Chapter 19 - The Psychological Process of Coping with Threat and Its Cultural Maintenance Function

Abstract

This chapter discusses the unique human aspect of threat reactions referred as symbolic affirmation, followed by a short discussion of non-symbolic, automatic consequences of threat which humans may share with many lower animals. In so doing, some of the basic principles involved in these processes of threat reaction are highlighted, guided by a review of recent literature, such as compensatory satisfaction of motives, and physiological and cognitive depletions that follow threat. A brief review of the literature suggests that some individuals are more susceptible to certain threats than others. Furthermore, some people react to a threat more autonomously by maintaining their personal control while others in react to the same threat less autonomously by conforming and adjusting to others. These differences are analyzed in terms of individuals' psychological resources. It is argued that individuals with more limited psychological resource are more vulnerable to threats, consistent to the notion that cultural knowledge is transmitted from experts to novices. Further, it has been proposed that repeated resource depletions through the experiences of threat would lead the victim to be other-dependent and conforming rather than autonomous and agentic. The view taken in this chapter assumes that symbolic affirmation and automatic reactions that follow threat are universal.