self-esteem functions to buffer against death awareness, then defending or bolstering self-esteem should protect the individual against the heightened awareness of death. Thus, for example, heightened levels of self-esteem reduced the increased accessibility of death-related cognition after reminders of mortality, and thereby eliminated the associated worldview defenses (Harmon-Jones, et al., 1997). The present research, 2 however, aims to broaden the scope of the terror management repertoire and the understanding of how people are able to buffer deeply-rooted existential fear. Basic psychological needs SDT posits that people are endowed with a universal, inherent growth tendency that serves as a basic motivating principle and has empirically identified the necessary condition that, when satisfied, afford positive social development and personal well-being: the feeling of autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2000a). SDT describes