Making Sense of Life: The Existential Self Trying to Deal with Personal Uncertainty

Bos, Kees van den

doi:10.1080/10478400903333411

Cited by 286 publications

(267 citation statements)

References 107 publications

(175 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

254

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Indeed, survey data show that 88% of adult respondents thought it was very important for politicians to have a good understanding of economics, whereas only 62% thought the same about average citizens (National Council on Economic Education, 2005). Therefore, despite an increase in freedoms available to us, we are increasingly dependent on institutions and other people (Schwartz, 1994), and are willing to give up personal control to experts in the hopes that they can make better decisions for us (de Charms, 1968;Deci & Ryan, 1985;Iyengar & Lepper, 2000;Langer & Rodin, 1976;Lepper, 1983;Malone & Lepper, 1987;Schulz, 1976;Taylor, 1989;Zuckerman, Porac, Lathin, Smith, & Deci, 1978).…”

Section: From Unfamiliarity To Dependencementioning

confidence: 99%

On the perpetuation of ignorance: System dependence, system justification, and the motivated avoidance of sociopolitical information.

Shepherd¹,

Kay²

2012

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

130

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How do people cope when they feel uninformed or unable to understand important social issues, such as the environment, energy concerns, or the economy? Do they seek out information, or do they simply ignore the threatening issue at hand? One would intuitively expect that a lack of knowledge would motivate an increased, unbiased search for information, thereby facilitating participation and engagement in these issues-especially when they are consequential, pressing, and self-relevant. However, there appears to be a discrepancy between the importance/self-relevance of social issues and people's willingness to engage with and learn about them. Leveraging the literature on system justification theory (Jost & Banaji, 1994), the authors hypothesized that, rather than motivating an increased search for information, a lack of knowledge about a specific sociopolitical issue will (a) foster feelings of dependence on the government, which will (b) increase system justification and government trust, which will (c) increase desires to avoid learning about the relevant issue when information is negative or when information valence is unknown. In other words, the authors suggest that ignorance-as a function of the system justifying tendencies it may activate-may, ironically, breed more ignorance. In the contexts of energy, environmental, and economic issues, the authors present 5 studies that (a) provide evidence for this specific psychological chain (i.e., ignorance about an issue 3 dependence 3 government trust 3 avoidance of information about that issue); (b) shed light on the role of threat and motivation in driving the second and third links in this chain; and (c) illustrate the unfortunate consequences of this process for individual action in those contexts that may need it most.

show abstract

Section: From Unfamiliarity To Dependencementioning

confidence: 99%

On the perpetuation of ignorance: System dependence, system justification, and the motivated avoidance of sociopolitical information.

Shepherd¹,

Kay²

2012

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

130

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Similar concerns have been observed in other studies (Baile, Palmer, Bruera & Parker, 2010;Ryan, 2005) and in the handbook Nearing the End of Life published by the American Cancer Society (2014). The similarity of some of these thoughts regarding one's own death, in different cultural contexts, may be indicative of a conception of death and dying that is shared and generalised within developed societies, as has been noted by authors such as LouisVicent Thomas (1983) and Philippe Ariès (2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

La muerte ante uno mismo. Respuestas de jóvenes estudiantes ante el pensamiento de la propia muerte.

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Título: La muerte ante uno mismo. Respuestas de jóvenes estudiantes ante el pensamiento de la propia muerte. Resumen: Las narraciones sobre lo que evoca pensar en la propia muerte y describir los pensamientos y sentimientos sobre el morir, pueden ser por sí mismas una fuente de conocimiento nuevo en el estudio de la ansiedad y las actitudes ante la muerte. Se llevó a cabo un estudio cualitativo descriptivo con el objetivo de explorar las características de los pensamientos, las emociones y sentimientos sobre la propia muerte de jóvenes, estudiantes de enfermería. 85 estudiantes respondieron voluntariamente un cuestionario autoadministrado de preguntas abiertas basadas en la Mortality Salience empleada en la Teoría de la Gestión del Terror. El análisis se realizó mediante la estrategia de análisis de contenido con el programa Atlas ti. Ante el pensamiento sobre la propia muerte respondieron con los sustantivos miedo, dolor, angustia, tristeza o soledad. El miedo a la propia muerte se concretó como la imposibilidad de lograr las metas en la vida, dejar a la familia y el proceso de muerte en sí mismo. Ante las creencias sobre estar físicamente muerto señalaron atributos de la descomposición del cuerpo, atributos espirituales, creencias, negación y preferencias. La visión cultural, los valores y creencias de cada persona, se encuentran muy presentes cuando piensan en su propia muerte. Palabras clave: Actitud ante la muerte; Teoría de la Gestión del Terror; Emoción; Enfermería; Estudio cualitativo. Abstract: Narratives produced by thinking and reflecting about death and dying may be themselves a source of new knowledge in the study of anxiety and attitudes toward death. A qualitative descriptive study aimed to explore the features of thoughts, emotions and feelings about young people's own death, (nursing students) was conducted. 85 students voluntarily answered a self-administered questionnaire with open questions based on Mortality Salience, used in the Terror Management Theory. Content analysis using Atlas.ti software was performed. When reflecting upon their own death, participants reported substantive emotions such as fear, pain, distress, sadness or loneliness. The fear of their own death was specified as the inability to achieve goals in life, to leave the family and the dying process itself. When reflecting upon been physically dead, attributes of the decomposition of the body, spiritual attributes, beliefs, denial and preferences were identified. Cultural worldview, values and beliefs of each person were remarkably present when thinking about their own death.

show abstract

“…Dolayısıyla uyaranı tanımlamakta ya da tahmin etme sürecinde yaşanan güçlükler belirsizlik olgusuna işaret etmektedir. Kagan'dan (1972) başlayarak farklı araştırmacılar belirsizlik yönetiminin ya da belirsizliği azaltma ihtiyacının temel bir motivasyon olduğundan bahsetmektedir (ör., Hogg ve Abrams, 1993;Hofstede, 2001;Van den Bos, 2007;Van den Bos, 2009). Belirsizliğin tahmin edilemeyen, kontrol edilemeyen ve tehlikeli yapısından dolayı insanlar hayatta kalabilmek (Berlyne, 1962;Van den Bos, 2009) ve hedeflerini gerçekleştirebilmek (Jacobson, Weary ve Lin, 2008) için belirsizlikleri azaltma ihtiyacı duymaktadırlar.…”

Section: Belirsizlik Nedir?unclassified

Psychological Effects of Uncertainty

Küçükkömürler¹

2017

Nesne

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Making Sense of Life: The Existential Self Trying to Deal with Personal Uncertainty

Cited by 286 publications

References 107 publications

On the perpetuation of ignorance: System dependence, system justification, and the motivated avoidance of sociopolitical information.

On the perpetuation of ignorance: System dependence, system justification, and the motivated avoidance of sociopolitical information.

La muerte ante uno mismo. Respuestas de jóvenes estudiantes ante el pensamiento de la propia muerte.

Psychological Effects of Uncertainty

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About