Exam 3 (Grief Counseling & Grief Therapy Ch. 8)

Question 0

Specific factors that affect the mourning process & influence the degree of family disruption

Answer 0

• stages in the family life cycle
• roles played by the deceased
• power, affection, and communication patterns
• sociocultural factors

Question 1

Murray Bowen, a well-known family therapist, says that knowledge of these three things is important for anyone who attempts to help a family before, during, or after a death

Answer 1

1) total family configuration
2) functioning position of dying person in family
3) overall level of life adaptation

Question 2

The concept of family therapy is based on the belief that the family is

Answer 2

an interactional unit in which all members influence each other

Question 3

It is important to look at a family systems approach because

Answer 3

unresolved grief may not only serve as a key factor in family pathology but contribute to pathological relationships across the generations.

Question 4

If openly expressed feelings are not tolerated in the family this may lead to…

Answer 4

various types of acting out behavior

Question 5

Families that cope most effectively are…

Answer 5

open in their discussions about the deceased

Question 6

closed families not only lack the freedom of open discussion, but also…

Answer 6

encourage other family members to remain quiet

Question 7

functional families are more likely to process feelings about the death including

Answer 7

admitting to, and accepting feelings of vulnerability.

Question 8

In the assessment of grief and family systems, at least three main areas need to be considered..

Answer 8

1) Functional position or role the deceased played in the family
2) The emotional integration of the family
3) how families facilitate or hinder emotional expression

Question 9

______ sees the family unit as having stasis and calm when each member is functioning at reasonable efficiency.

Answer 9

Bowen

Question 10

Psychiatrist ______ ______ believes that grief work confined to an individual and the therapist may deaden the relational possibilities for the individual and his or her family

Answer 10

Norman Paul

Question 11

In more functional families, the father was able to…

Answer 11

express grief openly instead of hiding his feelings or praising his son for not crying at the funeral

Question 12

essential tasks for families making an adaptation to the loss..

Answer 12

• recognition of the loss & acknowledgement of unique grief experiences of each member
• family must reorganize roles
• family must reinvest in “new” family while maintaining a sense of connection w/ deceased.
• meaning making

Question 13

Research has shown that families who cope the best after the death of a family member are more cohesive, and are more able to:

Answer 13

• tolerate individual differences among family members
• have more open communication
• find more support from within the family as well as outside the family
• cope more actively with problems

Question 14

Surviving children frequently become the focus of unconscious maneuvers including

Answer 14

• substitute for the lost child
• suppressing the facts surrounding the loss
• becoming overlooked
• may not know how to share the death and to what extent

Question 15

Five types of guilt that bereaved parents may experience

Answer 15

• cultural guilt
• casual guilt
• moral guilt
• survival guilt
• recovery guilt

Question 16

Cultural guilt

Answer 16

Society expects us to take care of our children

Question 17

Casual guilt

Answer 17

When death comes from an inherited disorder

Question 18

Moral guilt

Answer 18

When the parents feel the death was caused by some infraction on their part

Question 19

Survivor guilt

Answer 19

Why did my child die and not me?

Question 20

Recovery guilt

Answer 20

When parents move on from the grief and want to get on with their lives

Question 21

Bereaved fathers are faced with several double binds as they struggle to cope with their child’s death:

Answer 21

• given little social support
• simultaneously confronted with the notions that grief is best handled through expressiveness; and that they need to control such expressions of grief

Question 22

Sexual activity may be sought out by some couples shortly after the death of a child. For these couples sexual intimacy serves as

Answer 22

A reaffirmation of life and supports their strong need to be close to each other and take care of each other

Question 23

Bereaved parents face two issues

Answer 23

• Learning to live without the child

- internalizing an inner representation of the child that brings comfort

Question 24

Various tasks of mourning for bereaved parents

Answer 24

• the reality of the loss
• processing strong feelings
• finding some kind of meaning and some appropriate memorialization
• The same ambivalence and multiple representations that were part of the living relationships with the child are part of the search for equilibrium when the child dies

Question 25

A key component in children’s grief

Answer 25

Their emotional reaction to separation

Question 26

Three things children need after the death of a parent

Answer 26

Support, nurturance, and continuity

Question 27

Needs of bereaved children (7 things)

Answer 27

• they will be cared for
• they did not cause the death
• clear information about the death
• to feel important and involved
• continued routine activity
• someone to listen to their questions
• ways to remember the dead person

Question 28

The mental health practitioner needs to be aware of several things when dealing with children who have lost parents

Answer 28

• children do mourn
• The loss of a parent through death is obviously a trauma but does not necessarily lead to arrested development
• children between the ages of five and seven years are a particularly vulnerable group
• the work of mourning may not end in the same way for a child as it does for an adult

Question 29

According to Bowen, why do many dyadic relationships become triangulated after a death?

Answer 29

In order to remove some of the anxiety or pressure of a dyadic relationship

Question 30

Problems that can arise with families after a death

Answer 30

• the issue of alliances
• making someone a scapegoat
• making meaning out of the loss
• incomplete mourning

Question 31

Operational mourning

Answer 31

Inducing the mourning response by directly asking one family member about reactions to actual losses the family has sustained.

Question 32

Widowhood affects ____ out of ___ women

Answer 32

3 out of 4

Question 33

Features of grief in the elderly

Answer 33

• interdependence
• multiple losses
• personal death awareness
• loneliness
• role adjustment
• support groups
• touch
• reminiscing
• discussing relocation
• skill building

Question 34

Elderly men and women who were most willing to attend support groups were…

Answer 34

• those whose main confidant was less available than previously
• those with more depression and less life satisfaction
• those who perceived they were not coping well
• also more willingness In those between ages 50-69

Question 35

Reminiscing is sometimes called

Answer 35

Life review

Question 36

Reminiscing

Answer 36

Naturally occurring process that brings the person to a progressive return to consciousness of past experiences.

Question 37

It is generally assumed that reminiscing serves as an ____________ function for the aging person and not the sign of intellectual decline.

Answer 37

Adaptational

Question 38

Reminiscing contributes to the maintenance of

Answer 38

Identity

Question 39

Two points emphasized at the end of ch. 8

Answer 39

• not everyone in a family will be working on the same tasks of mourning at the same time
• individual members of a family will sometimes be reluctant to come in for counseling with the entire group

Question 40

Postponed mourning in the family of origin impedes one from

Answer 40

Experiencing emotional loss and separation within the current family

Question 41

Wolfenstein says children don’t mourn until they are…

Answer 41

Adolescents

Question 42

Furman says children can mourn as early as

Answer 42

3 years of age

Question 43

Bowlby believes children can mourn at

Answer 43

6 months old

Question 44

Bowlby says that children do mourn, but…

Answer 44

We cannot use an adult model for children’s grief