Existential Underpinnings of Approach and Avoidance of the Physical Body
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2006
Keywords
Approach/avoidance, Mortality salience, Physical body, Sex
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-006-9023-z
Abstract
In addition to enjoying pleasurable bodily activities, people appear threatened by the physical aspects of the body; they experience anxiety and inhibitions surrounding sex, eating, bodily appearance and functions. Based on terror management theory, we posit that people are dually motivated to approach the life-affirming properties of the physical body, and to avoid the physical or animalistic aspects of the body because of their association with death. This paper summarizes a substantial body of research, consisting of over twenty empirical studies, that identify personality and situational variables that interact with mortality concerns, moderating approach and avoidance attitudes and behaviors with respect to the physical body. We suggest that this dynamic motivation can go far in explaining the often observed ambivalence toward the body.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Motivation and Emotion, v. 30, issue2, p. 127-134
Scholar Commons Citation
Goldenberg, Jamie L.; Kosloff, Spee; and Greenberg, Jeff, "Existential Underpinnings of Approach and Avoidance of the Physical Body" (2006). Psychology Faculty Publications. 1504.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/1504
