Week 9: Models of Grief Flashcards
Bereavement Definition
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 Definition
intense suffering, sadness that is experienced following a death. Is personal, often internal, spontaneous.
Mourning
public displays or expressions of grief that typically conform to social and cultural norms. Outward expressions of grief.
Factors Affecting Grief
-Type of relationship:
Parasocial relationship (ex: celebrity)
Close friend, family, chosen family relationship
Nature of that relationship
-Death trajectory:
Slow or rapid death trajectory (difference between an anticipated or an unanticipated death)
-Support:
The kind of support a person can expect to receive, if their grief is recognized or disenfranchised.
-Nature of death
Whether tragic or unexpected
Traumatic Death
death that is unexpected, violent, involving bodily harm. Can complicate ‘making sense’ of death, undermine sense of safety.
-Question of why?
-Some traumatic deaths are stigmatized: suicide, violence, drug and alcohol use.
-Families may experience feelings of guilt or be subject to blame.
Adaptive Grieving Styles/ Intuitive Grievers
-focus on feelings and emotion
-Interior feelings match outward expression
-Desire to talk through experiences, emotions.
Adaptive Grieving Styles/ Instrumental Grievers
-Focused on thinking, action.
-Interior feelings may not be directly reflected in outward expression.
Because someone is not crying, it is sometimes assumed they are not sad, or they are not ‘dealing with’ their feelings.
-But they are dealing differently
4 Social Rules of Grieving
- Who has permission to be identified as bereaved?
- How long grief can last
3.How grief can and should manifest - If the manner of death is considered ‘acceptable’ or if there is stigma attached to it.
Death & Relationships
-Death can disrupt a person’s social identity
-Identity foreclosure: “a change in one’s social status (ex: widowhood, retirement) resulting in the termination of ones former identity.
-Deaths can affect relationships, bringing people closer together or creating conflict, especially if grieving styles or timelines are different.
-Death is transformative in relationships, 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.
Pathologization of Grief
grief perceived as a deviation from ‘normal’, a medical problem to be addressed by professionals after a certain period (6 months) as opposed to a healthy 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.
Kubler-Ross 5 ‘stages’ model
-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.
Tasks
Tasks (Worden, 1991): grieving as work, something to work through. Mourning is ‘completed’ when the 4 tasks are completed.
Pathways
-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 come to make sense of their loss and their lives going forward.
-Frames of meaning may include religious, philosophical, cultural, literacy.
Coping Versus Closure
-Grief tends to be non-linear, cyclical, doesn’t necessarily end. People may come to live with grief, to cope with ongoing effects of grief, rather than get over grief.
-myth of recovery/ closure
-Closure is often seen as ‘forgetting’, making sense of something that is impossible to make sense of. Can feel like betrayal.
-Rather than seeking closure, people may seek to cope with grief, learn to live with the loss and grow around it.
