Distal Defenses

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Arnaud Wisman, Nathan Heflick, and Jamie Goldenberg are social psychologists focusing on how people deal with being reminded of their mortality (consciously or subconsciously) through distal and proximal defenses. When most people think about death, they shift their focus to something else with proximal defenses (e.g. entertainment, work, and dismissing thoughts) that temporarily removes the conscious thought of death. Since proximal defenses do not provide a solid defense, distal defenses are used. Distal defenses “aim to provide a symbolic solution to the problem of mortality awareness” (Wisman p122) and are the main method of choice for individuals with a high self-esteem. But if a person has a low self-esteem, they will use a “much more…show more content…
“Sixty-nine undergraduate students from the University of Kent” (Wisman p124) participated in the test. First, “Global feelings about the self” (Wisman p124) was measured with ten questions that describe personal feelings that were answered with 1-5 on how much the subject agrees with the statements, “1= strongly disagree, and 5= strongly agree” (Wisman p124) this is known as the Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale. Subjects were then randomly asked one of two questions that “compare mortality salience with the salience of another aversive topic.” (Wisman p124). Question one asks the user to “Briefly describe the emotions that the thought of your own death arouses in you” (Wisman p124) and introduces mortality salience. Question two requires the individual to “Jot down, as specifically as you can, what you think will happen to you physically as you die and once you are physically dead.” (Wisman p124). The “immediate effects of self-esteem and mortality salience on [the] mood” (Wisman p124) were measured with “20-item Positive and Negative” (Wisman p124) feeling questions that were answered with a 1-5 statement, “1= very slightly or not at all, 5=extremely”. This is known as the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Private self-awareness was measured using the Private self-awareness factor of the “Situational Self-Awareness…show more content…
The self-awareness of “98 North American users of Amazon Mturk” (Wisman p125) was measured with how an individual completes ten sentences requiring a pronoun, some were “negatively-valenced” (Wisman p125) requiring a third test, and “answering two questions about visiting the dentist” (Wisman p125). Before this, mortality salience was introduced the same way as in test one then PANAS was administered. First person singular pronouns were given one point and the other pronouns were given zero points. The points were then added to produce a value. Results showed that people with low self-esteem had “higher self-focused attention than people high in self-esteem” (Wisman p125) when answering “questions about visiting the dentist” (Wisman p125), and the opposite when using first person singular pronouns to complete ten sentences. The results of test one and test two agree and prove that people with low self-esteem have more self-awareness than those with high self-esteem without mortality salience, and the opposite with mortality
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