Login (DCU Staff Only)
Login (DCU Staff Only)

DORAS | DCU Research Repository

Explore open access research and scholarly works from DCU

Advanced Search

An experimental investigation of existential concerns in point-of-care testing for cardiovascular disease using a terror management theory framework

Dunne, Simon (2012) An experimental investigation of existential concerns in point-of-care testing for cardiovascular disease using a terror management theory framework. PhD thesis, Dublin City University.

Abstract
Recent research in Terror Management Theory (TMT) has found that mortality reminders below conscious awareness can lead to avoidant responses towards cancer-screening. Following this, the current research programme used a TMT framework to evaluate if mortality reminders could result in analogous responses towards a novel device for indicating Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk; the ―CVD Risk Biochip‖. Three central studies (Studies 1, 2 and 4) were designed to examine if various mortality reminders would elicit more avoidant responses towards the ―CVD Risk Biochip‖ than control topics. The third of these studies (Study 4) also investigated whether or not the nature of the device itself served to dissociate an individual towards CVD, thereby moderating existential concerns. An additional study (Study 3) examined whether or not one of the mortality reminders from the first two studies (Heart Attack Salience) leads to the suppression of death-related thoughts. When taken together, the results of these studies demonstrate that devices like the CVD Risk Biochip may have a beneficial effect on the potential uptake of screening behaviours generally and highlight the potential for cross-cultural variability in responses towards TMT methodologies. The findings of the programme also suggest some unique recommendations for the future study of TMT, including the performance of initial qualitative investigations of the cultural worldviews of a particular cohort before examining TMT processes and the necessity of controlling for the confounding effects of word frequency and word ambiguity in future "death-thought accessibility" research.
Metadata
Item Type:Thesis (PhD)
Date of Award:November 2012
Refereed:No
Supervisor(s):Gallagher, Pamela and Matthews, Anne
Uncontrolled Keywords:Terror Management Theory; Mortality Reminders; TMT; Avoidant Behaviour
Subjects:Medical Sciences > Psychology
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science and Health > School of Nursing and Human Sciences
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. View License
ID Code:17456
Deposited On:29 Nov 2012 14:43 by Pamela Gallagher . Last Modified 19 Jul 2018 14:57
Documents

Full text available as:

[thumbnail of Simon_Dunne_PhD_Thesis_hard_bound_submitted.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
3MB
Downloads

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Archive Staff Only: edit this record