Terror management theory and just world beliefs: an integrative approach

Thesis (M.A., Psychology (Counseling Psychology)) -- California State University, Sacramento, 2009.Terror Management Theory (TMT) has been extensively studied within the realm of\ud social psychology. This experiment aimed at extending TMT research by integrating\ud Just World Beliefs (JWB) within the context of attribution of blame as assessed by a\ud modified version of Hirschberger's Attribution of Blame scale. Specifically,\ud culpability (innocent/culpable), mortality salience (present/absent), and belief in a just\ud world (low/high) as measured by Rubin and Peplau's Just World Belief scale were\ud examined to determine whether high just world believers tend to attribute high blame\ud to innocent victims after a mortality salience induction. The participants were 156\ud undergraduates. JWB could not be included in analyses due to the scale's poor\ud internal consistency. Remaining hypotheses were not supported by the findings.\ud Contrary to expectation, subjects attributed high blame to guilty rather than innocent\ud targets. In addition, MS did not predict participants' blame attribution.Psychology (Counseling Psychology