Terror management theory (TMT) proposes that humans mitigate death anxiety through the construction of worldviews and their subsequent participation therein. This participation generates high self-esteem, itself mitigative of death anxiety. Death anxiety and self-esteem are, however, multidimensional.
Intrapersonal death anxiety pertains to one’s annihilation. Interpersonal death anxiety pertains to fears of one’s eternal, social isolation. Classical self-esteem reflects one’s perception of one’s accomplishments in one’s adopted worldview. Sociometer self-esteem reflects one’s perception that one is included in the group to which one wishes to belong. TMT demonstrates that classical self-esteem mitigates intrapersonal death anxiety, leaving thereby “spirituality” unaddressed.
Empirical research on spirituality often favors first-person reports and descriptions. Meta-analytically considered, these studies indicate that spirituality accomplishes at least two psychological outcomes: (1) individuals feel like they are connected socially to something larger than themselves, and (2) there is a reduction in death anxiety (e.g., Pargament 1997; Zinnbauer et al. 1997; Averill 1998; Zinnbauer et al. 1999; Hill et al. 2000; Newberg et al. 2001; Moberg 2002; Zinnbauer & Pargament 2002, 2005; Pyszczynski et al. 2003; Kirkpatrick 2005). Complementing TMT, this paper proposes that “spirituality” is high sociometer self-esteem mitigative of interpersonal death anxiety.
Reliance upon meta-analyses of spirituality studies faces a significant definitional problem, a problem to which the present paper presents a tentative solution. To be sure, what exactly are we studying when we study “spirituality”? A future project should assess the extent to which spirituality achieves its psychological benefits without reliance upon the social transcendence of the natural.