The Mortality Sallience Hypothesis

     How does death affect the behavior of people? Although death affects everyone's behavior differently, knowledge of one's imminent death is a main force behind behavioral changes. This knowledge causes emotions that motivate people to act in ways that they normally would not. In Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried,'; the knowledge of death and its closeness causes the men in the story to alter their behavior by changing they way they display power, modifying emotions to relieve guilt, and by exhibiting different actions to ease anxiety.

To begin, we can see the effect of death on family members and friends throughout Night. One of the examples of this includes Elie and his father’s reaction to the death of Elie’s mother and sister as they're emotionally torn and mentally demoralized. We also see Stein (one of Elie’s relatives from Antwerp), who cried with joy when he found out (although he was lied to) that his wife and children were alive, but how would he have reacted to their death? However, some would argue that believing that people would miss you and need you is selfish (what would make you so special?). Well frankly that thought more or less resembles arrogance, not selfishness along with the fact that believing in “the herd” is instinct. As the author of “Is Survival Selfish” put it “humans are such social herd animals, dependent on the herd for survival, that we feel a pull toward others” meaning that believing that others need you is instinctual. To sum it up, survival is also for the emotional and mental health of those who care about

In addition, Cicirelli said, “The meanings of death and life are interdependent. Life gains its meaning from the fact of death. How, when, where, and why one anticipates dying influences the meaning of the life that one has. Such a view implies changing individuals over time, and consequently a life-span perspective on development of personal death meanings and related death fears. One would expect the individual to develop different personal meanings and death fears over the course of life from early childhood to adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and old age”( Cicirelli 715). When I was seven years old, I fear of death because the dead body and the coffin. There are a lot of Chinese horror movie talk about dead people who become zombies, then at night, they will come out of

In Samuel Scheffler’s lecture, Death and the Afterlife, he discusses the themes of death and intrinsic values (16). In doing so, Scheffler develops a theoretical scenario: If the earth were to be destroyed thirty days after one selected individual dies of natural causes, how would people react to this situation (18)? He claims that if the earth were to be destroyed thirty days after one’s death, results would be disastrous (16). Scheffler feels this way because human beings hold steadfast to several intrinsic values, and having the knowledge of the world’s destruction would lead to a mentally depressed world (16).

At the most basic level of subconscious thought, every living animal possesses a desire to stay alive. Usually, this instinct lays dormant, although in dire situations, we can be led to do unexpected things. In addition to this subconscious drive, there is a socially constructed motivation for fearing death. Thanks to the pervasive nature of religion throughout history, much of humanity has, at some point or another, feared the prospect of eternal damnation and torture during one’s life after death. Although not every religion has a negative aspect of the afterlife, or even any semblance of an afterlife at all, those religions which do contain some such construct receive much more attention in this regard. Throughout history, many

Dying is a natural occurrence in every single person's life or at least for now. Maybe, just maybe if some day scientist actually do perhaps come across a formula that would enable humans to live forever would it truly be a blessing or just a curse for all eternity? Infinite life filled with starvation and even suffocation from over population certainly sounds more like a curse than a blessing.

In regards to the Principle of Mortality “A reasonable moral principle, whether applied to acts or rules. How our behavior affects should be of moral concern to us. Moreover, we want our moral rules to make our society a good society, and it is hard to argue against the claim that a happy society is better than unhappy society”. Society often governs that way think by categorizing us with race, religion, ethnicity, but most importantly gender always separating us all in some way. Society is controlling the way we think not necessary are actions, they control the way we think in such a way we don’t even know we’re being controlled. By rewarding us when we conform to the rules, and penalizing us when we don 't conform. Not allowing transgender students the right to facilitate locker rooms that correspond to their inner gender-identity is pure discrimination. if we aren 't accepting and keeping are transgender students safe by accepting who they truly are by allowing them to access bathrooms neither will engender students how they gonna accept them if we aren 't setting a good examples school should be a place to learn about all types of things and make everyone feel comfortable and safe mostly important accepted for who they truly are.

The belief in afterlife, whether it is heaven or hell, is common in younger children and adolescents (Cicirelli, 2001). Children and adolescents often don’t associate reasoning for why the dying process is happening. This naive mind may be a blessing in disguise when it comes to death. It can eliminate fear, and keep the child positive and cheerful through their dying process. The idea of afterlife is looked at differently at all different ages, although the existence has never actually been proven to be true or false, as one gets older doubt is more common to occur. However, if one believes in afterlife, the process may be less terrifying and letting go of loved ones may be easier. In a study that included adults who’s ages ranged from 19 to 53, death was determined to be viewed as a motivator for setting goals, as extinction, and an opportunity to leave a legacy for the future populations (Cicirelli, 2001). These views are very matter of fact, they show that during adulthood death is thought of to be something that just happens, and something that cannot be controlled. It is common for adults dying to fear that they are not going to be remembered, they want to impact others in some way before they go. Emotions during the dying process are often different from person to person during adulthood, some may feel they did not get

People would also like to have immortality such as living beyond death or leaving a mark the world for people to remember. The few people that would be different about death could be avoiding the thought of death or they are not aware of the feeling about becoming closer to death. People would do more positive things to leave their mark, so thinking of death would drive others to do good. The other part of the people who think of negative things will believe that death will have a terrible outcome.

Death rates, have decreased significantly over the years due to many scientific breakthroughs in medicine. People today are living longer than they did 100 years ago. Or for lack of a better example, Back in the days of the Black Death, you were lucky to be alive in your forty’s. It’s unlikely for people to die at forty over a flu in present day America. However, some diseases, we have only begun to understand a little more. For example, cancer is a big threat to human longevity. According to Peter Crosta, in an article he wrote, “Cancer harms the body when altered cells divide uncontrollably to form lumps or masses of tissue called tumors” (2015). Treatments for cancer are not as effective as we would want them to be. Cancer treatments

The will of many to hold on to this mortal one is an extremely strong and astounding one. People will stay alive from fear of the unknown and the dark. Helen Keller once said “Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see” exemplifying courage and lack of fear for the next unknown (Death Quotes). As shown in poems A Death Blow to Some is a Life-blow to Others and When Lilacs Last in Door-yard Bloomed and events in the poets own lives as well as a 20th century painting, further proving that death is not something one should fear, but something to see as a new adventure.

Then the article compared the TMT with SDT in many aspects. TMT emphasizes the reduction of anxiety with regard to the awareness of the unavoidable death. TMT stresses self awareness and also considers the self awareness as the fundamental reason for human beings to have existential terror. The fear of death prevents human beings from optimal functioning and development. TMT adopted perspectives from mechanistic meta theory and views human beings as passive creatures that strive to deal with the anxiety of the unavoidable death. In the view of TMT, self esteem, cultural worldviews and other concepts serve as methods to defense human begins from the existential terror in order to function normally.

When looking at the roster of courses left to complete my certification in Religious Studies, I was in disbelief that there was a course on mortality with a blatant title that had the words, “Death” and “Dying” in it. Having the proclivity to do more psychology courses, I was left with these two courses: The Psychology of Death and Dying, and the Psychology of Religion. Believing that life was for the living I was completely caught off guard by the title, the vastness in content and research done on the subject. So, I braced myself for a somber, serious, and primarily academic experience. Was I in for a surprise!

In our minds we are warned and aware of the future and what it will bring to us. This is found most clearly in the men of the loftiest genius and greatest souls. They wonder why they should toil and strain in life when it is much easier to do the basic necessities. However, many people of the past and present have sacrificed their lives for something that they believe in and value. This can be many different ideas and institutions of life. Many that sacrifice do this because of the thought that their names and deeds would continue after them. They believed in the idea of immortality, not of the body, but rather of the soul and that it will continue long after them. This is supported by the voice of nature and the general opinion of people. Those in great power believe in this idea and this motivates their actions. This idea even carries over to even poets and philosophers with their desire for fame even after their death. Their view towards death is important in how they live their lives. A forward thinking mindset is useful for life and how they prepare for death. This adds to the value of their lives and the work they perform. I agree that we are aware of the future and act accordingly with the pursuit of higher things in life. Immorality is an important motivator of how we act.

Death is an occurrence that brings forth the advent of grief and apprehension. More than half of the world stands in fear when faced with the arrival of departure, the coming of the end on their doorstep. Scientific discoveries have added to the human understanding of how death works, teaching it logical and literal explanations. But the thought of leaving the marvelous determinates; the love, laughter, and exhilaration of life just to rot, decay, and to enter a void of nothingness could never be comforting. How can the human mind continue to find purpose in life if it is just living to reach a despicable conclusion? Well, that’s where religion plays a role. In order to console the nagging dismay of death’s (horror), a system of beliefs