MOR 320 Thanatology Study Guides

5 areas (or more) of specialization in Psychology

1. Clinical Psychology 2. Cognitive Psychology 3. Counseling Psychology 4. Developmental Psychology 5. Education Psychology 6. Personality Psychology 7. Social Psychology

According to Worden, a person who does not accept the reality of death is in a form of denial. What 3 forms of denial does he believe a person may experience?

1. Denial of facts 2. Denial of the meaning of loss 3. Denial of the irreversibility of loss

3 Examples of cognitions that may accompany normal grief

1. Disbelief 2. Confusion 3. Preoccupation 4. Sense of presence 5. Hallucinations

4 categories of manifestations of grief

1. Feelings 2. Physical Sensations 3. Cognitions 4. Behaviors

4 common physical manifestations of grief

1. Hollowness in the stomach 2. Tightness in the chest 3. Tightness in the throat 4. Oversensitivity

According to Worden, what are three types of adjustments a person goes through following the loss of a loved one?

1. Internal 2. External 3. Spiritual Adjustment

List the 8 defense mechanisms the individuals may use at times of anxiety such as during periods of grief

1. Repression 2. Projection 3. Reaction Formation 4. Regression 5. Denial 6. Displacement 7. Sublimation 8. Rationalization

5 stages of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs

1. Self-Actualization 2. Esteem 3. Social 4. Safety 5. Physiological

List the 4 phases of grief according to Parkes and Bowlby listed in the notes

1. Shock and Numbness 2. Yearning and Searching 3. Disorganization and despair 4. Reorganization

4 examples of normal behaviors that may accompany grief

1. Sleep disturbances 2. Appetite disturbances 3. Absentminded behavior 4. Social withdrawal

List the 5 characteristics of the Grief Syndrome Theory developed by Eric Lindemann

1. Somatic/bodily distress 2. Preoccupation with the image of the deceased 3. Guilt relating to the deceased and the circumstances of the death 4. Hostile Reactions 5. The inability to function as one had before the death

5 aspects of the mediator of the nature of attachment

1. Strength of attachment 2. Security of attachment 3. Ambivalence in the relationship 4. Conflicts with the deceased 5. Dependent relationships often result in additional stress

What are the 6 aspects of the mode of death as related to the mediators of grief?

1. Suddenness 2. Violent/traumatic 3. Multiple deaths 4. Preventable deaths 5. Ambiguous deaths 6. Stigmatized deaths

List the 4 tasks of mourning

1. To accept the reality of the loss 2. To work through the 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

List Worden's seven mediators of grief

1. Who was the person who died was 2. Nature of the attachment 3. How the person died 4. Historical antecedents 5. Personality variables 6. Social variables 7. Concurrent stresses

Psychoanalysis

A therapy which one seeks to bring unconscious desires into consciousness and make it possible to resolve conflicts, which usually date back to early childhood experiences.

Sublimation

A.K.A. Grief; redirection of emotion to culturally or socially useful purposes.

What is meant by mediators of the grief process

A.K.A. factors (determinants) factors that influence the grief process.

According to Kubler-Ross what is the final stage of grief?

Acceptance

Mourning

Adjustment process which involves grief 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.

Grief

An emotion or set of emotions due to a loss that is involved in the work of mourning.

Which type of attachment would tend to produce adults who are the most susceptible to loneliness, and would suffer from a constant feeling of vulnerability

Anxious/Ambivalent

Start of Lesson 2.1

Attachment Theory

Describe bargaining as a stage of grief according to Kubler-Ross

Attempting to make deals with God to stop or change the diagnosis by begging, wishing, praying not to die, or at least delay death.

Projection

Attribution of one's unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or behaviors to someone else; the act of throwing forward; a part of extending beyond the level of it's surroundings.

The school of psychological thought that views learning as the most important aspect of an organisms development. Behaviorism seeks to objectively measure behavior and the way in which stimulus-response relationships are formed

Behaviorism

According to McGregor, describe the employee of the Theory X style of Motivation

Believes employees are lazy and are only concerned for money.

Repression

Blocking of threatening material from consciousness.

According to the concurrent stress mediator, if the grieving person makes major life changes at the time of grief, what effect will this have on the grieving person?

Can cause a more intense grief response.

Field of psychology which is designed to understand, diagnose, and treat abnormal or deviant behavior

Clinical Psychology

Field of psychology which studies internal mental processes, which include: - Thinking - Memory - Concept - Formation - Perception - Processing of information

Cognitive Psychology

Example of a Reaction Formation

Competitive athlete who chooses to sit out a game/match/meet to prevent a potentially disheartening failure.

The field of psychology which is designed to help solve personal, academic, or vocational problems that do not stem from mental disorders

Counseling Psychology

16. What type of situations, will a bereaved typically feel relieved by the death

Death was lengthy and painful; relationship was painful/difficult

Defense mechanism, closely related to repression, in which the individual simply denies the existence of the events that have aroused anxiety.

Denial

What conflict of feelings arise for a family when a death occurs, but the body was not recovered?

Denial

If parents of a child who died, keep the room of the child exactly like it was prior to death for 4 to 5 years, what type of denial are they experiencing according to Worden?

Denial of facts/mummification

Describe the childhood experiences of people who form avoidant attachments

Denied physical contact by mother when infant. During childhood these are people who have been constantly denied and physical contact by their mothers when they were infants. Avoidant tends to express behavior of detachment.

The field of psychology that is primarily focused on children and the development of thinking skills

Developmental Psychology

Cognition term that describes the thought that the person didn't really die, but this is one bad nightmare (dream)

Disbelief

Who developed the theory that includes 5 stages of grief which is abbreviated DABDA?

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Who developed the theory as the "Grief Syndrome" which included some type of bodily distress during grief?

Eric Lindemann

Bereavement

Experience of the emotion of grief; the event producing acute deprivation and loss due to death of one in whom emotional capital has been invested

When a person has completed mourning, the person will be at a state that is identical to the pre-grief state

False

Anxiety during normal grief can come from what two sources?

Fear the survivor will not be able to survive without the deceased; increased personal death awareness of the survivor.

Emotions

Feelings such as happiness, anger, or grief, created by brain patterns accompanied by bodily changes.

Anger comes from what 2 sources during normal grief?

Frustration that there was nothing you could do to stop death; regressive experience of being abandoned.

The school of psychological thought which proposed that the function, not the structure, of conscious experience should be studied

Functionalism

During the normal grief reaction, how does the grief reaction relate to the intensity of the relationship between deceased and survivor?

Generally the positive feelings far out-weigh the negative, but in some cases, the negative may be more than realized before death.

Start of Lesson 2.3

Grief Theories

Difference between bereavement and grief? If so, what is the difference?

Grief is an emotion. Bereavement is a state of being associated with emotion.

Is there a difference between grief and mourning? If so, what is the difference?

Grief is an emotion. Mourning is the response to processing grief.

According to Worden's mediators of grief, if the relationship was somewhat ambivalent before death, how does that effect the survivor's grief

Have feelings of guilt because they are happy the negative items are not around anymore.

What is meant by the: Assumptive world-view?

Having a spiritual belief in the afterlife and hope of seeing the loved one again.

The psychologist who developed the 2 factor theory

Herzberg

What is meant by the security of the attachment as a part of the mediators of grief?

How necessary the deceased was to the survival of the bereaved.

What will happen to an individual if the first level (Maintenance level) of needs are not met in the Two Factor Theory

If the Hygiene/Maintenance goals are not achieved, the employee (individual) would experience a level of dissatisfaction.

Who developed the Attachment Theory

John Bowlby

Start of Lesson 2.2

Loss and Grief

Motivation theory that states there are 2 sets of needs - one will control the level of dissatisfaction and the other the level of satisfaction

McGregor's (Theory X) and (Theory Y)

Psychiatrist

Medical doctor who has completed specialized training in the field of mental health, such as a psychiatric recedency.

Psychotherapy

Methods for treating psychological disorders in which the primary technique is conversation between patient and therapist.

Term describes the feeling of a bereaved person who has no feelings after the death of a close relative

Numbness

List the phases included under the author's (Exploration) stage of the helping process

Phase 1 - The client and the funeral director enter into a helping relationship Phase 2 - The building of a helping relationship

List the phases included under the author's (Insight) stage of the helping process

Phase 3 - Exploration and assistance in helping the family understand their alternatives Phase 4 - Consolidation and planning

List the phases included under the author's (Action) stage of the helping process

Phase 5 - Implementation and action Phase 6 - Conclusion of the funeral process Phase 7 - Post funeral follow up

Cognition term that describes an obsession with thoughts about the deceased

Preoccupation

List one of the 10 purposes and values of a funeral ritual as listed in the textbook

Provides a face to face confrontation with death which confirms its reality.

Supplying a logical, rational, socially acceptable reason rather than the real reason for an action.

Rationalization

Displacement

Redirection of emotion to other targets.

Defense mechanism used in grief to return to more familiar and often more primitive modes of coping.

Regression

Blocking of threatening material from consciousness is this type of defensive mechanism.

Repression

What is the most common feeling that is manifested during normal grief?

Sadness

Psychology

Science of Behavior and Mental Processes.

Which type of attachment would tend to produce adults who tend to believe in long-lasting relationships? They would be able to trust other people

Secure

According to Maslow, a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do"

Self-Actualization

When is mourning finished

Some say bereaved can transfer love and energy from deceased to other relationships, some say it never ends

The school of psychological thought that is concerned with reducing experience to its basic parts, determining the laws by which the parts are synthesized and investigation the structure and content of mental state by introspection

Structuralism

Thanatology

Study of death, especially the medical, emotional, and final problems associate with dying; the description of study of the phenomenon of somatic death.

An example of normal grief in which Emancipation is a positive feeling after a death.

Survivor of an abusive relationship where abuser has died - end abuse.

Term defined by an abnormally great fear of death

Thanatophobia

According to the attachment theory, if the potential for loss is greater, what is the result in the intensity of the reaction?

The greater potential for loss, the more intense the reaction.

According to attachment theory, where does attachment originate

The need for security and safety.

Describe what Maslow classified as the esteem needs

The need to be unique individual with self-respect and to enjoy general esteem from others.

According to McGregor, describe the employee of the Theory Y style of Motivation

Theory Y believes that employees will excel if given the right environment and opportunities.

Psychologist

Those individuals who have a doctor of philosophy degree in psychology, but are not medical doctors.

Which of Worden's tasks of mourning involves the bereaved evolving some ongoing relationship with the thoughts and memories of the deceased and do this in a way that would allow them to continue on?

To emotionally relocate the deceased and move on with life.

According to Worden, the task of accepting the reality of loss takes time, but is aided by what?

Viewing the body

Who developed the 4 tasks of mourning?

William J. Worden

According to Bowlby and Parkes, during which phase of grief does the living deny the permanence of loss and usually slow anger

Yearning and Searching

List Wolfelt's six reconciliation (mourning) needs

1. Acknowledging the reality of death 2. Embracing the pain of the loss 3. Remembering the person who died 4. Developing a new self-identity 5. Searching for meaning 6. Receiving ongoing support from others

The bereaved may behave by avoiding any reminders of the deceased. List some examples of how this can be done.

- Avoid place of death - Avoid cemetery - Avoid reminding objects

List some of needs Maslow included in the physiological needs

- Food - Water - Shelter - Clothing

Describe what Maslow classified as the belonging needs

- Friendship - Family - Sexual Intimacy

According to Bowlby's attachment theory, what would be the result of separation experiences in early childhood

- Protest - Despair & Denial/Detachment

3 examples of feelings that may manifest themselves during grief

- Sadness - Anger - Guilt and self reproach - Anxiety - Loneliness - Fatigue - Helplessness - Shock - Yearning - Emancipation - Relief - Numbness

List the 3 types of attachments

- Secure - Avoidant - Anxious/Ambivalent

Example of a stigmatized death

- Suicide - Abortions - AIDS

What are the three steps of recovery that were proposed by Eric Lindemann?

1. Accepting the loss as a definite fact 2. Adjusting to life without the deceased 3. Forming new relationships in the world

6 aspects of personality mediators

1. Age 2. Gender 3. Coping Styles 4. Attachment Style 5. Self-esteem 6. Assumptive worldview