Cultural-Existential Psychology

The Role of Culture in Suffering and Threat

Daniel Sullivan

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781107096868
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316566558
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Social Psychology
• Index: Psychology

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Epilogue
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part I Theory
• Part II Research
• Part III Implications
• Appendix A Guide to key abbreviations and terms
• Appendix B Data analyses, Chapter 6
• Appendix C Methodology and questionnaire items, Chapter 7
• Appendix D Data analyses, Chapter 7
• References
• Index