Final answer:
"We cannot really fear death, because we cannot really imagine our own death." This statement is at the core of the terror management death anxiety theory. Option b is correct.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement "We cannot really fear death, because we cannot really imagine our own death." is at the core of the terror management theory. This psychological concept explores how humans respond to the awareness of their mortality.
When confronted with their own death, individuals may engage in behaviors that uphold their cultural worldviews and self-esteem to manage the potentially paralyzing terror that this awareness can cause.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross wrote the book On Death and Dying, which outlines the five stages of grief people typically pass through when confronted with personal mortality or the death of a loved one. These stages include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
Various coping mechanisms, including avoidance and seeking comfort in familiar support systems, such as hospice care, are employed by individuals to deal with the anxiety and fear surrounding death.
Sigmund Freud's early psychoanalytic theory proposed that human behavior is influenced by unconscious drives, including the Death Drive which could result in self-destructive actions. However, Freud's contributions to the understanding of death anxiety are distinct from those put forth by terror management theory, which is more directly related to cultural and existential factors.
Hence, option b is correct.