Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Graham, Steven

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

To explain how people cope with fears of death, Terror Management Theory (TMT) proposes that individuals use two mechanisms to defend against unconscious death anxiety: cultural worldview (CWV) and self-esteem (SE). CWV is the environment one immerses themself into and internalizes to gain a sense of immortality, whereas SE is the extent to which an individual feels like they are upholding the standards of their CWV. The present study seeks evidence that may lead to the development of more accessible forms of exposure therapy by evaluating whether spiritual music can alleviate death anxiety. Participants (n = 72) listened to two songs containing lyrics describing life after death and reincarnation. Prior to and following exposure to the songs, they completed measures of death anxiety and paranormal beliefs. It was hypothesized that paranormal belief would be negatively associated with death anxiety, as TMT purports people place more faith in their CWV for comfort when faced with reminders of death. For this reason, it was also predicted that initial levels and change in paranormal belief would be positively correlated.

Contrary to expectations, there was an average increase in death anxiety across conditions, as well as an average decrease in paranormal beliefs. However, a positive association between change in death anxiety and change in paranormal belief was found. Participants who were more fearful of death clung tighter to their CWV, demonstrating support for TMT. While the present study was unsuccessful in staving off death anxiety using spiritual media, future research could focus on longitudinal design to evaluate whether said media can produce changes over repeated exposure.

Rights

The author has granted New College of Florida the nonexclusive right to archive, make accessible, and distribute for educational purposes this work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The copyright of this work remains with the author.

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