Developmental Psychology

Achieve Test Prep: Developmental Psychology

b. Older adults are more comfortable talking about death than younger adults c. Older individuals tend to view death as a time organizer or a reason to reprioritize.

Thanatology is the study of death. The realization of mortality and death tends to make many individuals more responsive to nature, which results in a greater appreciation of creative pursuits, also referred to as aesthetic sense . Many individuals become retrospective and begin to analyze goals, accomplishments, and failures of their lives. There are distinct differences of the perception of death between genders and ages. Women tend to be more fearful of death than men, despite viewing it as something peaceful. Older individuals may be less anxious and stressed about death than younger individuals. The Hospice Movement : An estimated seventy percent of people in the USA die in hospitals. There is an increasing number of individuals choosing at home hospice services. The Hospice Movement began in the 1970s as a way to humanize the dying process and to preserve the dignity of those in the dying stage. The term palliative care refers to hospice care which focuses on symptom management, rather than prolonging life. Terms and Stages: - Agonal Stage : muscle spasms and gasping for death - Clinical Death : heart, lung, and brain function cease, but the person can be revived - Brain Death : an irreversible lack of brain activity - Persistent Vegetative State : physiologically dead, but with brain activity - Mortality : permanent, irreversible death Elizabeth Kubler-Ross postulated a framework for understanding death. Her stages are the common stages of grief: - Denial: refusing to accept death - Anger: anger in regards to why death occurs - Bargaining: pleading to trade places with the deceased, or if an individual does something, then a higher power will bring back the deceased loved one. - Depression: the intense emotions which accompany emotional and painful events The Dying Process

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