Terror Management Theory and Self-Esteem

Terror Management Theory (TMT)

• Proposes that people are motivated to maintain a positive self-image because self-esteem protects them from anxiety
• According to Becker, humans' intellectual abilities lead to awareness of vulnerability and inevitable death, causing potential for debilitating anxiety
• To manage this, people often adopt cultural worldviews that provide a sense of meaning and order, and self-esteem serves as a buffer against death anxiety
• The link between self-esteem and protection from anxiety develops in early childhood through interactions with parents
• Parents' love and protection can show goodness and value, which can help children internalize these standards
• Meeting these internalized standards (self-esteem) becomes associated with feelings of safety and security

Research Supporting TMT

• Greenberg's study showed that increasing self-esteem reduces anxiety and defensiveness in response to threatening stimuli
• Mortality salience (MS) has been found to increase the need for faith in one's worldview

Criticisms of TMT

• People have questioned whether fear of death is truly a universal motivating force
• Others have proposed alternate explanations for MS effects, such as motives for uncertainty reduction, meaning, and belonging
• MS can also lead to opposing effects

Stigma and Well-being

• Stigma is defined as any characteristic that marks a person for social devaluation
• Stigmatised individuals often face a range of negative experiences, including harm, exclusion, and verbal and physical abuse
• These experiences can lead to anger, anxiety, low self-esteem, stress, and shame
• Coping strategies used by stigmatised individuals to protect themselves include restricting comparisons to within-group members, disengaging from dimensions, and attributing negative outcomes to prejudice

The Social Cure

• Group identification has been linked to reduced depression, increased control, resilience, better health, and improved well-being
• Identification with groups can help individuals find ways to protect themselves

Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT)

• States that people's attitudes towards ingroup and outgroup members reflect the objective interests of the ingroup
• RCT assumes that if the interests of two groups coincide, then relations between groups will be relatively harmonious
• If there is conflict between the two groups, then relations between groups will become hostile

Evidence Supporting RCT

• RCT can explain various conflicts, such as those between men and women, Palestinians and Israelis, Catholics and Protestants, and racial groups
• Economic competition has been linked to intergroup violence
• RCT can account for historical specificity of prejudice, such as changes in attitudes towards the USSR after WWII and towards Americans before and after the Gulf War

Criticisms and Limitations of RCT

• Sherif's studies have been criticized for methodological issues, such as the complexity of the camp setting, experimenter involvement, and ethical concerns
• RCT may oversimplify the causes of intergroup conflict, as other factors such as beliefs, culture, and individual differences can also play a role
• The theory assumes that conflict is always perceived as a zero-sum game, which may not always be the case

The Contact Hypothesis

• Suggests that intergroup conflict can be reduced by bringing groups into contact under certain conditions, including equal status, common goals, intergroup cooperation, support of authorities, and acquaintance or friendship potential
• Evidence supporting the contact hypothesis includes:
  • Early evidence from the desegregation of the merchant marine in 1948
  • Studies of white housewives in desegregated housing projects
  • Recent evidence from a wide variety of groups, including Chinese students in the U.S., German and Turkish school children, and various stigmatised groups
  • A meta-analysis found a highly significant effect size across 714 independent samples and 250,000 people

Criticisms and Limitations of the Contact Hypothesis

• The assumption that contact reduces prejudice through reduced ignorance has been questioned
• Alternative explanations focusing on reduced anxiety and increased empathy have been proposed
• The generalization of effects has been a concern, with some studies finding that improved attitudes towards outgroup members encountered during contact do not always extend to other outgroup members
• The typicality of outgroup members in contact situations has been shown to be important for generalization

Genocide and the Holocaust

• Genocide refers to an attempt to exterminate a group by creating conditions that lead to the group's destruction
• Mass killing is apart from genocide, and refers to killing group members of a group without the intention to eliminate the whole group
• The Holocaust resulted in the deaths of 6 million Jews and 5 million others
• Factors contributing to genocide include:
  • Difficult life conditions
  • Cultural-societal characteristics
  • A continuum of destruction
  • Economic, political, and cultural factors
• The way in which we attempt to resolve this problem of genocide can cause us to turn against outgroups

Social Identity Theory (SIT)

• Aims to explain intergroup behavior and discrimination
• Assumes that individuals engage in social categorization to simplify the complex social world
• Social categorization is not neutral but occurs with respect to the self, leading to the formation of a 'social identity' or 'social self'
• SIT predicts an inherent need to evaluate the self positively, which is achieved through comparisons with relevant outgroups
• Comparisons favoring the ingroup lead to a positive social identity and self-esteem, while comparisons favoring the outgroup result in a negative social identity and poor self-esteem

Evidence Supporting SIT

• Studies provide support for SIT's predictions regarding the link between social identity and intergroup discrimination

Criticisms and Limitations of SIT

• The relationship between self-esteem and intergroup discrimination is more complex than initially proposed by SIT
• SIT does not always predict intergroup discrimination as a means of enhancing self-esteem
• The theory's predictions may not hold in all contexts, as factors such as group boundary permeability, status stability, and perceived legitimacy of status differences can influence the choice of self-esteem enhancement strategies