DEFENSE MECHANISM AGAINST MORTALITY SALIENCE IN TURKISH MUSLIM POPULATION

Year 2017, Volume: 20 Issue: 52 (15-12-2017), 33 - 55, 15.12.2017

Mualla Yıldız , Fatıma Zeynep Belen , Kübra Türkmen Arslan , Halil İbrahim Özasma

https://doi.org/10.15745/da.344786

Cited By: 1

Abstract

People who live in Turkey have experienced terrorist attacks for more
than thirty years. In the past, the goals of the terrorist organizations
were to frighten innocent civilians, but modern attacks are much more
malevolent, and they have turned into indiscriminate massacres. In recent
years, terrorist organizations have attacked big cities and the general
population feels that terrorism is no longer a regional problem and anyone
could be in danger. People who live in Ankara tried to cope with the truth
`anyone can be a victim of successive terrorist attacks in 2016’. People`s
reactions were very different from each other. Some of them stopped using the
subway and some realized the importance of their lives. Naturally, attacks
affect social, economic, psychological, and religious life in Turkey. The
objective of this study is to determine defense mechanisms against fear of
death after terrorist attacks. Therefore, this study used a phenomenological
approach as a method of qualitative research. This way, the
researchers tried to understand Muslim Turkish population tendencies
considering its authenticity. This study applied open-ended questions in a
semi-structured interview form on a sample of N = 26 selected by
purposive sampling that lived in Ankara during June 2016. The ages of the
participants in the sample’s ranged from 18 to 50 and the mean age was 37.5.
The group consisted of 15 female and 11 male participants. In this study, the
researchers determined four different defense mechanisms that are in the Muslim
Turkish population. These defense mechanisms were religious-active,
religious-passive, non-religious-passive, and non-religious active (Figure 1).
As a result, the researchers realized that neither classical Islamic
philosophers’ destiny/qadar approaches nor modern psychologists’ fatalism
approach could describe the Muslim Turkish population’s defense mechanism
against mortality salience. Therefore, this authentic sample needed authentic
measures and concepts.

Keywords

Mortality Salience, Destiny, Terrorist Attacks in Turkey, Fear of Death, Ankara

DEFENSE MECHANISM AGAINST MORTALITY SALIENCE IN TURKISH MUSLIM POPULATION

Abstract

 People who live in Turkey have
experienced terrorist attacks for more than thirty years. In the past, the
goals of the terrorist organizations were to frighten innocent civilians, but
modern attacks are much more malevolent, and they have turned into
indiscriminate massacres. In recent years, terrorist organizations have
attacked big cities and the general population feels that terrorism is no
longer a regional problem and anyone could be in danger. People who live in
Ankara tried to cope with the truth `anyone can be a victim of successive
terrorist attacks in 2016’. People`s reactions were very different from each
other. Some of them stopped using the subway and some realized the importance
of their lives. Naturally, attacks affect social, economic, psychological, and
religious life in Turkey. The objective of this study is to determine
defense mechanisms against fear of death after terrorist attacks. Therefore,
this study used a phenomenological approach as a method of qualitative
research. This way, the researchers tried to understand Muslim
Turkish population tendencies considering its authenticity. This study applied
open-ended questions in a semi-structured interview form on a sample of N = 26 selected by
purposive sampling that lived in Ankara during June 2016. The ages of the
participants in the sample’s ranged from 18 to 50 and the mean age was 37.5.
The group consisted of 15 female and 11 male participants. In this study, the
researchers determined four different defense mechanisms that are in the Muslim
Turkish population. These defense mechanisms were religious-active,
religious-passive, non-religious-passive, and non-religious active (Figure 1).
As a result, the researchers realized that neither classical Islamic
philosophers’ destiny/qadar approaches nor modern psychologists’ fatalism
approach could describe the Muslim Turkish population’s defense mechanism
against mortality salience. Therefore, this authentic sample needed authentic
measures and concepts.

Keywords

Ankara, Mortality Salience, Destiny/Qadar, Terrorist Attacks in Turkey, Fear of Death, Terror Management Theory

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