I control therefore I ameffects of mortality salience on control attributions

  1. Willis Sánchez, Guillermo Byrd 2
  2. Tapia Vargas, Alejandro 1
  3. Martínez, Rocío 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Monterrey
    info

    Universidad de Monterrey

    San Pedro Garza García, México

    ROR https://ror.org/02arnxw97

  2. 2 Universidad de Granada
    info

    Universidad de Granada

    Granada, España

    ROR https://ror.org/04njjy449

Revista:
The Spanish Journal of Psychology

ISSN: 1138-7416

Año de publicación: 2011

Volumen: 14

Número: 2

Páginas: 765-772

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.5209/REV_SJOP.2011.V14.N2.24 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: The Spanish Journal of Psychology

Objetivos de desarrollo sostenible

Resumen

Desde la Teoría del Manejo del Terror se propone que ante el pensamiento de su propia muerte, los individuos desarrollan diversos mecanismos de defensa con el objetivo de disminuir la ansiedad existencial causada por la mortalidad. En este artículo se examinó uno de estos mecanismos: las atribuciones de control. Así, se realizó un experimento (n = 140) en el cual se manipuló la saliencia de la mortalidad y el tipo de fracaso (con consecuencias relevantes vs. con consecuencias poco relevantes) al que los participantes se enfrentaron. Después se les pidió a los participantes que evaluaran las causas de dicho fracaso. Los resultados mostraron que aquellos participantes a los que se les hizo saliente la mortalidad, en comparación con el grupo control, exhibieron una mayor tendencia para realizar atribuciones controlables; es decir, incluso en aquellas situaciones en las que los individuos podrían estar motivados para evadir la responsabilidad (i.e., un fracaso relevante), la saliencia de la mortalidad aumentó la controlabilidad percibida. Estos resultados sugieren que las atribuciones pueden ser un mecanismo de control compensatorio frente a la incontrolabilidad de la muerte.

Información de financiación

This research was supported by the Grant PSI 2010-17877 from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, and by the Asociación Universitaria Iberoamericana de Posgrado mobility grants obtained by the first and the second author during 2009 and 2010.

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