Unit 5 Flashcards
(18 cards)
What characterizes depression? How do rates of depression (generally speaking) change across adulthood? What are the risk factors for depression (according to the book)? Do the risk factors differ across adulthood?
Anhedonia or dysphoria is what characterizes depression, some of the symptoms are
appetite changes, fatigue, insomnia and breathing difficulty.
Across adulthood, the period of middle adulthood, women aged between 40-49 have highest rates of depression.
Across adulthood depression tends to drop in the population but is still a severe problem.
Symptoms: anhedonia/dysphoria, insomnia, appetite & weight change, diffused pain…
More women than men are depressed, specifically women between 40-49 har highest rates
Risk factors: being female, unmarried or widowed, stressful life event, lack of social support, chronic illness, living in institution, caring for someone sick, ethnic minority, poverty
Across adulthood depression rates tend to drop
What is delirium? What causes delirium?
Delirium is characterized by having disturbance of consciousness meaning being subjected to confusion, disorientation, memory loss and disorganized thinking.
It leads to emotional and personality change and develops rapidly. It is more common in elderly and the symptoms are more severe for them.
There can be different causes for delirium that being dehydration, sleep deprivation, medical conditions that cause infection or inflammation or substances as toxins, medications or intoxication/withdrawal.
Compare and contrast three forms of dementia—what do they have in common and what makes them different?
Alzheimer’s:
Neurological changes leading to rapid cell-death, neurofibrillary tangles, beta-amyloid plagues. They believe some kind of inflammation, but we don’t know exactly what causes it.
Parkinson’s:
Characterized by motor deficits; shuffling gates, hand tremors, rigid muscles, balance problems. There is no known biomarkers, loss of cells in substantia nigra which leads to dopamine production decreases. Genetic link, men develop it more, exsposure to toxins
Vascular dementia:
Results of small cerebral accidents, those at risk are smokers or people who have pulmonary or vascular diseases
Lewy body dementia (LBD) is a disease associated with abnormal deposits of a protein called alpha-synuclein in the brain. These deposits, called Lewy bodies, affect chemicals in the brain whose changes, in turn, can lead to problems with thinking, movement, behavior, and mood.
Commonalities
- Common with all dementias is it’s progressive, degenerative and eventually fatal.
- That cognitive functioning declines, there’s a significant drop in functioning
- Inappropriate social behavior due to inhibition stops working.
- Changes in personality are common.
- The ability to take care of yourself decreases as well
Differences Alzheimer’s has a genetic link where is why if you have a parent that has had Alzheimer’s can be at a bigger risk of developing it you as well. Alzheimer’s is rapid cell death, there’s changes in blood flow to the brain, impairment in the brain’s ability to use glucose which kills the cells.
Vascular dementia is results of small cerebral accidents. Those who are at risk are smokers, if
you have pulmonary disease or vascular disease.
Parkinson’s disease is characterized by motor deficits (hand tremors, balance problems,
speech impairment etc.). There are no known biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease.
There’s a loss of cells in substantia nigra, decline in dopamine production. Risk factor is
genetic link, being male as well as environmental (toxins).
Describe two cultural variations in the definition of death.
There’s a cultural variation in definition of death as well as rituals surrounding and bereavement.
Compare and contrast the three medical definitions of death.
Clinical death: no heartbeat/respiration
Whole-brain death: coma with unknown cause, all brainstem reflexes permanently stopped, breathing permanently stopped
Persistent vegetative state: no cortical functions while brainstem activity continues, person does not recover
Describe age-related differences in how adults feel about dying.
Young adults’ tent to report feeling cheated, not being able to do everything they want to do
Middle-aged adults start to confront their own mortality
Older adults are more accepting of death
Describe Kübler-Ross’ theory regarding dying. Why is it not considered a “stage” theory?
Denial
anger
bargaining
depression
acceptance
With research she realized stages weren’t right when it comes to the process of dealing with
dying because these different states can overlap and vary in order, therefore she revised the
theory.
She believed these five stages represent the typical range of emotional development in dying but cautioned not everyone experiences all of them or processes through them at the same rate or in the same order.
Describe the contextual theory of dying.
Focus is that there’s no right way of coping with dying, it emphasizes tasks and issues people face when they know they are dying.
Identifies 4 dimensions of the issues or tasks a dying person faces from their perspective; bodily needs, psychological security, interpersonal attachments & spiritual energy & hope.
Some argued that even broader inclusive view was needed.
What is death anxiety and how is it manifested? What have experts recommended for reducing or coping with death anxiety?
It’s the fear of death, dying and the aftermath of it. Death anxiety has components that are
non-conscious, private and public which is humiliation, rejection, pain, body malfunction,
non-being, interruption of goals, punishment, negative impact on survivors as well as being
destroyed.
Death anxiety refers to people’s anxiety or even fear of death & dying. It is the ethereal, unknown nature of death, rather than something about in in particular that makes us feel so uncomfortable.
One is to live life to the fullest, people who do this enjoy what they have.
One proposes several exercises & questions to increase one’s death awareness, some is to write you obituary. Death education.
Participating in experiential workshops about death significantly lowers death anxiety in younger, middle-aged & older adults.
What do experts agree are important tasks for those are terminally ill or know they will die soon?
Four dimensions of issues: Management of the final phase of life After death disposition of their body Memorial services Distribution of assets
What are bereavement, grief, and mourning?
Mourning is heavily influenced by cultural norms but it’s the expression of grief.
Grief is the negative emotions that will arise from loss, those can be guilt, anger or sorrow for example.
Bereavement is a condition or state that is caused by a loss through death.
What are the “steps” that describe the process of grieving?
Acknowledge reality of loss:
We must overcome the temptation to deny reality of our loss, we must fully & openly acknowledge it & realize it affects every aspect of our life
Work through emotional turmoil:
We must find effective ways to confront & express the complete range of emotions we feel after the loss & must not avoid or repress them
Adjust environment where deceased is absent:
We must define new patterns of living that adjust appropriately & meaningfully to the fact the deceased is not present
Loosen ties to deceased:
We must free ourselves from the bonds of the deceased in order to reengage with our social network, finding effective ways to say good bye
Describe the four-component model of grief. What components are considered normative and non-normative? Why are they different?
Four-component model proposes understanding grief is based on four things: (1) context of loss, referring to risk factors such as whether the death was expected, (2) continuation of subjective meaning associated with loss, ranging from evaluations of everyday concerns to major questions about meaning of life, (3) changing representations of the lost relationship over time, (4) the role of coping & emotion regulation processes
What is the “dual” in the dual process model of grief? How are they related to well-being?
The dual process model of grief is loss-oriented and restoration-oriented. It divides stressors into two broad factors as mentioned. Loss-orientation focus more on grief, restoration-oriented are stressors about the survivors new life,. People move back & forth between these two types of stressors.
Loss-oriented grief constitutes grief work, breakings bonds, intrusion of grief and avoidance
of restoration changes.
Restoration-orientation grief constitutes distraction from grief, doing new things, denial of
grief and new relationships.
Some suggests that you can cycle from each process as well as using both at the same time.
Loss-oriented process is more related to a negative well-being and restoration-oriented is
related to a positive well-being.
What are the two components of adaptive grieving dynamics? How are they dynamic?
Valence is divided into lamenting and heartening
Lamenting: experiencing thoughts & responses that are painful, distressful
Heartening: experiencing thoughts that are gratifying, uplifting
Dynamics are divided into Integrating and tempering
Integrating: assimilating internal & external changes, try integrate past, present & future to new reality
Tempering: changed realities overwhelms individual so they avoid change
Describe two ways that the grieving process differs across people.
Strength of attachment:
Strong & sudden deaths leads to greater grief, if the person has more secure & strong relationship to the dead that may lead to less guilt
Sudden vs. prolonged death:
Harder with sudden deaths, makes you feel cheated. Prolonged death make us grief beforehand
Gender & spousal loss:
Women are more depressed, men have higher mortality rates, women dying before the man is not that common
Compare and contrast ambiguous grief with disenfranchised grief.
Ambiguous grief refers to situations of loss in which there is no resolution or closure. No resolution refers to missing a person who’s physically absent but psychologically present. An example of this grief is when families we’re in Thailand during the tsunami. A lot of people were never found, not their bodies, but they were “pronounced” dead. This is an unending pain of not knowing for sure if the person is death and also not knowing what exactly happened. This leads to grief reactions that are postponed, for some for generations and is impossible to move on from. Many of these families still hope for an eventual return, for example if there’s been a kidnapping, that hope will always be there. No closure involves a loved one who’s psychologically absent but physically present. This happens for many when love ones develop dementia, the person is physically in front of them but the person inside is gone. Another example is when a person is in a vegetative state, the person is physically still there, still breathing, but the person you used to know is gone.
A loss that appears insignificant to others is highly consequential to the person who suffers the loss and give rise to disenfranchised grief. This stems from social expectations we place on people to “move on” after a loss. An example of when this happens is after the loss of a pet, many people don’t understand how significant that loss is for them. Or when your idol dies, an artist that you don’t know but is significant to you.
What characterizes “complicated” or “prolonged” grief. What are some conditions under which prolonged grief is more likely. Describe why.
