Terror Management Theory, Religious Orientation, and Dissociation: Addressing Allport's Paradox of Religion and Racism

Beller, Jeremie

Terror Management Theory, Religious Orientation, and Dissociation: Addressing Allport's Paradox of Religion and Racism

dc.contributor.advisor	Miller, Claude
dc.contributor.author	Beller, Jeremie
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Kimball, Charles
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Hansen, Glenn
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Johnson, Amy
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Edy, Jill
dc.date.accessioned	2014-05-09T13:58:48Z
dc.date.available	2014-05-09T13:58:48Z
dc.date.issued	2014-04-30
dc.date.manuscript	2014-04-30
dc.description.abstract	Abstract This dissertation addresses the paradoxical relationship between religion and racism. Specifically, this study combines elements of terror management theory (TMT) and the dissociation model to examine the potential impact of intrinsic, extrinsic, quest, indiscriminate, and low religiosity on questions of race and death anxiety. Past research provides conflicting evidence concerning the ability of intrinsic religiosity to reduce racial tendencies. The negative correlation between intrinsic religiosity and prejudice has been questioned in light of social desirability concerns. The dissociation model suggests social desirability does not necessarily indicate lack of genuine concern for prejudice reduction. Measuring compunction (guilt/shame) in light of a participant’s self-reported violation of non-prejudiced beliefs (should , would, and discrepancy scores) provides a means to examine the degree to which non-prejudiced values are actually held. Likewise, self-reported discrepancies represent violations of a person’s cultural worldview and, according to TMT, result in increased death anxiety. Using a series of correlations, ANOVA’s and ANCOVA’s this dissertation found support for central elements of TMT. Increased discrepancy scores were found to be positively correlated with death anxiety. Discrepancy scores were also found to be negatively correlated with social desirability. Results also suggest intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest religiosity function similarly in relation to racism.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/11244/10379
dc.language	en_US	en_US
dc.subject	Terror Management	en_US
dc.subject	Religious Orientation	en_US
dc.subject	Dissociation Model	en_US
dc.subject	Religion and Race	en_US
dc.subject	Racism	en_US
dc.thesis.degree	Ph.D.	en_US
dc.title	Terror Management Theory, Religious Orientation, and Dissociation: Addressing Allport's Paradox of Religion and Racism	en_US
ou.group	College of Arts and Sciences::Department of Communication