ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the potential distinctions between the omnipresent, but distal, anxiety of death, and the phasic fear associated with proximal events that could lead to death. It includes terror management theory (TMT) a review of relevant literature on fear, and a model that includes elements of TMT, along with a theory of fear more rooted in proximal threats: the extended parallel process model (EPPM). The chapter proposes a link between state-based fear and trait-based mortality salience. Mortality salience is the core element of TMT and refers to an individual's realization that he or she will die. According to TMT, when mortality becomes salient, individuals tend to draw from their cultural worldviews (CWVs) to serve as a buffer of the anxiety experienced when thinking about their inevitable experience of death. Although hitherto untested, proposes that the integration of elements of TMT and EPPM might be useful in examining mortality-salience induction by means other than self-reflection.
