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Terror management and adults' attachment to their parents: the safe haven remains

Cathy R Cox1, Jamie Arndt, Tom Pyszczynski

  • 1Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. crcr25@mizzou.edu

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|March 26, 2008
PubMed

Six studies examined the role of young adults' parental attachment in terror management. Studies 1-3 revealed that activating thoughts of one's parent in response to mortality salience (MS) reduced death-thought accessibility and worldview defense and increased feelings of self-worth. Studies 4-5 demonstrated that MS led to greater ease of recalling positive maternal interactions and greater difficulty recalling negative interactions, and increased attraction to a stranger who was described as being similar to one's parent. If reliance on parents for terror management purposes reflects the operation of attachment mechanisms, then such effects should vary on the basis of an individual's attachment style. Study 6 demonstrated that, after MS, insecure individuals were more likely to rely on relationships with their parents, whereas secure individuals were more likely to rely on relationships with romantic partners.

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