COVID-19 pandemic, death anxiety and mental health from the perspective of Terror Management Theory

ABSTRACT

Originating from China in late 2019 and spreading over the entire world, the COVID-19 pandemic has become a formative historical experience for humanity. People have encountered the coronavirus in three distinct forms through contracting the disease themselves or witnessing the conditions of others in their environment;via the public discourse on the pandemic or through the various restrictive and lockdown measures. As a result, people experience such psychological pressure that demonstrably increases the incidence of death anxiety and mental disorders. This paper aims to present the scientific research on the pandemic's psychological impact from the aspect of Terror Management Theory (TMT). As its key concept, TMT identifies death anxiety as a universal archetypal experience that forms a certain basis for our mental functions, behaviour and thus psychiatric disorders as well. We tackle death anxiety in proximal and distal forms, preventing it from growing into a potential cause for serious mental disorders. After a brief presentation of the theory, the COVID–19 pandemic's impact on death anxiety and various psychiatric disorders in light of the latest TMT research and studies are examined. The pandemic weakens both of our death anxiety coping mechanisms, which, according to TMT research, is responsible for increased death anxiety as well as for the exacerbation of various mental disorders. Finally, studies on the pandemic and the positive changes of mental state, along with the proposals offered by certain TMT researchers are discussed. © 2022 A Szerzo(k).