FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON THE PURSUIT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SECURITY IN DAILY LIFE

Alexander J. Rothman, Allison K. Farrell, Lisa Auster-Gussman

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

When viewed through the lens of personal security, people’s daily lives appear to be fraught with potential challenges to their physical and psychological health. We regularly make decisions that involve financial, consumer, political, health, and interpersonal outcomes that can be uncertain and potentially adverse. Yet, typically, people navigate these challenges successfully, managing these threats in a way that maintains their sense of well-being. How does this happen? The four chapters in this section of the volume provide compelling accounts of how people’s motivation to maintain psychological security-the phrase used by Shepperd and Howell (this volume)—enables them to manage decisions that involve economic or consumer concerns (Leonardelli, Bohns, & Gu, this volume; Shepherd, Kay, & Eibach, this volume), political concerns (Shepherd et al., this volume), and health concerns (Andrews & Sweeny, this volume; Shepperd & Howell, this volume). These efforts serve an adaptive function as they enable people to maintain confidence in the financial decisions they make, the consumer products they purchase, the governmental services they rely on, and the health behaviors they perform, but they can also prove maladaptive. In some cases, they perpetuate decision-making patterns that have adverse long-term consequences for people’s financial and physical well-being as well as inhibiting efforts to pursue potential changes to the prevailing political, economic, and health systemsa.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationHandbook of Personal Security
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages297-304
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781317498476
ISBN (Print)9781848726758
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Taylor & Francis.

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