concepts
type: Collection
type: ConceptGroup
member: terror management theory

cultural psychology
type: Concept
narrower: terror management theory

culture (anthropology)
type: Concept
narrower: terror management theory

intergroup relations
type: Concept
narrower: terror management theory

psychological perspectives on death
type: Concept
narrower: terror management theory

terror management theory
type: Concept
broader: theory (group processes)
broader: the self
broader: psychological perspectives on death
broader: intergroup relations
broader: culture (anthropology)
broader: cultural psychology
definition: Terror management theory (TMT) is a prominent theory in social psychology that holds the idea that basic motivation for human cognition and behavior is the fear of death. Based on Ernest Becker's ideas regarding human motivation, TMT was generated and published in the late 1980s by Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, and Sheldon Solomon, and centers around the psychological mechanisms typically used to buffer the anxiety deriving from the awareness of one's own death. [Source: Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience; Terror Management Theory]

the self
type: Concept
narrower: terror management theory

theory (group processes)
type: Concept
narrower: terror management theory