Psy 456 Death and Loss exam #1 Study guide
Which of the following are considered dimensions of thanatology? 1. Psychological 2. Anthropological 3. Political 4. Rational
1. Psychological 2. Anthropological 3. Political
Studies conducted in the early 1940s by Sylvia Anthony showed that children can give general explanations for death by what age?
9 years old
According to the text, approximately what percentage of Americans are affiliated with a religious tradition?
90%
All of the following tends to be an important influence on the development of children's attitudes toward death EXCEPT A) rising funeral costs B) social network C) children's literature D) family
A) rising funeral costs
A "teachable moment" is one in which
an opportunity for learning arises out of ordinary experiences
Research about death anxiety indicates that it tends to be higher among
blacks than whites. Correct
Humanity received its name from the Latin root word humare, which means to
bury
Which of the following is NOT cited in the text as a journal in the field of death and dying? A) Illness, Crisis, and Loss B) the Carnegie Journal of Death C) Mortality D) Death Studies
B) The Carnegie Journal of Death
Which of the following is NOT an example of the dimension of sociological thanatology? A) response to disaster B) pain and symptom control C) disposal of the dead D) socialization of children
B) pain and symptom control
Which of the following is NOT a musical expression associated with death? A) elegy B) requiem C) veil tale D) keening
C) Veil tale
Which of the following is NOT an example of Holocaust literature? A) Warsaw Diary by Chaim Kaplan B) Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank C) Walking Skeleton by Richard Shaw D) Night by Elie Wiesel
C) Walking Skeleton by Richard Shaw
What term do social scientists use to describe the phenomenon of societies falling behind in dealing with new challenges resulting from rapid technological and social change?
Cultural lag
Which of the following factors does NOT affect our familiarity with death? A) life expectancy B) geographic mobility C) medical technology D) political decision making
D) Political decision making
Which answer best reflects children's understandings of John F. Kennedy's assassination? A) Older children did not express concerns about the impact of Kennedy's death on the political system. B) Young children worried about the appearance of the president's body and having to watch the news coverage. C) Younger children did not know who the president was and had no interpretation of his death. D) Younger children worried about the appearance of the president's body and the effects of the death on his family.
D) Younger children worried about the appearance of the president's body and the effects of the death on his family.
All of the following are musical expressions associated with death EXCEPT A) lament B) keening C) dirge D) hautsang
D) hautsang.
Which theorist is associated with the developmental model that emphasizes changes in attitudes toward death during different psychosocial stages?
Erik Erikson
In Piaget's model, what phase is marked by formulating concepts that are abstract or symbolic?
Formal operations
The establishment of death studies, in modern times, can be traced to explorations of death by
Freud.
Which of the following is an example of resocialization?
Getting married
What are the two leading causes of death in the United States?
Heart disease and cancer
The modern scientific approach to the study of death is usually traced to a symposium organized in 1956 by
Herman Feifel.
What has been called the "oil of society?"
Humor
Which of the following BEST describes a "cosmopolitan" society?
Ideas and practices from other historical periods and cultures are valued and examined.
What is the form of speech acknowledging the reality of death while distancing us from the dead, for example, "He was fond of music?"
Indicative voice
In Erikson's model, the years from about six to the beginning of puberty correspond to what stage?
Industry vs. inferiority
According to Erik Erikson's theory, during which developmental stage do children increasingly seek their own direction and purpose?
Initiative vs. guilt
In Erikson's model of psychosocial development, in what period is bodily mutilation and disfigurement one of the death related fears?
Initiative vs. guilt
According to Jean Piaget, at what stage does a child learn to use language and symbolic thinking to understand the world?
Preoperational
When asked, "What makes things die?" a child responds, "You can die if you swallow a dirty bug." According to Piaget's theory, this child is probably in which developmental stage?
Preoperational
In Erickson's model, approximately what age marks the beginning of the child's moral sense?
Preschool and kindergarten years
By what age do most children understand that death is a changed state?
Preschool years
What term refers to the uprooting and restructuring of basic attitudes, values, or identities?
Resocialization
__________ refers to strategies used to informally teach people about death and dying, involving an effort to change people's perceptions and behaviors.
Tactical socialization
According to Kastenbaum, what is defined as "the study of life with death left in?"
Thanatology
What is the largest ongoing community arts project in America?
The AIDS Memorial Quilt
According to Ulrich Beck, a German scholar and observer of the "cosmopolitan society," the human condition in the present century
cannot be understood nationally or locally but only globally.
What do some commentators call the new "porn star" of popular culture?
The corpse
Which of the following BEST describes the phrase "medical technology that seems to one person a godsend, extending life, may seem to another a curse?"
The effect of new technology involves personal and social consequences and trade-offs.
The first formal course in death education at an American university was held at
University of Minnesota in 1963.
Media experts say that the "reality violence" on TV news began with coverage of the
Vietnam War.
The text cites the lullaby "Rockabye Baby" to illustrate the point that
a number of lullabies contain messages about human and animal death.
In Erikson's model, the years from about 6 to the beginning of puberty is sometimes known as the
industrial age.
Suse Lowenstein's work Dark Elegy functions as a reminder that
life is fragile and survivors have to live with the loss.
Even when curative treatments have ended, the effort to control circumstances around death and dying so that it comes out "right" is termed
managed death.
Depictions of death in the mass media, in which the symbolic use of death contributes to an "irrational dread of dying and thus to a diminished vitality and self-direction in life" is referred to as
mean world syndrome.
Deaths of the famous are likely to be announced on the newspaper's front page as well as via feature-length
obituaries
A feature length story on the death of someone famous is a/an
obituary
In Piaget's model, the first two years of life are characterized as the
sensorimotor
Epidemiologic transition is BEST defined as the
shift in disease patterns characterized by a redistribution of deaths from the young to the old.
The model of human development devised by Erikson focuses on
stages of psychosocial development.
What concept describes opportunities for learning that arise out of unplanned or unexpected occurrences?
teachable moments
Research into death anxiety has been characterized by Kastenbaum as
thanatology's own assembly line
The story of Little Red Riding Hood in Chinese tradition differs from the Western version in which of the following ways?
the three children in the Chinese version work together as a group to kill the wolf
Lullabies and nursery rhymes often contain
themes of death and violence
Jean Piaget's model of development emphasizes
cognitive transformations.
What is an example of a homemade condolence?
comfort quilts
According to Erikson psychosocial development depends significantly on developing a sense of identity and is linked to the individual's
connectedness and independence.
What can be defined as "all that in human society which is socially rather than biologically transmitted?"
culture
The largest area of empirical research in thanatology is concerned with the measurement of attitudes toward death and dying and more particularly
death anxiety.
Brief standardized printed statements following the death of an average citizen are called
death notices.
Snuffed, ate it, wasted, and croaked are examples of
death talk.
In traditional Hawaiian culture, mele kanikau may have been carefully composed or spontaneous and used
during the funeral procession.
What is the fallacy of making judgments about others in terms of one's own cultural assumptions and ideas?
ethnocentrism
Avoiding words like dead or dying, instead using phrases in which loved ones "pass away," the deceased is "laid to rest" and the corpse is "remains", is an example of
euphemisms.
Substitutions of vague words or phrases for ones considered harsh are
euphemisms.
Hibakusha is a Japanese word meaning
explosion affected.
In 1963, the University of Minnesota
held the first formal course in death education.
Hannelore Wass observes that the study of death and dying will
help individuals and societies transcend self-interest in favor of concern for others.
In discussing how people understand death, the term "noncorporeal continuity" refers to the idea that
human beings survive in some form after the death of the physical body
In discussing how people understand death, the term "noncorporeal continuity" refers to the idea that
human beings survive in some form after the death of the physical body.
In reviewing the status of research and practice in thanatology, Herman Feifel points out that the
human mind operates on various levels of reality or finite provinces of meaning.
After someone dies, conversations about that person move from present to past tense. This form of speech is called the
indicative voice.
In the study done by Helen Swain, what percentage of children said that death is unlikely or avoidable?
66%
Which of the following are included in Ernest Becker's "four strands of emphasis" in terror management theory (TMT)? 1. The world is a terrifying place. 2. There is always an underlying good versus evil struggle, and good ultimately prevails. 3. Because the terror of death is so overwhelming, we conspire to keep it unconscious. 4. The basic motivation for human behavior is the need to control our basic anxiety, to deny the terror of death.
1. The world is a terrifying place. 3. Because the terror of death is so overwhelming, we conspire to keep it unconscious. 4. The basic motivation for human behavior is the need to control our basic anxiety, to deny the terror of death.
In Gerbner's "mean world syndrome", the symbolic use of death contributes to 1. an irrational dread of dying. 2. diminished vitality. 3. diminished self-direction in life. 4. an increased hoarding of weapons.
1. an irrational dread of dying. 2. diminished vitality. 3. diminished self-direction in life.
Agents of socialization include 1. family and peers. 2. school. 3. employers. 4. religion.
1. family and peers. 2. school. 4. religion.
A mature concept of death involves 1. universality. 2. irreversibility. 3. empiricism. 4. causality.
1. universality. 2. irreversibility. 4. causality.
Approximately how much has the average life expectancy in the United States increased since 1900?
30 years
In a study of nursery rhymes, approximately what percentage describe ways in which humans or animals die or are mistreated
50%
Regarding a mature concept of death, which of the following is true about universality?
All living things must eventually die.
What has been characterized as the largest area of empirical research in thanatology?
Death anxiety
Which of the following is NOT a way in which humor functions relative to death? A) raises consciousness B) encourages togetherness C) discourages empathy D) defuses anxiety
Discourages empathy
__________ has the longest life expectancy of countries worldwide.
Japan
Which of the following best defines socialization?
Learning and internalizing the norms, rules, and values of the society in which a person lives
The Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) is a musical symbol of death found in
Liszt's Totentanz.
What is the name of the Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood or Granny Wolf?
Lon Po Po
What subcomponent of universality makes explicit the understanding not only that all living things die but also that each living thing will die?
Personal mortality
According to George Gerbner, the "mean world syndrome" describes depictions of death in the mass media as embedded in a structure of violence that conveys
a heightened sense of danger.
Regarding a mature concept of death, which of the following is true about universality?
all living things must eventually die
Themes of loss and death are heard in
all of the above - classical music - American blues music - laments
In reviewing death anxiety research, Robert Kastenbaum says that it
allows individuals to enjoy the illusion that death has been studied.
Children who have had first-hand encounters with death tend to
have a developmentally more mature understanding of death.
What subcomponent of universality makes explicit the understanding not only that all living things die but also that each living thing will die?
personal mortality
Thanatos, from Greek mythology, is generally understood as a response to the
personification of death
Human concern for the dead
predates written history
The acquisition of a mature understanding of death is part of the developmental process known as
socialization.
In literature, the meaning of death is often explored as it relates to the individual as well as
society.
While more young people than ever claim no religion, there seems to be a growing interest in
spirituality.
In his emphasis relevant to terror management theory, Ernest Becker addressed
the need to control our basic anxiety and to deny the terror of death.
