Cultural-Existential Psychology: The Role of Culture in Suffering and Threat

Cultural psychology and experimental existential psychology are two of the fastest-growing movements in social psychology. In this book, Daniel Sullivan combines both perspectives to present a groundbreaking analysis of culture's role in shaping the psychology of threat experience. The first part of the book presents a new theoretical framework guided by three central principles: that humans are in a unique existential situation because we possess symbolic consciousness and culture; that culture provides psychological protection against threatening experiences, but also helps to create them; and that interdisciplinary methods are vital to understanding the link between culture and threat. In the second part of the book, Sullivan presents a novel program of research guided by these principles. Focusing on a case study of a traditionalist group of Mennonites in the midwestern United States, Sullivan examines the relationship between religion, community, guilt, anxiety, and the experience of natural disaster.

Author: Daniel Sullivan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 01/04/2018
Pages: 313
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.93lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.66d
ISBN: 9781107480711

About the Author
Sullivan, Daniel: - Daniel Sullivan is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He is the author of several articles and book chapters on topics in experimental existential psychology, including terror management theory, enemy relations and conspiracy theories, and interpretations of suffering and victimhood. He has also written on film and literature, and is the co-editor of Death in Classic and Contemporary Film: Fade to Black (with Jeff Greenberg, 2013).