The impact of State of Surrender on the relationship between engagement in substance use treatment and meaning in life presence: a pilot study.

The current study examined the construct of State of Surrender (SoS)-defined as a willingness to accept, without resistance, what is to come-and investigated SoS as a statistical mediator of the relationship between engagement in substance use treatment and meaning in life (MIL). Using a cross-sectional design, participants were 123 people involved with the legal system participating in a 6-month residential treatment program for substance use. Results showed that measures of treatment engagement, including treatment participation, counselor rapport, and peer support, were all positively associated with SoS scores ( s ≥ 21.

Loneliness and Relationship Well-Being: Investigating the Mediating Roles of Relationship Awareness and Distraction among Romantic Partners.

Loneliness arises when there is a discrepancy between one's desired and actual social connection with others. Studies examining the effects of loneliness in romantic relationships show that people who are lonely are less satisfied and committed to their romantic relationships. The present study explored the association between loneliness and romantic relationship well-being.

The role of death-related advertisements in cell phone use while driving.

Approximately 25% of accidents in the United States are caused by texting while driving, prompting the creation of several media campaigns to reduce such risky behavior. The current research examined whether death-related advertisements cell phone use while driving. Studies 1-3 found that individuals engaged in greater distracted driving in the presence of a mortality-themed texting advertisement.

Existential isolation and well-being in justice-involved populations.

Much work in psychology has focused on feelings of social isolation and/or loneliness. Only recently have psychologists begun to explore the concept of existential isolation (EI). EI is the subjective sense that persons are alone in their experience and that others are unable to understand their perspective.

The past promotes the picture of health: Nostalgia as a resource for physical well-being.

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, confers an array of psychological, emotional, and social benefits. This review article discusses emerging evidence that exemplify how nostalgia also contributes to better physical health. Nostalgia's capacity for health promotion is highlighted in relation to five key areas: (a) nurturing positive health attitudes, (b) increasing physical activity, (c) improving dietary choices, (d) reducing health risk behavior, and (e) attenuating physical pain.

Aloneliness predicts relational anger and aggression toward romantic partners.

Aloneliness is the negative psychological state characterized by dissatisfaction with one's lack of solitude, which is connected to well-being deficits (e.g., depression, stress).

Taking the Divinity from the Divine: The Interaction Between Death Concerns and Religiosity on the Evaluation of a Human Jesus.

Quest religiosity is characterized by an openness toward religious doubt and uncertainty as a way to grow existentially. The current paper examines how death awareness contributes to quest (vs low quest) Christians' reactions toward a Jesus depicted as doing biologically human actions (e.g.

Death Concerns, Benefit-Finding, and Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, reminders of death are particularly salient. Although much terror management theory research demonstrates that people engage in defensive tactics to manage mortality awareness, other work shows that existential concerns can motivate growth-oriented actions to improve health. The present study explored the associative link between coronavirus anxieties, fear of death, and participants' well-being.

Attenuating Pain With the Past: Nostalgia Reduces Physical Pain.

Previous work has found that nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, is associated with psychological, emotional, and social benefits. Recent research has demonstrated that nostalgic reflection also can improve individuals' physical health (i.e.

Ebola salience, death-thought accessibility, and worldview defense: A terror management theory perspective.

According to terror management theory, individuals defend their cultural beliefs following mortality salience. The current research examined whether naturally occurring instances of death (i.e.

The existential cost of economic insecurity: Threatened financial security undercuts meaning.

Financial security (i.e., a person's sense that they can afford the things they need now and in the foreseeable future) contributes to psychological health and well-being.

An exercise in nostalgia: Nostalgia promotes health optimism and physical activity.

Objective: Previous research has shown that nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, leads to greater feelings of optimism, with other work demonstrating that optimistic thinking (general & health-orientated) is associated with better physical and psychological health. Integrating these two lines of research, the current studies examined whether nostalgia-induced health optimism promotes attitudes and behaviours associated with better physical well-being.

Methods: Participants, in three experiments, were randomly assigned to write about either a nostalgic or ordinary event.

Death concerns and psychological well-being in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Purpose: Utilizing a terror management theory perspective, the present research examined whether having a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with underlying cognitions and explicit worries about death, and their roles in psychological well-being.

Method: 147 mothers of children with ASD (n=74) and typically developing children (n=73) completed a fear of death scale, as well as measures of death-thought accessibility, positive and negative affect, depression, and anxiety.

Results: Following previous research, mothers of children with ASD reported worse psychological health.

The relationship between alcohol cues, alcohol expectancies, and physical balance.

Although previous research has shown that beliefs about alcohol (expectancies) are associated with alcohol-consistent, nonconsumptive behavior (e.g., aggression; Friedman, McCarthy, Bartholow, & Hicks, 2007), no research has examined the effects of such expectancy on physical balance.

The interactive effect of mortality reminders and tobacco craving on smoking topography.

Objective: Although fatal consequences of smoking are often highlighted in health communications, the question of how awareness of death affects actual smoking behavior has yet to be addressed. Two experiments informed by the terror management health model were conducted to examine this issue. Previous research suggests that the effects of mortality reminders on health-related decisions are often moderated by relevant individual difference or situational variables.

Considering the unspoken: the role of death cognition in quality of life among women with and without breast cancer.

This study examined how breast cancer diagnosis influences underlying cognitions and explicit worries about death, and their roles in health-related quality of life (QOL). Forty-two women who underwent surgery for the removal of either a cancerous or benign breast mass indicated their worries about dying and completed measures of death-thought accessibility and QOL. Women with cancer reported lowered physical, emotional, and functional well-being.

Stress, coping and cognitive deficits in women after surgery for breast cancer.

Research on neuropsychological difficulties among cancer patients has focused on chemotherapy as a primary cause, yet several studies have now shown that some patients evidence cognitive weaknesses prior to chemotherapy. As an alternative to the 'chemo-brain' theory, this study examined the hypothesis that stress and coping style may be associated with observed neuropsychological difficulties among female cancer patients. Thirty-six women completed neuropsychological testing and psychological questionnaires following surgery for breast cancer and prior to any subsequent treatments.

Tai Chi effects on neuropsychological, emotional, and physical functioning following cancer treatment: a pilot study.

Objective: To examine the effects of a 10-week Tai Chi (TC) program on neuropsychological, psychological, and physical health of female cancer survivors.

Design: Twenty-three women with a history of cancer participated in 60-min TC classes two times/week for 10-weeks.

Main Outcome Measures: Before and after the intervention, participants completed neuropsychological tests (memory, executive functioning, language, and attention); 5 tests of balance; and self-report questionnaires of neuropsychological complaints, stress and mood, and fatigue.

How sweet it is to be loved by you: the role of perceived regard in the terror management of close relationships.

Drawing from terror management theory, the present research examined whether people turn to close relationships to manage the awareness of mortality because they serve as a source of perceived regard. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that mortality salience (MS) leads people to exaggerate how positively their romantic partners see them and demonstrated that people are more committed to their partners to the extent that their romantic partners serve as a source of perceived regard after MS (Study 3). Study 4 revealed that activating thoughts of perceived regard from a partner in response to MS reduced death-thought accessibility.

Does rurality affect quality of life following treatment for breast cancer?

Purpose: The present research examined the extent to which rural residence and social support seeking are associated with quality of life (QOL) among breast cancer patients following chemotherapy.

Methods: Female breast cancer patients (n = 46) from communities of varying degrees of rurality in a Midwestern state completed psychological and QOL measures at 1-month postchemotherapy. Analyses assessed the relationships between QOL outcomes, rurality, and social support seeking.

Bronze is beautiful but pale can be pretty: the effects of appearance standards and mortality salience on sun-tanning outcomes.

Objective: Using the terror management health model (J. L. Goldenberg & J.

Exploring the existential function of religion: the effect of religious fundamentalism and mortality salience on faith-based medical refusals.

Decisions to rely on religious faith over medical treatment for health conditions represent an important but understudied phenomenon. In an effort to understand some of the psychological underpinnings of such decisions, the present research builds from terror management theory to examine whether reminders of death motivate individuals strongly invested in a religious worldview (i.e.

Blowing in the (social) wind: implications of extrinsic esteem contingencies for terror management and health.

In 4 studies, the role of extrinsic esteem contingencies in adjusting to shifting health-relevant standards when managing existential fears was examined. Study 1 demonstrated that after reminders of death, higher dispositional focus on extrinsic self-esteem contingencies predicted greater interest in tanning. Using a more domain-specific approach, Study 2 showed that, after being reminded of death, the more individuals smoke for social esteem reasons, the more compelling they find an antismoking commercial that exposes adverse social consequences of smoking.

The psychosocial effect of thoughts of personal mortality on cardiac risk assessment.

Background: Prejudice by medical providers has been found to contribute to differential cardiac risk estimates. As such, empirical examinations of psychological factors associated with such biases are warranted. Considerable psychological research implicates concerns with personal mortality in motivating prejudicial biases.

Interpersonal politics: the role of terror management and attachment processes in shaping political preferences.

Research on terror management theory (TMT) indicates that reminders of death affect political attitudes, but political orientation only sometimes moderates these effects. We propose that secure relationships are associated with values of tolerance and compassion, thus orienting people toward liberalism; insecure attachments are associated with more rigid and absolutist values that orient people toward conservatism. Given that attachment relationships become especially active when security needs are heightened, we predicted that mortality salience would be an important factor in understanding the relationship between attachment processes and political orientation.