Dying and bereavement Flashcards

1
Q

In what ways does culture affect death definitions?

A

Variation in definition and in rituals surrounding death as well as bereavement
- Life force leaves the body during sleep or illness, or reaching a certain age
- Malaysian, term, mate; extremely sick, the very old and the dead, toa refers to all living people

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2
Q

What are the 3 medical definitions of death?

A

Clinical death
- No heartbeat or respiration
- Can change
Whole-brain
- Coma with no known cause
- All brainstem reflexes permanently stopped
- Completely dead
- Breathing stopped
Persistent vegetative state
- No cortical functions

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3
Q

What are some age-related differences in how adults feel about dying?

A

Young adults
- Feeling cheated
- Hopes and dreams are gone
Middle Adults
- Starting to confront it, how has life been
- Increased awareness, often when in contact with death
Older adults
- Often more accepting of death, not as scared of it

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4
Q

Kubler-Ross’ Stage Theory

A
  • How do we deal with our own upcoming death, as well as loss
  • Feelings of; denial, anger, bargaining(higher power), depression and acceptance
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5
Q

Why is Kubler-Ross’ Stage Theory not considered a proper stage theory?

A
  • The stages can overlap with each other
  • Doesn’t happen in a specific order, some stages might get skipped
  • Individual variation
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6
Q

What is the Contextual Theory?

A
  • Focuses on issues and tasks that people face with dying
  • No right way of coping, but some are maladaptive
  • Consists of 4 dimensions of issues, from the person’s dying point of view
    Bodily needs
    Psychological security - retain autonomy
    Interpersonal Attachment - alert others
    Spiritual Energy and Hope(finding it)
  • Holistic point of view and focus on individual differences
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7
Q

What is death anxiety and how does it manifest?

A
  • Anxiety or fear over dying, death and what happens after death
  • Indirect behaviour
  • 3 dimensions (public, private and non-conscious)
    How painful will it be
    Humiliation or rejection
    Punishment after death
    Being destroyed
    Body malfunction
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8
Q

Terror Management Theory

A

Focuses on why people engage in behaviors to achieve psychological states based on your concerns about mortality
- Motivation to do what you want

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9
Q

What does experts recommend in order to reduce death anxiety?

A
  • To not let it overcome our daily routines
  • Use it as motivation to live with no regrets
  • Death education
  • Participating in experiential workshops
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10
Q

What are important tasks for those who are either terminally ill or knowing they will die soon?

A
  • End Of Life Issues; after death body disposition, memorial services and assets
  • How to live their last time on earth
  • Bringing closure to relationships
    Anticipatory socialization - Disengage before dying
  • Still maintaining psychological control, no loss of autonomy
  • Making a final scenario; what is important to me
  • Living will; states my wishes with medical and end of life services
  • Take control over their last time on earth and how to be handled after death
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11
Q

Bereavement

A

A state or condition which is caused by loss through death

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12
Q

Grief

A

The negative emotions that comes from loss
- Hurt, anger, frustration, guilt, scared, sadness

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13
Q

Mourning

A
  • Its a form of expression of grief, its manifestation
  • Different across cultures
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14
Q

What are the steps that describes the process of grieving?

A
  • Its an active coping respons
    1. Acknowledgement of the reality of loss
    2. You have to work through its emotional chaos
    3. Adjusting the environment where the deceased is no longer present
    4. Starting to loosing the ties to the deceased one
  • Individual process, it can take up to several years
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15
Q

What are some common grief reactions?

A
  • Coping, affect, change, narrative, relationships
  • Intense feelings of sadness, denial or anger
  • Anniversary grief
  • Grief peaks within its first 6 months, may never go away
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16
Q

Four-Component Model of Grief

A
  • A model to help understand grief or how one cope with grief
  • Context of loss
    Any risk factors, unexpected
  • A continuation of subjective meaning that is associated with loss
    What does this loss mean for me, how to remember their death, keeping traditions
  • Role of coping and emotion-regulation
    Can work as ruminative
  • Changing representations of lost relationship over time
    Your perspective and relationship with the one who is dead
    Meaning of death
17
Q

In Four-Component Model of Grief, what components are seen as normative and non-normative?

A
  • Context of loss
    Normative(old) vs non-normative(young)
  • Dealing with grief
    Normative as we all do it
  • Changing representations of lost relationship over time
    Seen as normative, we all need to handle this after loss
  • Coping and emotion regulation
    Both
18
Q

What is the dual-process of grief?

A
  • Two types of stressor
  • Focus on loss vs Getting over the loss
    Grief work vs doing new things
    Denial of restoration changes vs avoidance of grief
  • Cycle back and forth
  • Long-term balance of effects of bereavement and the need to live
19
Q

Adaptive Grieving Dynamics

A
  • 2 broad types of stressor
  • Go in between them constantly, its dynamic
  • Processes and strategies one might use
    Integrating - assimilating internal and external changes, integrating the past, present and future
    Tempering - To not get overwhelmed by the changes that takes up on individual and community resources as well as capacity to integrate change
  • Valence
    Lamenting - responses that are distressful, disheartening and painful for the person
    Heartening - responses that focus on gratifying, uplifting or pleasurable
20
Q

What are 2 ways in which the grieving process differs across people?

A
  • Sudden vs prolonged death
  • Strength of attachment
  • Gender differences
  • Spousal loss
  • How people cope with death
  • Cultural differences
21
Q

Ambigious Grief

A
  • No resolution
    Person is physically missing but psychologically there
  • No closure
    Person is physically there but not psychologically
22
Q

Disenfranchised Grief

A
  • Grief is strong to a person who lost the deceased, but seemingly no grief from others
  • Social expectations of loss, needing to move on
  • Not being able to see from another perspective
  • Loss of an animal
23
Q

What is complicated or prolonged grief?

A
  • Difficulty with grief
  • Caused by sudden death, if the attachment to the deceased one is strong and can differ between gender
  • Common in young adults, death of a child or parent
  • Difficulty reaching closure
24
Q

Deaht of one’s child

A
  • Traumatic event, cross-culturally universal
  • Miscarriages included
  • Some never recover
25
Q

Death of one’s parent

A
  • A loss of important person in their life
  • Reminder of your own mortality
  • Letting go is difficult, can lead to acceptance of ones own mortality and that the parent’s suffering is over
26
Q

What conditions are more likely to be present under prolonged grief and why?

A
  • Separation Distress
    Constantly occupied with the death, interferes with the day-to-day life, reminded of the diseased
  • Traumatic Distress
    Feelings of disbelief, isolating from others
  • Experiencing a physical presence of the deceased, they are are here