关键词: 自主动机, 死亡焦虑, 新冠疫情

Abstract:

The novel coronavirus epidemic with its high uncertainty and mortality has caused a surge in negative emotional experiences such as anxiety and fear around the world. As a self-regulation strategy, Autonomous orientation can decrease the negative impact of threat situation on self by viewing self as an individual with autonomy. 2 subject-between experiments were designed to investigate merely priming people with autonomous orientation can buffer death anxiety triggered by the COVID-19 epidemic. Results demonstrated that the neutral and controlled priming group both displayed heightened levels of death-related thoughts accessibility after reminded of themselves suffering from COVID-19 compared with dental pain, whereas participants who were primed with autonomous motivation did not show any increase. These findings support the evidence that autonomous orientation can sever as existential buffer and help people cope with the psychological terror triggered by the COVID-19 epidemic. Future research examining whether priming autonomous orientation would generate long-term death anxiety buffering effect and promote psychological growth.

Key words: autonomous motivation, death anxiety, COVID-19