Loss and Grief

Question 1

What is loss?

Answer 1

Can be physical, relational, or symbolic, and it means to be deprived of, or ceasing to have something one formerly possessed.

Question 2

What are the different types of losses?

Answer 2

Physical - death and non-death
Relational - divorce, adoption, foster care
Symbolic - loss of freedom, safety and security, etc.

Question 3

What is bereavement?

Answer 3

Objective situation of having lost someone significant

Question 4

What is grief?

Answer 4

The reactions at responses to loss or bereavement?

Question 5

What is mourning?

Answer 5

The sordid expression or acts expressive of grief

Question 6

What was Freud’s traditional psychoanalytic theory on grief?

Answer 6

Argued that the person needs to talk about traumatic experiences in order to get over them - that was the only way to invest in new relationships.

Question 7

Describe LIndemann’s work

Answer 7

Interviewed people who experienced death in a major way. He created different categories for grief (normal, abnormal, delayed, etc.)

Question 8

What is Bowlby’s attachment theory in the perspective of understanding grief?

Answer 8

Grief is similar to that of a young child separated from parent (numbness, searching, despair) - but Bowlby allowed for continuing connection to the deceased, unlike Freud

Question 9

What is the stage theory?

Answer 9

Kubler and Ross (1969) created five stages of loss - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Question 10

Describe Parkes psychosocial transitions theory

Answer 10

Concerns rebuilding a damaged and assumptive world, with four key stages:

1. shock and numbness
2. yearning and searching
3. disorganization and despair
4. reorganization

Question 11

What is Worden’s task theory?

Answer 11

Argued that people need to complete certain tasks in order to move on:

1. accept reality of loss
2. Work through pain and grief
3. Adjust to new environment in which the deceased is missing
4. Emotionally relocate the deceased and move on with life

Question 12

What are the limitations of traditional theories?

Answer 12

Based on a lot of assumptions such as significant distress and delayed grief.

Absence of positive emotions, and indicative of denying distress if there are positive emotions

Bereaved mUST work through loss or it’ll eat you up inside.

But where’s the empirical evidence?? It emphasizes unhealthy grieving patterns!

Question 13

What are the contemporary theories?

Answer 13

1. Meaning making theory
2. Dual process theory
3. Continuing bonds

Question 14

What is the meaning making theory

Answer 14

Neimeyer suggested that grieving requires us to make sense of the loss, and we seek the meaning of the loss experiences through social and cultural factors

Question 15

What is the dual process theory?

Answer 15

People oscillate between two orientations, according to Stroebe and Schut (2001): loss orientation (grief) and restoration orientation (attempts to rebuild life)

Question 16

What is the continuing bonds theory?

Answer 16

Klass, Silverman, and Nickman challenged the traditional view of letting go, an argued that the relationship with the deceased continues after death. Patients experienced feeling the presence of the one that passed away

Question 17

What is disenfranchised loss?

Answer 17

When a person experiences a loss but it cannot be recognized (e.g., extra-marital lover, ex-spouse); or the loss is not recognized, or griever is not recognized.

Question 18

What is ambiguous loss?

Answer 18

Occurs when there is a physical presence and a psychological absence, or vice versa.

Question 19

What factors affect grief responses?

Answer 19

1. Gender - men should grieve one way, and women another. But everyone’s different.
2. Social support - it’s necessary for people to cope with social support, but it’s also different from person to person
3. Religious beliefs - it’s not that religious people grieve better than other groups
4. Class and culture - social classes, cultural expectations
5. Circumstances of death - a sudden or unexpected loss is more difficult
6. History of loss and/or trauma - if there’s an extensive history, it’s harder

Question 20

What is prolonged grief disorder?

Answer 20

Characterized by intense yearning for the person and identity confusion, difficulty accepting the loss, etc. Sometimes called complicated, pathological, or abnormal grief