Terror Mismanagement: Exploring How People with Posttraumatic Stress, Autism, Social Anxiety, and OCD Cope with Death Awareness

Terror management theory research shows people function effectively in the world, in part, by relying on anxiety-buffer systems to protect against death awareness. This symposium explores “terror mismanagement”: the intersection of existential threat (e.g., death awareness) with various psychopathological conditions, including post-traumatic stress, autism, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).