Study Unit 12.20 Exploring the Self Fill in the blanks to complete the passage about theories of the self. Our general attitude towards ourselves is often referred to as - . Why do we have an attitude about ourselves in the first place? Some researchers believe that it serves as a system to tell us when we are behaving in ways that would cause social groups to exclude uscalled - while others believe that it helps protect us against a paralyzing fear of deathcalled - . sociometer theoryself-esteemterror management theoryself-concept