Lifespan Development Psychology Module 19: Coping with Death and Bereavement

Key Terms:

 Clinical death: a period during which vital signs are absent but resuscitation is still

possible

 Brain death: the point at which vital signs, including brain activity, are absent and

resuscitation is no longer possible

 Social death: the point at which family members and medical personnel treat the

deceased person as a corpse

 Hospice care: an approach to care for the terminally ill that emphasizes individual and

family control of the process of dying

 Palliative care: a form of care for terminally ill people that focuses on relieving patients’

pain rather than curing their diseases

 Unique invulnerability: the belief that bad things, including death, happen only to others

 Thanatology: the scientific study of death and dying

 Grieving: the emotional response to a death or other type of loss

 Complicated grief: symptoms of depression brought on by the death of a loved one

I) The Experience of Death

a) Death Itself

 Clinical death: a period during which vital signs are absent but resuscitation is still

possible.

 Brain death: the point at which vital signs, including brain activity, are absent and

resuscitation is no longer possible.

 Social death: the point at which family members and medical personnel treat the

deceased person as a corpse.

b) Where Death Occurs

 Until recently, the great majority of adults died in hospitals.

 Hospice care: an approach to care for the terminally ill that emphasizes individual

and family control of the process of dying.

 Palliative care: a form of care for terminally ill people that focuses on relieving

patients’ pain rather than curing their diseases.

II) The Meaning of Death across the Lifespan

a) The Meaning of Death for Adults

 Unique invulnerability: the belief that bad things, including death, happen only to

others.

III) The Process of Dying

a) Kübler-Ross’s Stages of Dying

 Denial: helps insulate a person’s emotions from the trauma of hearing such news.

Helpful in the early hours and days after such a diagnosis

 Anger
  Bargaining

 Depression

 Acceptance

b) Criticism and Alternate Views

 Kübler-Ross’s hypothesized sequence was initially based on clinical observation of

200 patients, and she did not provide information about how frequently she talked to

them or how long a period she continued to assess them. She also did not report the

ages of the patients, although it is clear that many were middle-aged or young adults,

for whom a terminal illness was obviously “off time.”

 Cross-cultural studies suggest that cultures vary considerably in what they believe to

be a “good death.”

 Depression only seems to be common among Western patients.

 Thanatology: the scientific study of death and dying.

c) Responses to Impending Death

 Steven Greer followed a group of 62 women diagnosed in the early stages of breast

cancer. Three months after the original diagnosis, each woman was interviewed at

some length, and her reaction to the diagnosis and to her treatment was classed in one

of five groups:

(1) Denial (positive avoidance): person rejects evidence about diagnosis; insists that

surgery was just precautionary.

(2) Fighting spirit: person maintains an optimistic attitude and searches for more

information about the disease. These patients often see their disease as a challenge

and plan to fight it with every method available.

 (3) Stoic acceptance (fatalism): person acknowledges the diagnosis but makes no

effort to seek any further information, or person ignores the diagnosis and carries

on normal life as much as possible.

(4) Helplessness/hopelessness: person acts overwhelmed by diagnosis; sees herself as

dying or gravely ill and as devoid of hope.

(5) Anxious preoccupation: women in this category had originally been included in

the helplessness group, but they were separated out later. The category includes

those whose response to the diagnosis is strong and persistent anxiety. If they seek

information, they interpret it pessimistically; they monitor their body sensations

carefully, interpreting each ache or pain as a possible recurrence.

 Greer then checked on the survival rates of these five groups after 5, 10, and 15 years.

Only 35% of those whose initial reaction had been either denial or fighting spirit had

died of cancer 15 years later, compared with 76% of those whose initial reaction had

been stoic acceptance, anxious preoccupation, or helplessness/hopelessness.

IV) Theoretical Perspectives on Grieving

a) John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory

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V) The Experience of Grieving

a) Psychosocial Functions of Death Rituals

 Grieving: the emotional response to a death or other type of loss.

b) Widowhood

 Widowhood effect: a phenomenon in which the death of one spouse is soon followed

by the other. It is thought to result from the immune system’s response to emotional

trauma.
 Complicated grief: symptoms of depression brought on by the death of a loved one.