13: Death and Dying Flashcards
Bereavement
losing someone who has died
Grief
The emotional response to losing someone who has died
Mourning
CULTURALLY determined expectations about the expression of death
What are some sociocultural and historical contextual factors important in the study of death and dying?
- Cultural differences in longevity
- Sex differences in longevity
- Changes in how we define death
- Changes in what age we die
- Changes in where we die (eg. hospital vs home)
- Terrorism and unpredictability of death
Reasons why death and dying are a developmental psychology issue
- There are general continuities in how people react to death and dying
- It has differential impacts depending on timing
- It can be a reflection of earlier psychological developments
- People think about it constantly throughout their lives
According to Bowlby, how do preverbal children respond to death?
Preverbal children view death as a separation/abandonment. Therefore, they:
- engage in search behaviour and fall in a state of despair
What are Bowlby’s stages of how infants respond to separations?
- Protest
- Yearning and searching
- Anger
- Despair (after a week or so)
- Apathy, sadness, appetite, sleep disturbances
- Seek new relationships
According to Nagy, what are the stages of children’s understanding of death?
Level 1: 3-5 year olds (pre operational)
Level 2: 5-9 year olds (pre-operational/concrete operations)
Level 3: >9 years (concrete operations)
Level 4: adolescent (formal operations)
What are some key characteristics of Level 1 conceptions of death
- Magical thinking and egocentrism
- Death is not a final
- Believe only people who want to die die, or people who are bad die (not tested)
- associate life with movement and death with stillness
- May blame themselves
What are some characteristics of Level 2 conceptions of death?
- understands finality/irreversibility of death BUT
- thinks you can cheat death and death only happens to some people (not universal)
What are some characteristics of level 3 conceptions of death?
Children understand the:
- finality
- universality
- inevitabililty of death and that
- it results from internal, biological causes
What are some characteristics of Level 4 conceptions of death according to Nagy?
- a bit egocentric, in thinking that death is irrelevant to them or too remote
- formal operations shown in more abstract conceptualisations of death
- religious and philosophical views of death
How do children who are terminally ill differ from the typical child in how they conceptualise death?
- the concrete learning experiences of these children overrides their developmental/age related constraints
- they often become aware of the finality, inevitability, and completeness of death earlier
- young children experience the same emotions dying adults do
- reveal their emotions in drawings over spoken words
According to Ener & Ray (2018), how does age influence how children deal with bereavement?
Younger bereaved children are less withdrawn/depressed, anxious/depressed and have less attention-related struggles compared to other children
Can bereavement have long term consequences in children and adolescents?
Yes, more at risk for psychological and behavioural health problems according to Griese et al., 2017
(depression, anxiety, PTSD, conduct disorder, substance abuse and functional impairement)
Can bereavement have long term consequences in children and adolescents?
Yes, more at risk for psychological and behavioural health problems according to Griese et al., 2017
(depression, anxiety, PTSD, conduct disorder, substance abuse and functional impairement)
What are adolescents who are dying generally worrying about?
- effects on their physical appearance
- ability to be accepted by peers
- capacity to attract a partner
- independence from parents
- career/life plans (such as children)
What are the characteristics of the adult understanding of death?
- finality
- irreversibility
- universality
- biological causality
How do middle aged adults compare to older adults with re to conceptualisations of death?
- MAA becomes more conscious of death suddenly
- MAA fear death more than OA
- OA think more about death & talk about it more
According to Kubler Ross, what is the stage theory of the process of dying?
- Denial
- Anger
- Bargaining
- Depression
- Acceptance
AND HOPE THROUGHOUT
According to Bowlby, what are the stages in the model of grief?
- Shock
- Yearning and protest
- Despair
- Restitution
What did Galatzer Levy & Bonanno (2012) find about how people process grief?
- Only 9% of people who were experiencing depression due to bereavement showed an improvement 4 years later
- Overall depression levels were highest at 6 months post death
- 66% of people were very resilient and showed little to no depression following loss
How does Galatzer-Levy and Bonanno’s findings contribute to our understanding of Kubler Ross’s model?
It contradicts it - since 66% of people were resilient it shows that many ppl do not go through Kubler Ross’s stages
What are some criticisms of the stage models of death and bereavement?
- not empirically supported
- rigid emphasis on stages
- assumption that everyone should reach ‘acceptance’
- doesn’t realise the complexity of grief and the many emotions in it
- assumes that people go through predictable emotional changes
- does not account for individual differences
