Models of Grief Flashcards
1
Q
Define grief, bereavement and mourning
A
Bereavement = the experience of grief following the death of a loved one, the bereaved go through a period of bereavement following the death of a loved one
Grief = intense suffering, sadness that is experienced following a loss. Is personal, often internal, spontaneous
Mourning = public displays or expressions of grief that typically conform to social and cultural norms. outward expression of grief
2
Q
What are additional concepts of grief?
A
- grief can be experienced due to a death or non-death losses
- death can alter, destabilize a person’s meaning structure ( a persons worldview, beliefs, assumptions about life and about the world)
- destabilize systems surrounding fairness, purpose, religious beliefs, identity
3
Q
What are some factors affecting grief?
A
- type of relationship: parasocial, close friends and family, chosen family, nature of relationship
- death trajectory: slow or rapid (anticipated vs. unanticipated)
- support: the kind of support a person can expect to receive, if their grief is recognized or disenfranchised
- developmental stage: children’s understanding of death
4
Q
how does the nature of death affect grief?
A
- traumatic death: death that is unexpected, violent, involving bodily harm. can complicate ‘making sense’ of death, undermine sense of safety (question of why and injustice)
- some traumatic deaths are stigmatized: suicide, violence, drug and alcohol use (families may experience feelings of guilt or be subject to blame) (courtesy stigma)
- whether someone was perceived to have had a good or bad death
- when death occurred: at end of a long life, in youth, at end of a long struggle with illness
5
Q
What are intuitive grievers?
A
- focus on feelings and emotions
- interior feelings match outward expression
- desire to talk through experiences, emotions
- form of adaptive grieving style
6
Q
What are instrumental grievers?
A
- focused on thinking action
- interior feelings may not be directly reflected in outward expression
- adaptive grieving style
7
Q
What are the social rules of grieving?
A
- culture, social norms shape experiences of grief and practices of mourning
1) who has permission to be identified as bereaved?
2) how long grief can last
3) how grief can and should manifest
4) if the manner of death is considered ‘acceptable’ or if there is stigma attached to it - when a loss is not recognized or grief expression falls outside of social norms, it may result in disenfranchised grief
8
Q
what is death & relationships?
A
- death can disrupt a person’s social identity
- identify foreclosure: a change in one’s social status resulting in the termination of one’s former identity
- deaths can affect relationships brining people closer together or creating conflict, especially if grieving styles of timelines are different
- death is transformative: in relationship, in the self
- when someone close dies, we may find ourselves fundamentally permanently changed, we mourn the loss of the other and also the loss of part of ourselves
9
Q
What is pathologization of grief?
A
- pathologization/medicalization of grief = grief perceived as a deviation from normal, a medical problems to be addressed by professionals after a certain period as opposed to a health and normal reaction to a loss
- prolonged grief disorder = bereavement lasts longer than social norms and causes distress or problems functioning
- goal is to get back to normal as quickly as possible
10
Q
What are the stages or phases of grief?
A
- kubler-ross 5 stages = not intended to be prescriptive or a roadmap
- gives impression that there is a linear sequence of stages that lead to eventual resolution
- can lead to pathologization of expressions of grief that do not follow the rules or normative stages
- people also self-stigmatize, if they feel they are not living up to social expectations of grief
11
Q
what are the tasks of mourning?
A
- grieving as work, something to work through
- task 1: accept reality of the loss
- task 2: to work through the pain of grief
- task 3: to adjust to an environment in which the deceased is missing
- task 4: to find an enduring connection with the deceased while embarking on a new life
12
Q
what are the pathways of grief?
A
- each person grieves in a unique way and has their own pathway through grief
- there are commonalities and differences in experience
- not a process with a beginning and end, move into and out of different places on the figure eight
- at the centre of the process is meaning-making. how people control to make sense of their loss and their lives going forward
- frames of meaning may include religious, philosophical, cultural, literary
13
Q
describe coping vs. closure
A
- grief tends to be non-linear, cyclical, does not necessarily end. people may come to live with grief to cope with the ongoing effects of grief, rather than get over grief
closure is often seen as forgetting making sense of something that is impossible to make sense of - rather than seeking closure, people may seek to cope with grief, learn to live with loss and grow around it
14
Q
what is meaning-making and continuing bonds?
A
- grief as a process of meaning making, where bereaved persons try to make sense of the world, integrate the deaths of their loved ones into the worldview
- continuing bonds: the way the living maintain connections - a bond- with the deceased, may bring comfort
15
Q
what do you say to someone who is grieving?
A
- society lacks grief literacy
- often do not have the skills, knowledge, vocabulary to adequately support people going through loss
- lads to well intentioned but sometimes unhelpful responses
