Psychologists

Ernest Becker

Citation Formats

General Reference

Psychology Atlas. "Ernest Becker." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-psychology.interactiveatlas.org/psychologists/ernest-becker.

APA Style

Psychology Atlas. (n.d.). Ernest Becker. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-psychology.interactiveatlas.org/psychologists/ernest-becker

BibTeX

@misc{psychologyatlas-ernest-becker,
  author = {Psychology Atlas},
  title = {Ernest Becker},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-psychology.interactiveatlas.org/psychologists/ernest-becker},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

American cultural anthropologist whose writing on mortality and meaning influenced later social psychology.

Facts

Birth Date

1924-09-27 1

Birth Year

1924 1

Death Date

1974-03-06 1

Death Year

1974 1

Birthplace

Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S. 1

Death Place

Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada 1

Nationality / Culture

American 1

Defining Contribution

His 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Denial of Death, arguing that much human action is organized around managing the terror of mortality, became the direct theoretical basis for terror management theory. 2

Notable Work

The Denial of Death (1973) 1

Cross-Tradition Connections