Bereavement and Grief

Bereavement Patterns

According to this bereavement pattern theory, those identified as having achronic depression pattern were depressed prior to bereavement and had high levels of [Page 72]depression after the loss. These individuals were experiencing emotional distress that was exacerbated by the loss of their loved one. In contrast, in thechronic grief pattern, distress was due to the cognitive and emotional trauma of losing a beloved friend or relative. These individuals became depressed following the loss and remained depressed 18 months later.

Thedepressed improved pattern showed high levels of depression pre-loss with subsequent low levels of depression post-loss. Death was seen as the end of a struggle. The person who died had a chronic illness that required a lot of attention and care and subsequently strained relationships.

Thecommon grief pattern is perhaps the most well-known and easily identifiable pattern, falling in line with the DSM-IV-TR. Individuals going through common grief had low pre-loss levels of depression, exhibit short-lived grief reactions, and return to pre-loss levels of functioning relatively quickly.

Theresilience pattern, once thought to be rare, unhealthy, and indicative of psychopathology, has proven to be an adaptive way to cope with loss. Those thought of as resilient do not exhibit any pre-loss distress; they are absent of any grief symptoms and continue to function adequately following the loss.

Protective Factors

If resilience is a protective factor against grief and bereavement, the dimensions that promote resilience should be explored. As the first dimension, hardiness (a personality trait) consists of three factors: a commitment to discovering meaning to one's own life, the belief that the outcome of events is shaped by one's environment over which one has control, and the belief that positive and negative life experiences have the ability to teach and allow one to grow. Hardy individuals tend to be more confident, use active coping and social support, and appraise potentially stressful situations as less threatening, thereby reducing their levels of distress.

Self-enhancement is another dimension associated with resilience. It has been argued that to be mentally healthy, one does not need to accept one's own physical limitations and negative characteristics; rather, one should have biases that are unrealistic and overly positive in favor of the self. There are some negatives to high self-esteem. Those who tend to self-enhance also tend to score high on narcissism scales and tend to elicit negative and unfavorable impressions from others. This is a trade-off that self-enhancers seem willing to make.

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