Grief Notes 1

Question 1

the science study of human behavior.

Answer 1

PSYCHOLOGY

Psyche=Mind
Logy=Study

Question 2

the study of human behavior as related to funeral service

Answer 2

FUNERAL SERVICE PSYCHOLOGY

Question 3

(Experience/Event) – the experience of the emotion of grief. A state of being deprived of something valuable. The experience or the event of losing something or someone.

Answer 3

BEREAVEMENT

Question 4

(Process) – an adjustment process which involves grief and or sorrow over a period of time and helps in the reorganization of the life of an individual following a loss or death of someone loved

Answer 4

MOURNING

Question 5

(Emotion) – an emotion or set of emotions due to a loss

Answer 5

GRIEF

Question 6

study of death.

Answer 6

THANATOLOGY

Thanos=Death
Logy=Study

Question 7

an irrational exaggerated fear of death.

Answer 7

THANATOPHOPIA

Thanos=Death
Phobia=Fear

Question 8

NEEDS OF THE BERIEVED:

Answer 8

• To confirm reality
• To establish stability and security
• To receive emotional support
• To express emotions
• To modify emotional ties to deceased
• To provide a basis for building new inter-personal relationship

Question 9

Why have funerals?

Answer 9

A funeral helps confirm reality by providing a face-to-face encounter with the deceased. Viewing the deceased leaves a final and lasting impression with the survivor. The opportunity to receive and express love

Question 10

Funerals provides:

Answer 10

• The opportunity to receive and express love
• To show respect for the family, friends and deceased
• To provide an opportunity to express grief
• Provides for a face to face confrontation with death, Confirm the reality that death has occurred
• Opportunity for sharing. “Joy expressed is joy increased, grief shared is grief diminished.”

Question 11

Funerals provides:

Answer 11

• Theological, psychological and social needs of those who mourn are nourished
• Provide an opportunity for farewell thru ritual
• Provides a dramatic presentation of the fact life has been lived by reflecting upon memories of deceased.
• Helps establish emotional stability thru a social support network
• Establishes a socially accepted climate for mourning and expression of feelings

Question 11

Theories of Grief and Mourning

Answer 11

Kubler-Ross -  5 Stages of Death And Dying
Lindemann –Grief Syndrome
Bowlby – Attachment Theory
Freud - Mourning and Melancholia
Worden – 4 Tasks of Mourning
Parkes – 4 Phases of Mourning

Question 12

A physician who worked with hospice patients and identified “five stages” a terminally ill person and the family experiences. Based on interviews with dying patients wrote Book “On death and Dying” circa 1966

Answer 12

ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS

Question 13

5 Stages of Death and Dying

Do the five stages of death occur in exact order listed? NO
Does one experience ALL stages? Not necessarily!

Answer 13

1. Denial and isolation
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

Question 14

• He was Chief of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1944.
• Worked with families who lost loved ones in the Coconut Grove fire.
• First professional to describe “anticipatory grief”.
• Wrote “Symptomatology and Management of Acute Grief”.
• Formulated the “Grief Syndrome”.

Answer 14

Lindemann

Question 15

• A British psychiatrist who devoted much of his professional career to understanding attachment –what it is and how it develops?
• Noted for the “Attachment Theory”.

Answer 15

Bowlby

Question 16

GRIEF SYNDROME

Answer 16

1. Somatic or bodily distress of some type
2. Preoccupation with image of deceased
3. Guilt relating to deceased or circumstances of death
4. Hostile reactions
5. Inability to function as before loss
6. May develop traits of the behavior of the deceased

Question 17

ATTACHMENT THEORY

Answer 17

1. Attachments come from need for security and safety
2. Situations that endanger bond of attachment give rise to emotional reactions
3. The greater the potential for loss, the more intense the reaction

Question 18

A psychiatrist who wrote “Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy”.
Participated in the “Harvard Bereavement Study” which indicated the mourning is necessary for all who have experienced loss through death.
Identified the four “Tasks of Mourning”.

Answer 18

Worden

Question 19

4 TASKS OF MOURNING

Answer 19

1. Accept the reality of loss
2. Work through pain of grief
3. To adjust to an environment in which the deceased is missing
4. To emotionally relocate the deceased and move on with life

Question 20

Wrote early paper “Mourning and Melancholia” 1917, which he pointed out that depression which he called melancholia was a pathological form of normal grief.
He also came up with concept of “grief work” which implies that the mourner needs to take action

Answer 20

Freud

Question 21

4 Phases of Mourning

Answer 21

Parkes

Question 23

4 Phases of Mourning

Answer 23

1. Period of numbness
2. Phase of yearning
3. Phase of disorganized and despair
4. Phase of reorganized behavior

Question 24

described as uncomplicated grief.

Answer 24

Normal grief

Question 25

Factors That May Complicate Grief

Answer 25

``` Relational Factors: Circumstantial Factors: Historical Factors: Personality Factors: Social Factors: ```

Question 26

Relational Factors:

Answer 26

1. Highly ambivalent relationship with unexpressed hostility 2. The death may reopen old wounds 3. In highly dependent relationships the death may lead to a desperate sense of helplessness

Question 27

Circumstantial Factors:

Answer 27

1. The loss is uncertain (MIA’s, no remains found) | 2. Multiple losses from plane crashes, natural disasters, fire may lead to bereavement overload

Question 28

Historical Factors:

Answer 28

1. People who have had complicated grief reactions in the past will have a higher probability of a complicated reaction in the present 2. There is interest in the influence of early parental loss on the development of subsequent complicated grief reactions in other losses

Question 29

Personality Factors:

Answer 29

1. Some people are unable to tolerate extremes of emotional distress 2. One’s self-concept such as being the “strong one” in the family may hinder grief

Question 30

Social Factors:

Answer 30

1. The death is socially unspeakable (suicide, homicide, AIDS) 2. The loss is socially negated (abortion) 3. The absence of a social support network may cause complications.

Question 31

Sadness (most common feeling), anger, guilt, and self-reproach, anxiety, loneliness, fatigue, helplessness, shock, yearning, emancipation, relief, numbness.

Answer 31

FEELINGS

Question 32

Hollowness in stomach, tightness in chest or throat, oversensitivity to noise, sense of depersonalization, feeling short of breath, weakness in the muscles, lack of energy, dry mouth

Answer 32

PHYSICAL SENSATIONS

Question 33

(inside oneself) | Display confusion, preoccupation with thoughts of the deceased, sense of presence, hallucinations

Answer 33

COGNITIONS

Question 34

Sleep disturbances, appetite disturbances, absentminded behavior, social withdrawal, dreams of deceased, avoiding reminders of deceased, searching and calling out, sighing, restless, over activity, visiting places or carrying objects that remind the survivor of the deceased, treasuring objects that belong to the deceased

Answer 34

BEHAVIORS

Question 35

Severity of grief is determined by 8 key factors:

Answer 35

1. WHO is the person that died 2. NATURE OF THE ATTACHMENT: 3. MODE OF DEATH: 4. HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS: 5. PERSONALITY VARIABLES: 6. SOCIAL VARIABLES: 7. CONCURRENT STRESSES 8. CIRCUMSTANTIAL FACTORS:

Question 36

strength and security of the attachment, ambivalence in the relationship, conflicts with the deceased, dependent relationship

Answer 36

NATURE OF THE ATTACHMENT:

Question 37

natural (long or short duration), accidental, suicide, homicide

Answer 37

MODE OF DEATH:

Question 38

previous losses and how these were grieved

Answer 38

HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS:

Question 39

age & gender of the survivor, persons coping style, attachment style, cognitive style, self-esteem and self-efficacy, person’s beliefs and values

Answer 39

PERSONALITY VARIABLES:

Question 40

support availability, support satisfaction social role involvements, religious resources and ethnic expectations

Answer 40

SOCIAL VARIABLES:

Question 41

influencing grief: involvement of hospice, use of living will

Answer 41

CIRCUMSTANTIAL FACTORS:

Question 42

COUNSELING – 3 definitions by source:

Answer 42

 WEBSTER: - advise especially that given as a result of consolation  EDGAR JACKSON: - anytime someone helps someone else with a problem  CARL ROGERS: - good communication within and between men, or good (free) communication within or between men is always therapeutic

Question 43

– an individual who provides assistance and guidance. *DO NOT confuse counseling with psychotherapy, which is treatment of mental or emotional disorder

Answer 43

COUNSELOR

Question 44

– strong sudden emotional grief as awareness increases

Answer 44

ACUTE GRIEF

Question 45

– blame directed toward another person

Answer 45

ANGER

Question 46

– the experience of grief where mourning customs are unclear due to an inappropriate death and the absence of prior bereavement experience. Typical in society that has attempted to minimize the impact of death thru medicine

Answer 46

ANOMIC GRIEF

Question 47

– presence of grief in anticipation of death or loss attachment theory (Bowlby) – human making strong affectional bonds

Answer 47

ANTICIPATORY GRIEF

Question 48

– (unresolved, chronic) – grief extending over a long period of time without resolution

Answer 48

COMPLICATED GRIEF

Question 49

– defense mechanism by which person is unable or refuses to see things as they are because such facts are threatening to the self

Answer 49

DENIAL

Question 50

– defense mechanisms; anger is redirected toward a person or object other than the one who caused the anger originally

Answer 50

DISPLACED AGGRESSION

Question 51

– the ability to enter into and share feelings of others

Answer 51

EMPATHY

Question 52

– helping people facilitate uncomplicated grief to a healthy completion of the tasks of grieving within a reasonable time frame

Answer 52

GRIEF COUNSELING

Question 53

– specialized techniques which are used to help people with complicated grief reactions

Answer 53

GRIEF THERAPY (WORDEN)

Question 54

– blame directed toward one’s self

Answer 54

GUILT

Question 55

– used to treat patients with a life-limiting condition

Answer 55

HOSPICE

Question 56

– intervention with people whose needs are so specific that usually they can only be met by specially trained physicians or psychologists. The practitioners in this field need special training because they often work with deeper levels of consciousness

Answer 56

PSYCHOTHERAPY (JACKSON)

Question 57

- assumption of blame directed toward one’s self by others

Answer 57

SHAME

Question 58

– reaction of the body to an event often experienced emotionally

Answer 58

SHOCK

Question 59

– guilt felt by the survivors

Answer 59

SURVIVOR GUILT

Question 60

– sincere feelings for the person who is trying to adjust

Answer 60

SYMPATHY

Question 61

What else is going on in the life of the person experiencing complicated grief? Divorce? Loss of job? Problems with children?

Answer 61

6. Concurrent Stresses