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.