Module 2 Flashcards
(64 cards)
1
Q
Themes of death in CanLit: The Stone Angel
A
- Hagar Shipley as a character who struggles with mortality and loss
- Reflection on regret, independence, and facing death
- The stone angel as a metaphor for memory and grief
2
Q
Themes of death in CanLit: Who Has Seen the Wind
A
- Explores childhood, nature, and mortality
- Follows Brian O’Connal as he grapples with life, death, and the natural world
- Themes of impermanence, innocence vs. experience, and spiritual connection to nature
- Death of key figures
- Death of key features shapes Brian’s understanding of mortality
3
Q
Why do we care about death in CanLit
A
- Developmental psychology in context
- Cultural narratives shape how we view and cope with death
- Insights into emotional, psychological, and existential aspects of dying across the lifespan
- We have a fascination with death so we can look at these books to see if our perceptions of death has ever changed
4
Q
Euphemism
A
- The use of a word of phrase that is less expressive or direct but considered less distasteful, less offensive than another
5
Q
Some euphemisms for dying, death, and burial related words
A
- Coffin = Casket
- The dead = The departed, the deceased
- Died = passed on, passed over, laid their burden down, gone to a well earned rest, been called home, gone to heaven
- Buried = laid to rest
- Corpse = the body, the remains,
6
Q
Urban legend at the University of Manitoba
A
- Medical students were dissecting a cadaver
- They removed an arm from the arm and used it as a real arm to pay for the bus fare
- When the bus driver went to talk the money he pulled the arm off
- The shock caused the bus driver to have a heart attack and die
7
Q
Pop culture and death
A
- Movies, television, and novels often explore themes of death, reflecting and shaping societal perceptions
- Interesting considering western societies are death denying
- Ex: Dexter, Gladiator
8
Q
How does Dexter make people think about death
A
- Dexter is obsessed with killing and works in the department trying to find out who is killing people
- We emphasize with Dexter because he’s killing people we don’t like
- We can mourn characters if we love them
9
Q
Media and death
A
- Play a crucial role in shaping public perception and motivating collective responses to death
- Ex: Maurice Richard’s death was painted differently in French and English newspapers
10
Q
Research evidence of the role in the media
A
- Clarke examined the portrayal of death in high circulation english language magazines available in Canada
- Articles tended to emphasize the power, success, and potential of modern medicine, along with an individual’s right and ability to choose
11
Q
Media’s gendered Framing of Cancer (Clarke, 2004)
A
- Analysis of print English language magazines in Canada
- Coverage of breast, testicular, and prostate cancer portrays these illnesses as not just threats to life but to gender identity
- Media coverage raises public fear and provides reassurance through solutions like early detection and medical treatments
12
Q
The masculine narrative of prostate cancer
A
- Newspaper articles on prostate cancer emphasized masculine ideals like courage and stoicism
- Difficult realities (fear, end of life care, etc.) were often left out of public discussions
- There was significant coverage of funding disparities, showing that breast cancer research and fundraising received much more attention than prostate cancer
13
Q
The shift of cancer coverage over time
A
- Comparing cancer portrayals in Canadian newspapers, research found:
- Cancer coverage increased and became a bigger media topic
- Coverage became more positive, focusing on prevention, treatment, and survivorship
- Discussions of dying, end-of-life care, and bereavement remained rare, reinforcing societal avoidance of death despite cancer being the leading cause of death in Canada
14
Q
Bureaucratization of death in Canada
A
- Shifts control over dying and death away from the dying person, the family, and the community toward officials who are strangers and who operate according to bureaucratize culture rather than the individual’s relevant subculture
- Ex: Doctors, government, provinces, etc.
15
Q
Cultural clashes in hospital care
A
- Indigenous and settlers approach death differently
- Hospitals tend to take control of the dying process, applying bureaucratic policies that dictate care, family involvement, etc.
- The rules don’t find usually go well with what indigenous families want and may be difficult for non-indigenous healthcare professionals to understand
16
Q
The role of indigenous interpreters
A
- Serve as language translators, cultural mediators, and patient advocates
- Improves communication, reduces misunderstandings, and promotes more culturally sensitive care
17
Q
Culturally sensitive palliative care
A
- Indigenous communities often prefer to be close to nature, engage in spiritual ceremonies, and eat traditional foods in their final days
- Many hospitals restrict cultural practices causing distress for Indigenous patients and their families
- Some hospitals now offer large family rooms to accommodate cultural needs, but challenges remain
18
Q
Bureaucratization of death
A
- The shift of death and dying into hospitals and the funeral industry has made families and communities marginal participants in the process
- Traditionally, families played central roles in caring for the dying, preparing the body, and conducting death rituals
19
Q
Dying and Death as social stigma
A
- Death is considered bad, repulsive, contaminating, and threatening
- Courtesy sigma: anyone associated with death is “contaminated”
- The contamination is not physical but cultural, reflecting deep seated societal discomfort with mortality
20
Q
HIV/AIDS stigma and perceptions
A
- Emerged in the early 80s
- Was mysterious, untreatable, and deadly
- Today it is treatable and considered by some as a chronic disease due to medical advances
- Often associated with homosexuality, drug use, sex work, etc. reinforcing social biases
21
Q
How have obituaries transformed overtime
A
- Less religion aside from the surge in the 60s
- They’ve gotten longer
- More detailed information about the deceased (family, occupation, hobbies) suggests a sift from simply announcing death to constructing a life legacy
- Social context is important
- Compares regional differences as well
22
Q
Questions that arise as children experience absence, loss, separation, and change
A
- What does it mean to be dead
- Why does a person get dead and what can we do about it
- Who else might get dead
- No one is spared of the possibility of losing someone and parents may want to spare their child of this anxiety
23
Q
Adult assumptions about what children think about death
A
- Rarely have the chance to engage in family conversations about death
- Adults harbour their own fears, uncertainties, and inner struggles, thus transmitting them to their children
- Freud Says: Parents tend to desire the belief that their children inhabit a fairy-tale realm, shielded from the hard reality of death
24
Q
What do children actually thing about death
A
- In research we find that early childhood experiences with death were recalled in vivd detail by adults
- Funerals/burials were often their earliest memories
- Childhood experiences with death had lasting impacts on adult personalities
- Childhood encounters with death, loss, or separation could shape one’s perspective on life and approach to death
25
Children's understanding of death
- Young children can't comprehend death but seem to understand it
- Misconceptions about children's understanding can be traced back to Piaget's
- Spontaneous discoveries highlight children's recognition of death at a young age
- Older children explore ways to express and cope with loss
- Their comprehension of death varies depending on the situation and their moods
26
Evidence of children's comprehension of death
- Nagy asked 378 children between 3 to 10 to express their thoughts and feelings about death
- Older children drew pictues and wrote down their thoughts, while conversations were held with children of all ages
- Analysis of children's responses revealed three distinct stages of understanding about death
27
Nagy's 3 Stages
1. Age Range 3-5: Death is separation. The dead are less alive. Very curious about death
2. Age Range 5-9: Death is final - but one might escape it Death is seen as a person.
3. Age Range 9-adult: Death is personal, universal, final, and inevitable
28
More recent studies challenging Nagy's rigid stages
- Life experience, age, and discussion around the topic influence our understanding
- Stages of death are absolute, just moments were in that help us deal cognitively and emotionally
- Around age 11, children typically achieve a basic understanding of death
- Children with superior intellectual and verbal skills tend to demonstrate more advanced concepts of death
- Understanding death is important in understanding the world and we start understanding it very early on
- Children want to explore complicated topics like death
29
Biological Death
- Most frequently identified category
- Drawings represented the dead body of the circumstances surrounding death
- Can be broken into three sub-categories
1. the state of death
2. the moment of death
3. the cause of death
30
Vázquez-Sáchez et al. 2018 study on the categories of death
- 9 to 11 years old make drawings and write a brief caption telling what the picture says
- Three main categories:
1. Biological death
2. Psychological death
3. Metaphysical death
31
Psychological death
- Typically focused on death related emotions
- Sub categories:
1. Sorrow
2. Anxiety and fear
3. Good death
- Category of mental imageries as seen before was replaced by anxiety or fear
32
Metaphysical Death
- Often included religious, cultural, or philosophical symbols
- Sub categories:
1. Object
2. Person
3. Places or situations
- Personification
33
Death Understanding and Fear of Death in Young Children - Slaughter & Griffiths (2007)
Background and rationale:
- Previous research showed that young children struggle wot understand the permanence and biological nature of death
- The study aimed to determine whether a mature understanding of death could reduce children's fear of it
Methods
- 90 children aged 4 to 8
- Asked questions about their understanding of death and their fear
Findings
- The better they understand the less they fear it
- Cognitive understanding plays a key role in alleviating death related fear
Why does this matter
- Implications for emotional well being
- Guidance for caregivers and educators
34
Adolescents understandings of death
- Almost all capable of understanding the concept of death
- Biological, cognitive, social, and emotional factors all influence their understanding of death
- The internet helps
- Social media exposes them more to death and mis-information
35
Adolescents understanding of death - biological maturation
- This brings awareness of inevitable physical and ultimate death
- Tends to be shown in high risk behaviours who seek to defy or cheat death
36
Adolescents understanding of death - cognitive maturation
- During a search of their own identity and values they tend to understand the inevitability of death
- Thoughts of death may coexist with feelings of personal significance
37
Adolescents understanding of death - Social relationships
- As relationships grow outside the family they try to avoid "social death" by connecting with peer groups
- Can be especially challenging when moving to a new setting (eg. new country)
38
Adolescents understanding of death - Feelings about development
- Feelings of death and development are closely entwined
- Developmental feelings of loss and grief - the fear of losing oneself - coexist in many adolescents
39
Young adults attitudes toward death
- Anxiety about one's own death is not typically prominent unless they encounter death in some manner which generates new threats and anxieties
- Concerns are more related to the death of others but as they advance developmentally they will get a personalized awareness of mortality - through encounters with death and realizing they aren't immortal
40
Middle-Aged adults attitudes toward death
- Concern of aging an death may arise when their bodies and capabilities start to change
- Tend to shift from time lived to time left to live
- Tend to begin a retrospective assessment of their achievements
- Leads to them wondering what it will mean for their children, family, significant others as well as their vocational and creative projects that have occupied so much of their time
41
Seminal
- Contribution to our understanding of sigma
42
How does Goffman define stigma
- Attribute that is deeply discrediting
- Posed three types of stigma
- Physical, character blemish, and tribal
43
Physical stigma
- Physical disabilities
- Illness
44
Character blemish stigma
- Addiction
- Mental health
- Criminal history
45
Tribal stigma
- Race
- Nationality
- Religion
46
Spoiled identity
- Occurs when an individual's social identity is damaged or discredited due to stigma
47
Ways spoiled identity can happen
- Stigma and social judgement: Labels that devalue a person
- Passing vs covering: People with a hidden stigma may try to "pass" as someone without a stigma
- Courtesy stigma: The stigma can extend to associates or family members of the individual
- Identity Management: People adapt to stigma by resisting, embracing, or reinterpreting it
48
How does stigma apply to death
- May not want people to know the real reason they died (ex: AIDS, suicide)
49
Suicide in Canada
- About 4500 per year
- 3 times higher in men
- Second leading cause of death among youth and young adults
50
Suicide rate is higher among people who
- Experience depression or other psychiatric problems
- Use alcohol while depressed
- Deal with challenges and frustrations in impulsive ways
- Are divorced
- Lost important relationships
51
Youth suicide: Factors associated with higher risk
- Previous suicidal attempts by other family members
- History of prior suicide attempts
- Changes in behaviour
- Expressions of hopelessness
- Statements about wanting to end their life
- Narrowed thought process
- Abrupt flashes of anger
52
What is the human impact of suicide
- Even results that do not result in death can have significant impacts
- The attempt might gain temporary attention, or might be interpreted as manipulative and lead to resentment and withdrawal by others
- "Copycat" suicides may occur after the suicide of a celebrity
- Children with family members who attempted or completed suicide are more likely to make attempts themselves at some point in their lives
53
13 Reasons Why and suicide rates in the US
- Twitter and IG data and linked it to a little bit of higher rates in suicide when the show was super popular
- Shows may want to avoid showing such graphic scenes as a result
54
Older adults and suicide
- Older men are at an increased risk
- Often choose firearms as mode of suicide
- Less likely to give warning signs
- More likely to plan suicide
- Less likely to recover from an attempt
55
Indicators of suicide risk for older adults
- Sad, dejected, flat mood
- Stooped, withdrawn, fatigued, lack of eye contact
- Careless in grooming and dress
- Restlessness, handwringing contact motor activity
- Sleep issues
- Loss of interest
- Preoccupied with vague and shifting physical complaints
- Etc.
56
Consequences of suicide stigma
- Barriers to seeking help
- Impact on families
- Underreporting misclassification
57
The opioid crisis
- Continues to worsen
- Covid had a huge negative impact
- Fentanyl is making everything worse
58
Demographics and regional trends of opioid overdose
- Worse for males
- Around ages 30 to 39
- Most of the opioid deaths are happening in BC, Alberta, and Ontario
59
How does stigma affect drug-related deaths
- Perceptions of drug use
- Barriers to seeking help
- Impact on families
- Policy consequences
60
Breaking the stigma around drug related deaths
- Language matters
- Recognizing addition as a mental health issue
- Expanding harm reduction services
- Supporting families
61
Disenfranchised grief
- Grief that is not socially recognized or validated
- Mourners experience a lack of acknowledgement and support
- Occurs when a loss is stigmatized, hidden, or ignored
- Coined by Dr Doka
- Shows that some grief is marginalized and unrecognized
62
Why does disenfranchised grief happen
- Society dictates which losses are acceptable to grieve publicly
- Losses that are stigmatized or unconventional are often dismissed
63
How does disenfranchised grief affect people
- Leads to complicated or unresolved mourning
- Can result in mental health challenges
- Increases social isolation as mourners may feel they have no space to grieve
- May discourage people from getting help
- Long term emotional stress
64
Ways to address disenfranchised grief
- Recognizing all forms of loss as valid and important
- Encouraging open conversations about grief in society
- Providing specialized grief support for stigmatized groups
- Advocating for policy changes that improve access to bereavement care
