Psychological defenses against death anxiety: Integrating terror management theory and Firestone’s separation theory

PSYCHOLOGICAL DEFENSES AGAINST DEATHANXIETY: INTEGRATING TERROR MANAGEMENTTHEORY AND FIRESTONE’S SEPARATION THEORY

JONATHAN F. BASSETT

Lander University, Greenwood, South Carolina, USA

The author attempts to integrate Terror Management Theory (TMT) andR. W. Firestone’s Separation Theory (1984, 1994). Both theories emphasizedefense against death anxiety as a key human motive. Whereas TMT focusesextensively on self-esteem and cultural worldview, Firestone posited additionaldefenses such as gene survival, self-nourishing behaviors, addictive couple bonds,and adopting an anti-sexual approach to life. TMT offers a strong base ofexperimentally validated ideas and the experimental paradigms to test the broadarray of defenses enumerated in Firestone’s Separation Theory. Therefore, anintegration of the two theories would be beneficial to a fuller understanding ofpsychological defenses against death anxiety.

Two contemporary theories: Terror Management Theory (TMT;Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986; Pyszczynski, Greenberg,& Solomon, 1997; Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 1991) andSeparation Theory (Firestone, 1984, 1994) represent independentempirically derived formulations of human motivation in whichdefenses against death anxiety are posited as powerful determi-nants of human behavior. Both theories are rooted in psycho-dynamic thinking and share an emphasis on the importance ofearly childhood experience in shaping later adult defenses.Although Separation Theory is empirical in that it is based onclinical case studies from individual and group psychotherapy aswell as ongoing observations of normal volunteers, it lacks thesame empirical rigor as TMT, which has been substantially vali-dated by experimental research. The theories are congruent inmany ways, and the converging findings from case studies and

Received 31 July 2006; accepted 21 November 2006.Address correspondence to Jonathan F. Bassett, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Psychology,

Lander University, 320 Stanley Avenue, Greenwood, SC 29649. E-mail: [email protected]

727

Death Studies, 31: 727–750, 2007Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 0748-1187 print/1091-7683 onlineDOI: 10.1080/07481180701490628

experimentation make a compelling case for the importance ofdeath anxiety as a motivating force in human affairs. However,the theories differ in their descriptions of the purported develop-mental origins of psychological defenses and make differentpredictions regarding the relation of self-esteem and personal rela-tionships to death anxiety. From the perspective of TMT, remin-ders of personal death motivate attempts to bolster self-esteemand to seek out close relationships. From the perspective of Separ-ation Theory, personal success and genuine interpersonal intimacymay actually engender increased death concerns. Consequently,people engage in self-limiting and self-destructive behaviorsinvolving shrinking back from intimacy in favor of comfortableillusions of connection.

The goal of this article is to suggest an integration of the twoapproaches. The proposed integration mutually enhances boththeories because Firestone’s theorizing broadens the scope of beha-viors that can be explained as motivated by mitigating death anxi-ety, whereas TMT offers a strong base of experimentally validatedideas and a set of experimental paradigms to critically examine thistheorizing. I begin with a summary of each theory and then suggesta possible integration and some avenues for future research to testthis integration.

TMT

TMT (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986; Pyszczynski et al.,1997; Solomon et al., 1991; Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski,2004) was heavily influenced by the writings of cultural anthropol-ogist Ernest Becker (1962, 1973, 1975). Becker suggested thathumans are by nature dualistic, possessing simultaneously a physi-cal body and a symbolic mind. The fact that humans are able tocontemplate the cosmos in seemingly limitless ways using theirsymbol creating minds but are still trapped in the visceral strugglesof the corporeal world puts them in an existential paradox. Basedon the writings of Becker, the basic premise put forth in TMT isthat people possess as much an instinct for self-preservation asother animals but unlike other animals recognize that their strivingsfor continued existence are ultimately doomed and may be cutshort suddenly and unexpectedly (Greenberg et al., 1986). Theawareness that personal extinction potentially lurks around every

728 J. F. Bassett

corner and irrefutably awaits even the most vigilant as the bodydeteriorates with age has the potential to produce terror in thehuman animal.

Pyszczynski, Greenberg, and Solomon (1999) asserted thatthere are two main types of defenses against the potentially debil-itating anxiety associated with awareness of personal death. Proxi-mal defenses occur when reminders of mortality enter consciousawareness. These defenses are directly related to the problem ofdeath and involve attempts to suppress thoughts of death out ofconscious awareness or to make such thoughts less disturbing bydenying one’s vulnerability to death or by focusing on one’s likelylongevity. In contrast, distal defenses occur when thoughts of deathare no longer the focus of attention but are highly accessible in thepreconscious mind. These defenses do not always bear a directrelation to the problem of death but represent a symbolic victoryover death by establishing a sense of personal value in a meaning-ful and enduring world. These symbolic defenses against deathinvolve cultural worldview defense and self-esteem strivings.

Cultural worldviews attenuate death anxiety through the con-sensually validated (a) description of the world as a safe, orderly,and stable place and (b) description of means to transcend deatheither literally or symbolically. Cultural worldviews can amelioratedeath anxiety directly by allowing the individual to perceive theworld as safe and controllable thereby conceptualizing death assomething that can be postponed through vigilance and good living.Cultural worldviews also describe possibilities of transcendingdeath either literally or symbolically (Lifton, 1979). Literal immor-tality dampens the sting of personal death awareness by assertingthat some favorable form of personal identity continues after death,whereas, symbolic immortality dampens the sting of personal deathawareness by providing a means through which one’s life can con-tinue to matter after corporeal death (e.g., progeny, creative works,larger social institutions, or communion with nature itself).

Self-esteem acts in tandem with cultural worldview as apsychological buffer against death anxiety. Self-esteem involvesa feeling of specialness that one is different from the masses andtherefore immune from death. Further, self-esteem allows for thebelief that one has made an important and valuable contributionto the world that will endure beyond corporeal death. Anxiety isnot abated merely by the ability to perceive the world in general

Integrating Terror Management Theory 729

as having some meaning but by the belief that one is a valuablecontributor to that meaning. For example, one could accept theconsumerism advanced in the conventional American worldview,in which what makes life meaningful is amassing material wealth,and still feel unprotected against existential anxiety because one’sneighbors have bigger houses, nicer cars, and higher paying jobs.Consequently, people can attenuate their fear of death only byboth believing in some set of values that provide life with meaningand by thinking that in comparison to others who share thosevalues they are doing well.

Solomon et al. (1991) root the origin of distal defenses in thedevelopmental process of socialization. From this perspective, thesocialization process involves expressing approval when culturallysanctioned behaviors are emitted and expressing disapproval forculturally prohibited actions. Because children recognize that theirsurvival is dependent on parental care, any parental disapprovalevokes anxiety. This anxiety is initially interpersonal in naturebecause what is feared is parental abandonment or parental failureto adequately meet the child’s basic needs. The child learns that ifparents are pleased with their behavior there is no need to fearabandonment or neglect. It is during this process that the infantequates feeling good about self with feeling safe. As cognitivecapacities develop with age, children become aware of their par-ents’ mortality and limitations. At this point, death anxietybecomes the primary source of anxiety that must be protectedagainst but the well-learned pattern persists such that any anxi-ety-evoking threat produces the need to enhance self-esteem.

Experimental Support for TMT

Experimental support for the use of proximal defenses comes fromfindings that reminders of death have been demonstrated to pro-duce immediately increased intentions to exercise (Arndt, Schimel,& Goldenberg, 2003), decreased intentions to engage in risky beha-viors among those with an internal locus of control (Miller &Mulligan, 2002), greater immediate preference for high SPF sun-screen products (Routledge, Arndt, & Goldenberg, 2004), andbiased reports of emotionality to be consistent with manipulatedexpectations about the relation between emotionality and longevity(Greenberg et al., 1993).

730 J. F. Bassett

Experimental support for distal defenses involving culturalworldview comes from findings that reminders of death have beenshown to (a) increase participants’ estimates of consensus for theiropinions (Pyszczynski et al., 1996); (b) increase liking for similarothers and derogation of dissimilar others (Greenberg et al.,1990); (c) result in harsher penalties for those who violate socialnorms (Florian & Mikulincer, 1997); (d) result in greater rewardsfor heroes who uphold valued tenets of one’s cultural worldview(Rosenblatt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, & Lyon, 1989);(e) produce aggression against those who express contradictoryworldviews (McGregor et al., 1998), and (f) increase discomfortwith using cherished symbols in inappropriate ways (Greenberg,Porteus, Simon, Pysczcynski, & Solomon, 1995).

Experimental support for distal defenses involving self-esteemcomes from the findings that reminders of death increased self-esteem strivings as evidenced by more self-serving biases inattributing failure to external causes and success to internal causes(Mikulincer & Florian, 2002), greater identification with one’s bodyamong those for whom appearance was relevant to self-esteem(Goldenberg, McCoy, Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Solomon,2000), faster driving speed on a driving simulator among menfor whom driving skill was relevant to self-esteem (TaubmanBen-Ari, Florian, & Mikulincer, 1999), and stronger output on ahand dynamometer among those for whom strength training wasrelevant to self-esteem (Peters, Greenberg, Williams, & Schneider,2005).

All of these experimentally demonstrated defenses are uniqueto death concerns and are not produced by inducing other aversivethoughts such as taking an exam (Greenberg et al., 1995), beinguncertain, or having dental pain (Landau et al., 2004). In fact, ithas repeatedly been demonstrated that the mortality salienceinduction does not make participants’ mood more negative (Arndt,Allen, & Greenberg, 2001). If psychological defenses are aimed atreducing death anxiety and experimental reminders of death donot elicit anxiety, what mechanism accounts for their ability toincrease cultural worldview defense and self-esteem striving?Arndt, Cook, and Routledge (2004) have developed a model thataccounts for this discrepancy. According to these authors, it isthe potential to experience death anxiety that must be managed,because by the time one is actively experiencing anxiety about


death the terror management system has already failed. In thismodel, the terror management system activates cultural worldviewdefense when thoughts of death threaten to enter conscious aware-ness and this defense makes such thoughts less accessible toawareness. This model is based on experimental evidence that mea-sured the accessibility of death-related thoughts by having parti-cipants complete a series of word fragments that could becompleted either as neutral words or death-related words (e.g., coff

could be completed as coffee or coffin). The results of theseexperiments indicated that the typical mortality salience manipu-lation increased death thought accessibility and cultural worldviewdefense only after delay or distraction (Greenberg, Pyszczynski,Solomon, Simon, & Breus, 1994). However, if participants were pre-vented from efforts to suppress death thoughts either by limiting themental resources available for suppression (e.g., holding an 11-digitnumber in memory; Arndt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, &Simon, 1997) or by presenting the death prime subliminally (Arndt,Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1997) both death thoughtaccessibility and cultural worldview defense increased immediately.Further, allowing participants to defend their cultural worldviewnegated the effects of mortality salience on death thought accessi-bility (Greenberg, Arndt, Schimel, Pyszczynski, & Solomon,2001). Additional support for the TMT model that psychologicaldefenses guard against the potential experience of anxiety comesfrom the finding that giving participants a placebo herbal teathat purportedly blocked their ability to feel anxious eliminatedthe effects of mortality salience on cultural worldview defense(Greenberg et al., 2003). Similarly, providing participants with pur-ported scientific evidence supporting life after death negated theeffects of mortality salience on self-esteem striving and worldviewdefense; thereby providing further support for the idea that thesedefenses are activated to prevent anxiety specifically about death(Dechesne et al., 2003).

TMT and Attachment Theory

Recent trends in TMT theory and research (Mikulincer, Florian, &Hirschberger, 2004) have focused on the developmental origin ofpsychological defenses against death that emerges from parent–infant interaction based on Bowbly’s (1973) theory of attachment,

732 J. F. Bassett

in which it is suggested that the child develops mental models ofthe caregiver and relies increasingly on these models to allay anxi-eties rather than actual proximity to caregiver. Mikulincer et al.(2004) have theorized that the same individual differences inattachment styles that moderate how individuals respond to dis-tress in general would also predict how they deal specifically withanxiety stemming from the awareness of personal mortality.

Although the original developers of TMT continue to specifyonly cultural worldview and self-esteem as psychological buffersagainst death anxiety (Solomon et al., 2004), Mikulincer, Florian,and Hirschberger (2003) postulated that the formation and mainte-nance of close personal relationships represents a third form ofdefense against death anxiety separate from worldview defenseand self-esteem striving. Mikulincer et al. recognize that personalrelationships can be a means of enhancing self-esteem by baskingvicariously in the glory of close others’ accomplishments orthrough social comparison by focusing on the fact that one hasmore friends or lovers than the next person. They also concedethat close relationships can provide a means for worldview vali-dation as western cultures highly value romantic love. However,they suggest that the attachment models developed in early child-hood serve as a regulatory mechanism for dealing with anxiety byseeking out close relationships. From this perspective, close rela-tionships assuage anxiety independent of any influence they haveon self-esteem or worldview.

Support for the link between attachment style and deathanxiety comes from the correlational finding that individuals withan anxious ambivalent attachment style showed higher explicitand implicit levels of death anxiety than did individuals with asecure attachment style (Mikulincer, Florian, & Tolmacz, 1990).More compelling evidence comes from Mikulincer and Florian’s(2000) experimental findings that only participants with an insecureattachment style responded to mortality salience with increasedcultural worldview defense. In contrast, secure but not insecureparticipants responded to mortality salience with increased desirefor intimacy with others and increased desire for symbolic immor-tality by making some meaningful connection to the world.

Support for the role of close relationships as a buffer againstdeath anxiety comes from the findings that mortality salienceincreased willingness to initiate social interaction (Taubman Ben-Ari,


Findler, & Mikulincer, 2002) and increased relationship commit-ment out of a sense of love for the partner but not out of a sense ofduty to the partner (Florian, Mikulincer, & Hirschberger, 2002).Further, imagining separation from a romantic partner led toincreased accessibility of death-related thoughts (Mikulincer,Florian, Birnbaum, & Malishkevich, 2002).

Separation Theory

Separation Theory (Firestone, 1984, 1993a) is based on thepremise that psychological defenses originate in response to inter-personal pain as the infant must contend with the frustrationcaused by parental withholding of nourishment and emotionalcomfort and separation anxiety caused by fear of parental neglector abandonment. According to Firestone (1984), the primarydefense against anxiety that emerges in infancy is the fantasy bond.The idea of the fantasy bond is that the infant develops an ima-gined sense of connection to the mother as a way to ward off thepain and frustration that occur when mother’s milk or touch iswanted but not provided. This fantasy bond wards off the painof frustration and separateness. In addition, the infant begins toengage in self-nourishing behaviors such as thumb sucking to quellfrustration but also to protect against the dawning recognition ofdependency. The child introjects the image of omnipotent care-giver onto the self to avoid the pain and potential rejectioninherent in relying on an inadequate caregiver. This fantasy bondactually undermines real emotional connection to the caregiver asthe child prefers the comfort of fantasy connection because itcarries no risk of rejection.

Later, existential concern over personal extinction replacesparental neglect as the main source of anxiety. However, the samedefenses that emerged in response to separation anxiety in infancyare used by the adult to ward off death anxiety. The fantasy bondrefers to the original imagined connection to caregiver but also tothe preference in adulthood for imagined fusion with others overreal interpersonal connection. The fantasy bond in adulthoodinvolves avoiding real emotional connection to others because ofthe painful sense of separation that follows such connections.

Secondary defenses involve the protection of the fantasy bondfrom the kind of growth experiences and real intimacy that would

734 J. F. Bassett

break down the illusion of self-sufficiency leaving the individualvulnerable to interpersonal and existential anxiety. The fantasybond is protected by the adoption of a cynical outlook on life thatyields low expectations for self and others (Firestone, 1994). Theindividual guards against interpersonal pain by adopting the stancethat it is best not to get to close to others because they will just letyou down and it is best not to feel too strongly for another becauserelationships do not last. Similarly, the individual guards againstexistential anxiety by adopting the stance that it is best not toexperience life fully or to care passionately about things becauselife itself will not last. These secondary defenses are maintainedthrough a critical inner voice process. The critical inner voicerepresents the internalization of both the caregiver’s hostile atti-tudes toward the child and the emulation of the caregiver’s ownconstellation of defenses. From the perspective of SeparationTheory, all parents have ambivalent feelings toward their childrenbecause children rekindle in parents the experience of helplessnessand insecurity from their own childhood and because parents tendto project their own flaws and limitations onto their children. Theutter dependency of children on caregivers results in the percep-tion that any sign of parental anger is potentially life threatening.When children feel threatened by parental anger they begin toidentify with the punishing parent. This identification gives riseto self-punishing fantasy processes in which the child attempts topre-empt parental anger through an internal thought process ofself-criticism.

As with the self-nourishing aspects of the fantasy bond, self-punishing behaviors continue in adulthood in response to inter-personal and existential threats. The self-punishing critical voiceprocesses exist outside of conscious awareness and involve not justcognitions but also an affective component involving anger, self-hate, and hostility toward others. The critical voice is present tosome degree in everyone but the extent of the self-punishingthoughts and self-loathing affect will vary depending on the intensityof frustration and anxiety experienced in childhood. Similarly, self-destructive behaviors vary on a continuum. On the milder end of thecontinuum are behaviors such as sabotaging one’s own goals toavoid success or simply avoiding challenging professional and inter-personal activities in favor of manageable and predictable forms ofroutine. More extreme voice processes give rise to microsuicidal


behaviors such as substance abuse or recklessness and actualattempts at self-annihilation (Firestone & Firestone, 1998).

Integrating TMT and Separation Theory

TMT and Separation Theory are similar in their view of adultpsychological defenses as protecting patterns of defense thatemerged developmentally in response to anxiety over parentalabandonment. They differ however in the nature of the parent–child interaction that purportedly gives rise to psychologicaldefenses. These different developmental models in turn lead to dif-ferent predictions about the relation between self-esteem, personalrelationships, and death anxiety. In the original TMT developmen-tal model, articulated by Solomon et al. (1991), self-esteememerges as an anxiety buffer through the process of socializationas the child learns to equate feeling good about pleasing parentswith feeling safe from concerns about parental abandonment.During development, the source of anxiety shifts from parentalabandonment to awareness of personal mortality and the sourceof self-esteem shifts from parental approval to approval from peersor larger social institutions. In the alternative TMT developmentalmodel, proposed by Mikulincer et al. (2004), it is the workingmodels of attachment figures formed in infancy that give rise to indi-vidual differences in adult defenses against death anxiety. From thisperspective, individuals with secure attachment styles assuage deathanxiety by seeking close relationships. The developmental modeldescribed in Separation Theory shares with the other two modelsthe view that psychological defenses emerge based on parent–childinteractions and are originally aimed at mitigating interpersonalanxiety. However, the nature of these defenses is not to conferself-esteem or to establish a sense of attachment security but ratherto form a fantasy bond or illusion of fusion. This fantasy bond isthen buttressed through the use of both self-nurturing and self-critical secondary defensive processes.

This distinction has several profound ramifications for theor-etical predictions about adult defenses. First, Separation Theorydiffers from TMT in that it views the seeking of fusion with largersocial groups not as a positive means to achieve esteem and mean-ing but as a self-limiting defense that thwarts personal growth andcreativity. Second, TMT predicts that seeking close relationships in

736 J. F. Bassett

response to mortality concerns will reduce death anxiety, whereasSeparation Theory predicts that death anxiety motivates protectingthe illusion of closeness with another more out of an emotional hun-ger than out of true love or affection for the other person. In fact,Firestone’s model suggests that real intimacy in close relationshipsmight also be a source of death anxiety. According to Firestone(1987), although many people are unable to tolerate being alone,true intimacy with a romantic partner is also disruptive to thepsychological defense system because it makes one vulnerable tointerpersonal pain in that one might be rejected or frustrated andmakes one vulnerable to death anxiety because following times ofsexual or emotional bonding separation is bittersweet in that onebecomes acutely aware of the impermanence of all things in exist-ence. Third, Separation Theory seems to be unique in the ability toaccount for self-limiting and self-destructive behaviors as psycho-logical defenses against death anxiety. The self-critical defensiveprocesses described in Firestone’s developmental model allowsfor the explanation of behaviors that are detrimental to self-esteem,such as withdrawing from challenging activities in favor of self-nourishing habits, and behaviors that are damaging to healthy inter-personal relationships, such as sexual and emotional withholdingfrom partners or hyper-critical attacks on partners.

Although the two theories share the view that psychologicaldefenses inoculate the adult individual against death anxiety by pro-tecting the outlook on the world he or she fashioned in early child-hood, they differ in the scope of defenses they describe. TMT(Solomon et al., 1991) has focused on the aspects of this sociallyconstructed world that allow people to feel that they are significantcontributors to a meaningful existence. Firestone (1996) also recog-nized the use of these defenses that ward off feelings of separatenessand the corresponding vulnerability to death by allowing fusionwith larger social institutions. However, a diverse array of findingsusing TMT experimental paradigms on topics such as eating(Hirschberger & Ein-Dor, 2005), desire for offspring (Wisman &Goldenberg, 2005), and ambivalence about sex (Goldenberg,Pyszczynski, McCoy, Greenberg, & Solomon, 1999) do not seemto be readily subsumed under the TMT label of self-esteem strivingor worldview defense. These seemingly unrelated reactions to remin-ders of mortality might be better united by adopting Firestone’s con-ceptualization of these defenses as types of secondary defenses


aimed at protecting the fantasy bond. Firestone (1994) asserted thatthe self-critical and self-nurturing secondary defensive processesthat protect the fantasy bond result in a constellation of adultdefenses against death anxiety that can be categorized as (a) genesurvival, (b) self-nourishing habits, (c) addictive couple bonds, and(d) anti-sexual and anti-feeling approaches to existence.

Gene Survival

Firestone (1993b) theorized that most parents feel ambivalencetoward their children. In one sense children represent a symbolicvictory over death by perpetuating one’s identity into thefuture—an idea he calls gene survival. By transmitting their beliefs,attitudes, vocational skills, and other types of cultural knowledge tooffspring the individual establishes a sense of connection to thefuture. Support for this position comes from research findings con-ducted from the TMT perspective that reminders of death led toincreased scores on a measure of the importance of the biologicalmode of symbolic immortality (Mikulincer & Florian, 2000) and toincreased desire for children when presented as compatible withcareer aspirations (Wisman & Goldenberg, 2005).

However, Firestone (1994) further suggested that children area source of existential threat to parents because genuine experi-ences of emotional closeness to children reawaken feelings of sepa-rateness and evoke annihilation anxiety. Out of the desire to shapechildren into the right kind of symbolic immortality project andout of the desire to avoid the anxiety over the inevitability of loss,parents adopt proprietary attitudes toward children. According toFirestone, these proprietary attitudes are driven by the need toshape the child into the right kind of legacy and are supportedby the adoption of conventional parenting roles that protectagainst the threatening feelings evoked by experience of authenticinteractions with children. As yet untested is the hypothesisderived from Firestone’s (1994) theorizing that children shouldbuffer death anxiety only when they adopt the cultural worldviewof their parents. Children who are very dissimilar from their par-ents may actually be an added source of existential concern. Thechild who chooses not to carry on the family business or whoembraces a different religious, political, or sexual orientation notonly negates the possibility of the biological mode of symbolic

738 J. F. Bassett

immortality but also posses a threat to the validity of the parent’scultural worldview. Two experimentally testable predictions canbe made along these lines: (a) reminders of death should increaseattempts to force children to conform to parent’s worldview andincrease negative reactions to children who do not conform to par-ent’s worldview and (b) thinking about a child’s failure to conformto parent’s worldview should increase proneness to death anxietyas evidenced by greater accessibility of death-related thoughts.

Self-Nourishing Habits

Firestone (1994) asserted that self-nourishing habits such as thumbsucking emerge in infancy as a way to partially gratify unsatisfiedneeds for food and love from mother. Over time, as the fantasybond develops, infants come to prefer self-gratification over actualgratification because it does not carry the risk of rejection. Thetendency to prefer self-nourishing behaviors, in the form of over-indulgence in eating, shopping, or drug use persists into adulthoodand can be triggered by both negative and positive experiencesthat leave one vulnerable to existential anxiety. From the perspec-tive of Separation Theory (Firestone, Firestone, & Catlett, 2002),the critical inner voice perpetuates the cycle of addiction to self-nourishing habits by enticing the individual to retreat from anxietyby having a drink, or overeating, or buying that pair of shoes andthen attacking the self for not being able to exercise restraint. Criti-cal self-attacks lead to greater anxiety, which, in turn, leads togreater reliance on self-nourishing behaviors in a vicious cycle.

At least one experiment using the mortality salience paradigmoffers support for the notion that self-nourishing habits can act as abuffer against death anxiety. Hirschberger and Ein-Dor (2005)demonstrated the self-soothing properties of eating by showing thatgiving participants a candy negated the effects of mortality salienceon cultural worldview defense. Although this finding comes fromresearch conducted from a TMT perspective, the finding is consist-ent with the idea exposed by Firestone (1993b) that food is a likelysource of self-nourishing behavior used in infancy to compensatefor frustration and in adulthood to sooth existential anxiety. How-ever, further experimental research is needed to more fully supportthe use of food as a death anxiety buffer. Specifically, one wouldpredict that existential threat triggered by reminders of mortality


would lead to an increased tendency to overeat or an increasedpreference for comfort foods. Similarly, one would predict thatallowing participants to eat after reminders of death would reducethe accessibility of death-related thoughts.

Addictive Couple Bonds

Although the term bond typically carries a positive connotation,Firestone (1993b) uses the term bond (as in bondage) to conveythe unhealthy tendency for people to give up their personal free-dom in favor of a fantasy of fusion with another as a means ofwarding off death anxiety. From the perspective of TMT, seekingrelationships might be a means of warding off death anxietyby bolstering self-esteem. However, Hirschberger, Florian, andMikulincer (2003) reported that reminders of death led participantsto express greater desire for intimate interaction with their roman-tic partner even after receiving harsh criticism from that partner.These researchers interpreted their findings as evidence thatstriving for close relationships represents a defense against deathanxiety separate from the need for self-esteem because interactionwith a critical partner would be damaging to self-esteem. However,this finding can also be interpreted from the perspective of Separ-ation Theory, in that criticism from one’s partner validates the criti-cal voice processes, thereby strengthening the fantasy bond.Firestone and Catlett (2000) described how people may select part-ners similar to the parent and even intentionally elicit critical reac-tions from the partner that mimic negative parental reactionsthereby recreating the pattern of interpersonal interaction estab-lished in childhood.

Additional research conducted from the perspective of TMTdemonstrated that having participants contemplate personal deathled them to lower their standards as to what was acceptable in apotential mate (Hirshberger, Florian, & Mikulincer, 2002). Thisfinding seems to be more consistent with Separation Theory thanTMT. If death anxiety motivates seeking others out of self-esteemstriving or desire for intimacy, why would participants who werereminded of death lower their standards? From the perspectiveof Separation Theory this effect represents an emotional hungerfor an illusion of connection rather than a desire for real love orintimacy.

740 J. F. Bassett

Future research using the TMT experimental paradigms couldattempt to test the hypothesis that addictive couple bonds bufferdeath anxiety by motivating a desire for the illusion of fusion witha romantic partner but also a desire to withhold true feeling andavoid real intimacy. Reminders of death might lead to greater criti-cism of romantic partners, to greater distrust of a romantic part-ner’s true feelings, and to greater attempts to be cool or distanttoward the romantic partner. Further, experiencing feelings ofcloseness and intimacy with a romantic partner might increasethe accessibility of death-related thoughts once the experience isover and the partners are separated.

Anti-Sexual Anti-Feeling Existence

Firestone (1994) suggested that sex is problematic for humansbecause it serves as a reminder of mortality. He further posited thatmany religious ideologies offer institutionalized defense againstdeath anxiety by focusing on sex as something to be avoidedand sexual desires as something to be repressed because they taintthe purity of the immortal soul. From this perspective, the adoptionof these institutionalized defenses assuages death anxiety by allow-ing the individual to believe that some aspect of self will transcendthe death of the physical body. However, dampening death anxi-ety in this way comes at the cost of self-denial and limitation.The institutionalized sanctions against sex are propagated by par-ents who socialize their children to think of sex as dirty and bad.Children internalize parental attitudes about sex resulting in adulttendencies to view one’s body, particularly the genitals, as disgust-ing and to feel guilty over the inability to deny sexual desires.Internalized negative parental attitudes toward sex are perpetuatedthrough the critical inner voice process. Firestone (1990a)described how critical inner voices before, during, and after sexinterfere with the natural flow of sexual feelings and prevent thefull enjoyment of a satisfying sexual experience. Critical ‘‘voices’’before sex attempt to prevent pain over frustration of rejectionby cynical self-attacks about not being attractive or being an inad-equate lover and cynical attacks on the other questioning the sin-cerity of his or her motives. Critical ‘‘voices’’ during sex interferewith full enjoyment of the experience by focusing on dissatisfactionand disgust with one’s body and worry that one’s partner will find


the ‘‘dirty’’ parts of their body repulsive. Critical ‘‘voices’’ after sexattack the self for being unable to control sexual desire, attack thepartner for being too responsive or not responsive enough, anddownplay the importance of the experience all as means ofre-establishing a safe psychological distance from the other.

The link between sex and death anxiety has been establishedin TMT experimental findings that, among participants high onneuroticism, reminders of death decreased the appeal of the physi-cal aspects of sex and thinking about the physical aspects of sexincreased proneness to death anxiety as evidenced by greateraccessibility of death-related thoughts (Goldenberg et al., 1999).In addition, Landau et al. (2006) reported that the threat of cor-poreality posed by sexual lust may be more problematic for menthan women. These authors demonstrated that mortality saliencedecreased men’s attraction to and sexual interest in seductivewomen.

Interestingly, the association between sex and death can bediminished by focusing on how human sexuality differs from thatof other animals—namely imbuing sex with cultural meaning bydefining it as an expression of the uniquely human emotion of love(Goldenberg, Cox, Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Solomon, 2002).These authors found that reminding people of the similarity ofhumans to other animals coupled with reminders of death led toa decrease in the appeal of the physical aspects of sex but not inthe appeal of the romantic aspects of sex. In addition, after beingreminded of the similarity of humans to other animals, thinkingabout the physical aspects of sex increased the accessibility ofdeath-related thoughts; whereas thinking about the romanticaspects of sex did not. Further, evidence suggests that death anxi-ety in response to sex can be dampened if sex is perceived as asource of enhancing self-esteem (Goldenberg et al., 2000). Thoseparticipants who had high body self-esteem (meaning they werepleased with their appearance and derived a sense of worth fromthe way they looked) found thoughts of sex more appealing afterbeing reminded of death; whereas those participants with lowbody self-esteem found sex less appealing after being remindedof death.

Sex is not only frightening symbolically because it serves as areminder of human corporeality but it is also frightening literallybecause it carries potential health risks in the form of AIDS and

742 J. F. Bassett

other sexually transmitted diseases. Taubman-Ben-Ari (2004a)examined the hypothesis that mortality salience would have theironic effect of making people more prone to engage in riskysexual behavior (increasing the literal threat of death) becausesex offers symbolic protection against death anxiety both as anexpression of seeking a close personal relationship and an avenuefor enhanced self-esteem. Consistent with this hypothesis, mor-tality salience led to increased willingness to engage in risky sex.

The research from the TMT perspective described above indi-cates both that sex can be a threatening experience because itreminds people of their creaturiliness and that sex can be madeless threatening if it is conceptualized as a means of enhancingself-esteem or a means of affirming a valued component of world-view such as love. As yet untested is the hypothesis derived fromSeparation Theory that death anxiety should be heightened follow-ing sex because the ephemeral nature of all human interactions hasbeen made salient. Although seemingly counterintuitive, satisfyingsexual experiences can also be a source of death anxiety. The blur-ring of the boundary between self and partner that occurs duringthe physical and emotional closeness of sex can make the separ-ation at the end of the experience more painful. ‘‘Many people findit difficult to face the fact that each close sexual experience has anending and necessitates a letting go. Each small ending can remindthem that everything ends in separation and ultimately in death’’(Firestone, 1990a, p. 267). This reaction is well illustrated in thedescription of a client in psychotherapy who reported not makinglove with his wife for two weeks after he witnessed a fatal motorvehicle accident (Firestone, 1993a). This man’s reaction could beinterpreted as an attempt to avoid sex because of his increased sen-sitivity to death anxiety and the threat of corporeality posed bysex. However, the client’s vocalization of his own thought processsuggested a different interpretation. The accident had remindedhim of not only his own but also his wife’s mortality. Conse-quently, he responded by avoiding sex as a way of decreasing inti-macy. In essence he was trying to dampen the anxiety of inevitableloss by preemptively decreasing feelings toward his wife.

From this perspective, one would predict that following sexualintimacy (even when imbued with cultural significance in thecontext of a loving relationship) death thoughts would becomeincreasingly accessible and that these hyper-accessible death-related


thoughts might lead to derogation of the romantic partner as a wayof establishing psychological distance.

Conclusions

Empirical evidence summarized in this article from both clinicaland non-clinical samples offers converging support for the impor-tance of psychological defenses against death anxiety as a motiva-tional force for a diverse array of human behaviors. TMTconceptualizes strivings for self-esteem and defense of valuedcultural beliefs as the source of protection against death anxiety.An impressive array of experimental evidence supports thisconceptualization by showing that reminders of death lead toincreased strivings for self-esteem and increased derogation ofothers who threaten implicitly or explicitly the validity of valuedworldview tenets (Solomon et al., 2004). TMT theorists (Solomon,Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2000) have done a good job of describ-ing the potentially devastating societal costs that such defensesagainst death anxiety can have by promoting group conflict, war-fare, and ethnic cleansing. TMT theorists have also presented acompelling rationale for why individuals will all too willingly giveup personal freedoms in order to achieve the symbolic immortalityacquired through fusion with some larger and more enduringentity (Pyszczynski et al., 1997). This tendency has most recentlybeen documented in the finding that reminders of death led toincreased preference for charismatic political candidates (Cohen,Solomon, Maxfield, Pyszczynski, & Greenberg, 2004). Yet to beestablished in TMT is a compelling argument for why peopleengage in behaviors that are self-destructive, antagonistic towardcherished others, and antithetical to their expressed goals.1

1There is a substantial body of research showing that reminders of death can ironicallyincrease participants’ willingness to engage in risky behavior such as reckless driving, druguse, extreme sports, or unprotected sex (for a recent review, see Taubman-Ben-Ari, 2004b).These findings are interpreted as evidence for the death anxiety buffering effects of self-esteem because mortality salience only increases risk-taking in domains that are relevantto the participant’s self-esteem. Presumably the increased desire for self-esteem generatedby reminders of death makes the potential gain from risky activities seem more appealingand the potential risk less deterring. However, this research does not shed light on the typesof defenses described in Separation Theory such as attacking or distancing one’s self fromloved ones or sabotaging or giving up on important professional goals, both of which wouldseem to be damaging to self-esteem.

744 J. F. Bassett

Research from the TMT perspective has also not yet addressed thepossibility that success as well as failure can be a source of existentialanxiety. Firestone (1990b) argued for a bipolar model of the causesof regression in which both negative life events (like the death of aloved one or a divorce) but also positive events (like getting a pro-motion or having a satisfying romantic relationship) can cause aretreat to a more childlike posture of defenses.

The present article attempts to enhance the ability of TMT toaccount for such behaviors by incorporating a model of the devel-opmental origin of psychological defenses described in Firestone’sSeparation Theory. The incorporation of Firestone’s developmen-tal model is suggested as a supplement to, not a replacement for,the existing developmental models focusing on socialization(Solomon et al., 1991) and attachment (Mikulincer et al., 2004).In addition, the integration suggested here calls for expandingthe list of adult psychological defenses against death anxiety toinclude not only self-esteem and cultural worldview, but also genesurvival, self-nourishing behaviors, addictive couple bonds, andanti-sexual and anti-feeling approaches to existence.

Unlike some theorists from the psychodynamic perspective,Firestone (1994) has argued for the need for experimental testingof predictions made from Separation Theory. Although someresearch using TMT paradigms hints at the use of the defensesdescribed in Separation Theory, a more systematic and compre-hensive research program is called for to experimentally validatethe use of these defenses. Several reviewers accurately pointedout that even if the predictions made in the integrated model pre-sented here were born out in experimental research they wouldnot verify the existence of the fantasy bond described in Separ-ation Theory. This is a fair criticism but one that is also appli-cable to the developmental model of self-esteem presented inTMT. From the perspective of logical positivism, theoretical con-structs are evaluated on their ability to account for empirical find-ings. Although some of the underling psychodynamic conceptsdescribed in Separation Theory may ultimately not be exper-imentally verifiable, the integrated model proposed here wouldhave utility if it could improve the scope of empirical findingsthat could be explained by TMT and if it could account for novelempirical findings, such as those suggested as avenues for futureresearch.


References

Arndt, J., Allen, J. J. B., & Greenberg, J. (2001). Traces of terror: Subliminaldeath primes and facial electromyographic indices of affect. Motivation andEmotion, 25, 253–277.

Arndt, J., Cook, A., & Routledge, C. (2004). The blueprint of terror management:Understanding the cognitive architecture of psychological defenses againstthe awareness of death. In J. Greenberg, S. L. Koole, & T. Pyszczynski(Eds.), Handbook of experimental existential psychology (pp. 35–53). New York:Guilford.

Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1997). Subliminalexposure to death-related stimuli increases defense of the cultural worldview.Psychological Science, 8, 379–385.

Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Simon, L. (1997). Sup-pression, accessibility of death-related thoughts, and cultural worldviewdefense: Exploring the psychodynamics of terror management. Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology, 73, 5–18.

Arndt, J., Schimel, J., & Goldenberg, J. L. (2003). Death can be good for yourhealth: Fitness intentions as a proximal and distal defense against mortalitysalience. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 1726–1746.

Becker, E. (1962). The birth and death of meaning. New York: Free Press.Becker, E. (1973). The denial of death. New York: Free Press.Becker, E. (1975). Escape from evil. New York: Free Press.Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Separation, anxiety and anger. New York:

Basic Books.Cohen, C., Solomon, S., Maxfield, M., Pyszczynski, T, & Greenberg, J. (2004).

Fatal attraction: The effects of mortality salience on evaluations of charis-matic, task oriented, and relationship oriented leaders. Psychological Science,15, 846–851.

Dechesne, M., Pyszczynski, T., Arndt, J., Ransom, S., Sheldon, K. M., vanKnippenberg, A., & Janssen, J. (2003). Literal and symbolic immortality:The effects of evidence of literal immortality on self-esteem strivings inresponse to mortality salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84,722–737.

Firestone, R. W. (1984). A concept of the primary fantasy bond: A developmentalperspective. Psychotherapy, 21, 218–225.

Firestone, R. W. (1987). Destructive effects of the fantasy bond in couple andfamily relationships. Psychotherapy, 24, 233–239.

Firestone, R. W. (1990a). Voices during sex: Application of voice therapy to sexu-ality. Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, 16, 258–275.

Firestone, R. W. (1990b). The bipolar causes of regression. The American Journal ofPsychoanalysis, 50, 121–135.

Firestone, R. W. (1993a). Individual defenses against death anxiety. Death Studies,17, 497–515.

Firestone, R. W. (1993b). The psychodynamics of fantasy, addiction, and addic-tive attachments. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 51, 335–352.

746 J. F. Bassett

Firestone, R. W. (1994). Psychological defenses against death. In R. A. Neimeyer(Ed.), Death anxiety handbook (pp. 217–241). Washington, DC: Taylor Francis.

Firestone, R. W. (1996). The origins of ethnic strife. Mind and Human Interaction, 7,167–180.

Firestone, R. W., & Catlett, J. (2000). Fear of intimacy. Washington, DC: AmericanPsychological Association.

Firestone, R. W. & Firestone, L. (1998). Voices in suicide: The relationshipbetween self-destructive thought processes, maladaptive behavior, and self-destructive manifestations. Death Studies, 22, 411–443.

Firestone, R. W., Firestone, L., & Catlett, J. (2002). Conquer your critical inner voice.Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.

Florian, V. & Mikulincer, M. (1997). Fear of death and the judgment of socialtransgressions: A multidimensional test of terror management theory. Journalof Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 369–380.

Florian, V., Mikulincer, M., & Hirschberger, G. (2002). The anxiety bufferingeffects of close relationships: Evidence that relationship commitment actsas a terror management mechanism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,82, 527–542.

Goldenberg, J. L., Cox, C. R., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S.(2002). Understanding human ambivalence about sex: The effects of strip-ping sex of meaning. Journal of Sex Research, 39, 310–321.

Goldenberg, J. L., McCoy, S. K., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S.(2000). The body as a source of self-esteem: The effects of mortality salienceon identification with one’s body, interest in sex, and appearance monitor-ing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 118–130.

Goldenberg, J. L., Pyszczynski, T., McCoy, S. K., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S.(1999). Death, sex, love, and neuroticism: Why is sex such a problem?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1173–1187.

Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., Schimel, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (2001). Clari-fying the function of mortality salience-induced worldview defense:Renewed suppression or reduced accessibility of death-related thoughts.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 70–76.

Greenberg, J., Martens, A., Jonas, E., Eisenstadt, D., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S.(2003). Psychological defense in anticipation of anxiety: Eliminating thepotential for anxiety eliminates the effects of mortality salience on worldviewdefense. Psychological Science, 14, 516–519.

Greenberg, J., Porteus, J., Simon, L., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1995).Evidence of a terror management function of cultural icons: The effects ofmortality salience on the inappropriate use of cherished symbols. Personalityand Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 1221–1228.

Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and con-sequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. InR. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public self and private self (pp. 189–212). New York:Springer-Verlag.

Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Pinel, E., Simon, L., & Jordan, K.(1993). Effect of self-esteem on vulnerability-denying defensive distortions:


Further evidence of an anxiety-buffering function of self-esteem. Journal ofExperimental Social Psychology, 29, 229–251.

Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Rosenblatt, A., Veeder, M., Kirkland, S.,& Lyon, D. (1990). Evidence for terror management theory II: The effects ofmortality salience on reactions to those who threaten or bolster the culturalworldview. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 308–318.

Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Simon, L., & Breus, M. (1994). Roleof consciousness and accessibility of death-related thoughts in mortalitysalience effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 627–637.

Greenberg, J., Simon, L., Harmon-Jones, E., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., &Lyon, D. (1995). Testing alternative explanations for mortality salienceeffects: Terror management, value accessibility, or worrisome thoughts?European Journal of Social Psychology, 25, 417–433.

Hirschberger, G. & Ein-Dor, T. (2005). Does a candy a day keep the deaththoughts away? The terror management function of eating. Basic and AppliedSocial Psychology, 27, 179–186.

Hirschberger, G., Florian, V., & Mikulincer, M. (2002). The anxiety bufferingfunction of close relationships: Mortality salience effects on willingness tocompromise mate selection standards. European Journal of Social Psychology,32, 609–645.

Hirschberger, G., Florian, V., & Mikulincer, M. (2003). Strivings for romantic inti-macy following partner complaint or criticism: A terror managementperspective. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 20, 675–687.

Landau, M. J., Goldenberg, J. L., Greenberg, J., Gillath, O., Solomon, S., Cox, C.,Martens, A., & Pyszczynski, T. (2006). The siren’s call: Terror managementand the threat of men’s sexual attraction to women. Journal of Personality andSocial Psychology, 90, 129–146.

Landau, M., Johns, M., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Martens, A.,Goldenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (2004). A function of form: Terror manage-ment and structuring the social world. Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology, 87, 190–210.

Lifton, R. J. (1979). The broken connection. New York: Simon & Schuster.McGregor, H., Leiberman, J., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., Simon, L., &

Pyszczynski, T. (1998). Terror management and aggression: Evidence thatmortality salience promotes aggression against worldview threatening indivi-duals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 590–605.

Mikulincer, M. & Florian, V. (2000). Exploring individual differences in reactionsto mortality salience: Does attachment style regulate terror managementmechanisms? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 260–273.

Mikulincer, M. & Florian, V. (2002). The effects of mortality salience on self-servingattributions—evidence for the function of self-esteem as a terror managementmechanism. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 24, 261–271.

Mikulincer, M., Florian, V., Birnbaum, G., & Malishkevich, S. (2002). The deathanxiety buffering function of close relationships: Exploring the effects ofseparation reminders on death-thought accessibility. Personality and SocialPsychology Bulletin, 28, 287–299.

748 J. F. Bassett

Mikulincer, M., Florian, V., & Hirschberger, G. (2003). The existential function ofclose relationships: Introducing death into the science of love. Personality andSocial Psychology Review, 7, 20–40.

Mikulincer, M., Florian, V., & Hirschberger, G. (2004). The terror of death andthe quest for love: An existential perspective on close relationships. InJ. Greenberg, S. L. Koole, & T. Pyszczynski (Eds.), Handbook of experimentalexistential psychology (pp. 287–304). New York: Guilford.

Mikulincer, M., Florian, V., & Tolmacz, R. (1990). Attachment style and fear ofpersonal death: A case study of affect regulation. Journal of Personality andSocial Psychology, 58, 273–280.

Miller, R. L. & Mulligan, R. D. (2002). Terror management: The effects of mor-tality salience and locus of control on risk-taking behaviors. Personality andIndividual Differences, 33, 1203–1214.

Peters, H. J., Greenberg, J., Williams, J. M., & Schneider, N. R. (2005). Applyingterror management theory to performance: Can reminding individuals oftheir mortality increase strength output. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology,27, 111–116.

Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (1997). Why do we need whatwe need? A terror management perspective on the roots of human socialmotivation. Psychological Inquiry, 8, 1–20.

Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (1999). A dual-process model ofdefense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts: An exten-sion of terror management theory. Psychological Review, 106, 835–845.

Pyszczynski, T., Wicklund, R. A., Floresky, S., Gauch, G., Koch, S., Solomon, S.,& Greenberg, J. (1996). Whistling in the dark: Exaggerated estimates of socialconsensus in response to incidental reminders of mortality. PsychologicalScience, 7, 332–336.

Rosenblatt, A., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Lyon, D. (1989).Evidence for terror management theory I: The effects of mortality salienceon reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural values. Journal of Person-ality and Social Psychology, 57, 681–690.

Routledge, C., Arndt, J., & Goldenberg, J. L. (2004) A time to tan: Proximal anddistal effects of mortality salience on sun exposure intentions. Personality andSocial Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1347–1358.

Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (1991). Terror management theoryof self-esteem. In C. R. Snyder & D. Forsyth (Eds.), Handbook of social and clini-cal psychology: The health perspective (pp. 21–40). New York: Pergamon Press.

Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2000). Pride and prejudice: Fearof death and social behavior. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9,200–204.

Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2004). The cultural animal:Twenty years of terror management theory and research. In J. Greenberg,S. L. Koole, & T. Pyszczynski (Eds.), Handbook of experimental existentialpsychology (pp. 13–34). New York: Guilford.

Taubman Ben-Ari, O. (2004a). Intimacy and risky sexual behavior—What does ithave to do with death? Death Studies, 28, 865–887.


Taubman Ben-Ari, O. (2004b). Risk taking in adolescence: ‘‘To be or not to be’’ isnot really the question. In J. Greenberg, S. L. Koole, & T. Pyszczynski (Eds.),Handbook of experimental existential psychology (pp. 104–121). New York:Guilford.

Taubman Ben-Ari, O., Findler, L., & Mikulincer, M. (2002). The effects ofmortality salience on relationship strivings and beliefs: The moderating roleof attachment style. British Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 419–441.

Taubman Ben-Ari, O., Florian, V., & Mikulincer, M. (1999). The impact of mor-tality salience on reckless driving: A test of terror management mechanisms.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 35–45.

Wisman, A. & Goldenberg, J. L. (2005). From the grave to the cradle: Evidencethat mortality salience engenders a desire for offspring. Journal of Personalityand Social Psychology, 89, 46–61.

750 J. F. Bassett

Psychological defenses against death anxiety: Integrating terror management theory and Firestone’s separation theory

Documents