Exploring The Impact of Esteem-Contingencies and Criminal Worldviews on Criminal Intentions

• In Event: Advancing Social Learning Theory: Beliefs, Norms and Morality as Causes of Crime

Abstract

The research seeks to lay the foundation for an integrated perspective on crime that includes variables from social learning theory, strain theory, and terror management theory (TMT). TMT is a social psychology theory that explores how death anxiety impacts human behavior through the three interconnected anxiety buffering mechanisms of cultural worldviews, self-esteem, and close personal attachments. Cultural worldviews are developed through a social learning process that relies upon close personal attachments, which together provide the avenues for self-esteem to be acquired. This study explored if criminal worldviews explained higher levels of criminal intentions and if this relationship was strengthened by a death anxiety prime called mortality salience. An experimental study was conducted to test the hypothesis that higher levels of criminal worldviews would explain higher levels of criminal intentions, which would be strengthened by the experimental variable mortality salience. Initial analysis supported this hypothesis with higher criminal worldviews explaining higher levels of criminal intentions with statistically significant, but limited, differences across groups. Criminal esteem-contingencies were particularly strong predictors, which may suggest the need to further explore how psychological factors, such as self-esteem or self-concept clarity, can relate to criminal behavior.

Author

• Cole Stillson, Plymouth State University