Thanatology - Psychology - Chapter 10

What is a common erroneous belief that family members sometimes have regarding a family death?

• Families wrongfully believe that each member’s grief
will be similar
• Remember each death and relationship to the deceased is unique.

How is their grief affected regarding emotional legacies?

It is important to recognize that their grief is affected
by the relationships they have with each other and the
emotional legacies they have created as a family.

What type of grieving patterns do families have (Uniform or different)? Why?

• Different patterns are affected by the degree to which
family members are willing/able to anticipate and
prepare for loss as well as the other general factors
that come into play.
• Understanding family grief, therefore, is a task with
multiple layers and interplay.

What are some of the factors listed regarding the grief response of different family members?

Many factors contribute to differences among family
members
• Individual perception of the loss
• Individual interpretations of the loss
• Individual relationship with the deceased
• Individual relationships with other family members

• Families are comprised of differing genders, ages, and
backgrounds which also add stressors to the
environment.
• Different people will use differing coping methods

• Cultural differences within a family can cause problems
• Muslim couple converting to Methodism

• Some members may never resolve the loss completely.
• End result is that there are many things happening
simultaneously and intense emotions, varying
relationships, and all the stressors can put intense
strain on the family relationship

What are three questions that should be answered by the family to cope and adapt?

• Questions that need to be answered by a family
• What have we lost?
• What do we have left?
• What may still be possible for us?

Why are these questions important?

• This forces a family to recognize a reorganization over
time and members need to reinvest within the family.
• Your role is to encourage communication and facilitate
building bridges.
• This is beneficial to everyone, including you, since you’ll be a “hero”.

How does supportive communication play into the family grief situation?

• Encouraging people to communicate and facilitate
discussion allows them to easily share their viewpoints
and beliefs.
• It is important to note that communication is ESSENTIAL
to the family and that it is challenging to let someone talk
while one listens.

What are the dynamics according to Worden that contribute to a family’s reaction
to death?

• Functional position or role the deceased played in the
family can affect grief in members. The greater the role,
the more disturbance in the equilibrium of the family.

• An Emotionally well integrated family may show minimal grief reaction at the time of death, but members may respond later with various physical or emotional
symptoms or some type of social misbehavior.

• The value families place on emotions and the kinds of
communication patterns that give a person permission to
express feelings or not express feelings can affect
mourning. Family that conspire to feelings of suppression
may ultimately keep the individual from an adequate
resolution of grief.