Death and Bereavement

Question 1

What 4 factors affect death anxiety?

Answer 1

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Personality
4. Religiosity

Question 2

Death anxiety and age

Answer 2

• fear of death increases from young age to middle age
• peak of fear of death is middle age
• decreases from middle age to older age

Question 3

Death anxiety and gender

Answer 3

• Women tend to have more death anxiety than men do
• pattern is consistent across
  samples

Question 4

Death anxiety and personality

Answer 4

• Various personality dimensions predict lower death anxiety: ie. self-esteem and sense of purpose
• individuals who have progressed through more of Erikson’s psychosocial stages have lower fear of death

Question 5

5 patterns of adaptation to death

Answer 5

1. Positive avoidance
2. Fighting spirit
3. Stoic acceptance
4. Helplessness/hopelessness
5. Anxious preoccupation

Question 6

Grieving process according to Bowlby

Answer 6

4 stages:
1. Numbness
2. Yearning
3. Disorganization and despair
4. Reorganization and recovery
- Bowlby argued that everyone goes through every bereavement stage, in the order that he proposed them

Question 7

Grieving process according to more recent data

Answer 7

• Most people do experience
  symptoms of Bowlby’s stages at
  some point
• the largest single psychological reaction to a loved one’s death is resilience

Question 8

Kübler-Ross’ five (seven) stages of grief

Answer 8

• 5 stages of dying considered to occur universally among terminally ill patients
• denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance
• additional 2 are shock and processing
• Rather than being discrete step‐like stages, five stages of dying may be more accurately regarded as points along a progression

Question 9

Positive avoidance

Answer 9

• individual acts as though nothing is wrong
• may refuse to acknowledge the seriousness of the diagnosis or avoid discussions about illness or prognosis
• reduced an individual’s likelihood of dying from the diagnosis

Question 10

Fighting spirit

Answer 10

• person views the illness as a challenge and is determined to overcome it
• response is characterized by optimism, proactive engagement with treatment, and a strong will to live
• reduced an individual’s likelihood of dying from the diagnosis

Question 11

Stoic acceptance

Answer 11

• individual accepts the diagnosis without emotional expression
• may continue life with minimal complaint, adopting a calm, detached attitude

Question 12

Helplessness/hopelessness

Answer 12

• person feels overwhelmed, defeated, and powerless in the face of illness
• response is associated with depression and can negatively affect quality of life and motivation for treatment

Question 13

Anxious preoccupation

Answer 13

• individual is consumed with worry and fear about the illness
• may constantly seek information and reassurance but remain highly anxious

Question 14

Recent studies on adaptation to death

Answer 14

• more recent studies argue against repressive coping
• lower depression, anxiety, anger and sadness seem good

Question 15

What is the meaning of death? (4 things)

Answer 15

1. Organizer of time
   - Death structures our understanding of life’s timeline
2. Punishment
   - In many religious or cultural beliefs, death can be seen as a punishment
   - either divine retribution or the consequence of wrongdoing
3. Transition
   - often viewed not as an end but as a passage to another state
4. Loss
   - brings the emotional and physical absence of someone loved
   - central to grief

Question 16

Harding and colleagues (2013) death anxiety and religiosity

Answer 16

• measured dimensions of
  religiosity in relation to death anxiety
• of the 4 dimensions of religiosity, theological dimension had the statistically significant correlations
• higher theological religiosity is associated with lower death anxiety
• higher theological religiosity is also associated with greater acceptance of death
• within theological; belief in God and the afterlife led to lower death anxiety and higher death acceptance
• the consequential, ritual, and experiential components did not have a significant impact on death anxiety

Question 17

What were the 4 components of religiosity used?

Answer 17

1. Consequential: the influence of religion on behaviour or daily life
2. Theological: beliefs and doctrines
3. Ritual: practices and observances
4. Experiential: emotional and subjective experiences