Making Sense of Life: The Existential Self Trying to Deal with Personal Uncertainty

By K. van den Bos. 2009

351 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fdd4cf55fcf99dda5ff9d88cfc11f50cae7ae755

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Social Psychology

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

The Psychology of Middle Power: Vertical Code-Switching, Role Conflict, and Behavioral Inhibition (2017, neutral): “…1951; Erikson, 1968; Fromm, 1941; Lopes, 1987; Sorrentino &Roney, 1986), andhumansarestronglymotivated to reduce uncertainty (Hirsh et al., 2012; Hogg & Terry, 2000; van den Bos, 2001, 2009), especially when it is perceived to be self-relevant (Gollwitzer & Bargh, 1996; Nisbett & Ross, 1980).”
When consequence size predicts belief in conspiracy theories: The moderating role of perspective taking (2014, background): “…that people experience more distress about victims when they experience various forms of self-other overlap, such as a common group membership (Correia, Vala, & Aguiar, 2007), or a mindset that cognitively merges the self with others (i.e., social self-activation; Van Prooijen & Van den Bos, 2009).”
Uncertain Self in a Changing World: A Foundation for Radicalisation, Populism, and Autocratic Leadership (2020, background): “Other social psychological literatures invoke self-related uncertainty (see Arkin et al., 2010; Hogg et al., 2013; Križan & Gibbons, 2014; Kruglanski & Fishman, 2009; Kruglanski et al., 2006; Sorrentino & Roney, 1999; Van den Bos, 2009).”
Meaning in Life as Comprehension, Purpose, and Mattering: Toward Integration and New Research Questions (2016, background): “…to better well-being via the following: • Minimized uncertainty: As a result of having more coherent and consistent meaning frameworks that provide a sense of understanding, those higher on comprehension may experience less uncertainty on a day-to-day basis (Hirsh et al., 2012; Van den Bos, 2009).”
The Five “A”s of Meaning Maintenance: Finding Meaning in the Theories of Sense-Making (2012, background): “…of a mortality reminder, we can imagine that it evokes aversive uncertainty insofar as it violates our expectations for what we can know or achieve (Van den Bos, 2009), or is experienced as a source of personal threat (Jost et al., 2007), or that it acts as a sematic or goal prime (Förster,…”
Uncertainty Increases the Reliance on Affect in Decisions (2017, positive): “It is therefore useful to examine uncertainty not just as an ob-jective characteristic of the decision environment but as an experienced state of the individual (Bar-Anan, Wilson, and Gilbert 2009; Kagan 1972; van den Bos 2009).”
Uncertainty and the Roots of Extremism (2013, background): “…has been a growing interest in social psychology in researching and theorizing the role of uncertainty and related constructs in a range of behaviors that speak to the general phenomenon of extremism (e.g., Hogg, 2007b; Kruglanski et al., 2006; Van den Bos, 2009; see also Hogg & Blaylock, 2011).”
The Malicious Effects of Existential Threat on Motivation to Protect the Natural Environment and the Role of Environmental Identity as a Moderator (2012, background): “However, in future research also alternative accounts of mortality-salience effects on distancing might be considered, such as uncertainty reduction (Van den Bos, 2009) or control restoration (Fritsche, Jonas, & Fankhänel, 2008).”
Anxious Uncertainty and Reactive Approach Motivation (RAM) for Religious, Idealistic, and Lifestyle Extremes (2013, background): “…and uncertain about quantum physics or the life-cycle of a newt, but as these domains of knowledge have little bearing on our salient goals in life, such informational uncertainties do not cause defensive reactions (Van den Bos, 2009; empirical demonstration by McGregor, Prentice, & Nash, 2009).”
Belief in conspiracy theories: The influence of uncertainty and perceived morality (2013, background): “A typical factor that instigates such sense-making processes is subjective feelings of uncertainty, for instance about the self or the surrounding social environment (Kramer, 1998; Park, 2010; Park & Folkman, 1997; McGregor, 2006; Van den Bos, 2009).”
From Uncertainty to Extremism (2014, background): “…embrace all-encompassing exclusionary ideologies; identify with rigidly structured, intolerant, and ethnocentric social groups; and engage in radical, extreme, and sometimes violent intergroup behaviors (e.g., Jonas et al., 2014; Kruglanski, Pierro, Mannetti, & De Grada, 2006; Van den Bos, 2009)?”
Threat and defense: From anxiety to approach (2014, background): “For example, personal uncertainty threats increase in-group identification, in-group bias, defense of cultural worldviews, and exaggerated consensus estimates (Hogg, Sherman, Dierselhuis, Maitner, & Moffitt, 2007; McGregor, Nail, Marigold, & Kang, 2005; McGregor et al., 2001; Van den Bos, 2009).”
Terror Management Theory and Research: How the Desire for Death Transcendence Drives Our Strivings for Meaning and Significance (2014, background): “Some theorists have argued that it is self-certainty (van den Bos, 2009), or identity certainty (Hohmann & Hogg, 2011), that is at the root of things.”