Imbuing Everyday Actions with Meaning in Response to Existential Threat Academic Article

abstract

• Drawing on terror management theory and related perspectives on existential motivation, we hypothesized that people manage concerns with personal mortality by imbuing their everyday actions with abstract, self-relevant meaning. Accordingly, we found that subtle reminders of mortality led participants to view hypothetical actions at higher levels of action identification (Study 1), draw more connections between their current actions and personally significant long-term goals (Study 2), and perceive past actions as particularly influential in shaping their current self-concept (Study 3). These findings complement prior research, which has focused on the motivated defense of cultural worldviews, by showing how existential motivation shapes perceptions of even mundane personal actions. 2010 Psychology Press.

authors

• Schmeichel, Brandon

published proceedings

• SELF AND IDENTITY

author list (cited authors)

• Landau, M. J., Kosloff, S., & Schmeichel, B. J.

citation count

• 28

complete list of authors

• Landau, Mark J||Kosloff, Spee||Schmeichel, Brandon J

publication date

• January 2011

publisher

• Taylor & Francis  Publisher

published in

• Self and Identity  Journal

keywords

• Action Identification Theory
• Counterfactual Reasoning
• Meaning
• Self
• Terror Management Theory
• Time

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1080/15298860903557243

start page

• 64

end page

• 76

volume

• 10

issue

• 1

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15298860903557243

user-defined tag

• 3 Good Health and Well-Being