Title:
Understanding hoarding from a terror management perspective: mortality salience as a mediator of the relation between traumatic life events and hoarding
Author:
David F. Chen
Thesis Advisor:
Heather Lyons
Committee Member:
Beth A. Kotchick
Committee Member:
Martin Sherman
Committee Member:
James Miracky
Committee Member:
Adanna Johnson
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola University Maryland
Date Created:
2012
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
born digital
Abstract:
Hoarding has gained recognition recently as a serious private and public problem by which the accumulation of and failure to discard items leads to cluttered and potentially dangerous conditions. Research indicates that genetic factors may account for roughly half of hoarding cases, potentially leaving the other half explained by environmental experiences. While several studies have examined the relation between traumatic life events and hoarding, the mechanism that may explain this link is still unknown. Drawing upon Terror Management Theory, this study examined whether mortality salience, an awareness of one's own eventual death, may serve to partially mediate the relation between traumatic life events and hoarding severity. Eighty-one adults with self-reported hoarding behavior completed a survey online or in person assessing traumatic life events experienced, hoarding symptomatology, and mortality salience. Results did not reveal a relation between traumatic life events and hoarding severity. Results also indicated that mortality salience did not partially mediate the relation between traumatic life events and hoarding. However, there was an association between types of traumatic life events and hoarding severity. This study was subject to several limitations; therefore, the findings of this study should be interpreted cautiously.
Degree:
Master of Science
Level:
Master
Discipline:
Clinical Psychology
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online.
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Identifier:
ChenDF-12
