PSYC 635 Week 8 DB Forum 8 Example

Discussion Board Forum 8: Thread and Two Replies

PSYC 635 Adult Psychology, Discussion Board Forum 8 (thread and two replies)

Thread by [Student Name]

The prompt and the classmates' posts are composites standing in for the course's own forum; the textbook and the journal article are real and described from their published sources; the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for PSYC 635.

Thread

Eight months after her husband died, Margaret told her pastor something she had not said to anyone: she feels guilty because she is sleeping well, laughing with her grandchildren and not falling apart. Friends keep waiting for her to "hit bottom." Cavanaugh and Blanchard-Fields (2018) describe grief as varied and caution against treating stage models as a required sequence, and research on older widows supports that caution. The chapter also notes that the circumstances of a death, such as a long illness, shape how survivors respond.

Bonanno et al. (2002) used a rare design. Participants in a large study of older married couples had been assessed years before a spouse died, so the researchers could compare each bereaved person's adjustment afterward, at 6 and 18 months, with how they had been doing before the loss. The most common pattern was resilience: nearly half of the bereaved showed low levels of depression before and after the death, rather than a period of intense distress followed by recovery. Other paths included common grief, chronic grief, chronic depression that predated the loss and improvement after the death of a spouse whose illness had been a heavy burden.

Margaret's experience, then, is not a sign of a cold heart or a delayed collapse; it is the most frequent way older adults respond. Her pastor's best response might be to reassure her rather than wait for tears. How might churches recognize and support grief that does not look the way people expect?

Reply to Natalie

Natalie, you wondered whether people who seem resilient are just avoiding their grief. That was the question the preloss data could test. Bonanno et al. (2002) found that resilient participants had not been in unhappy marriages and had not been emotionally distant before the death, and they did not show the signs of avoidance that a denial account would predict. Many did feel sadness and yearning, but it did not overwhelm daily functioning. This matters for practice, because pushing a resilient widow to express more grief, on the assumption that she is suppressing it, may do more harm than good. Resilience in this study looked less like denial and more like a steady capacity to hold sorrow alongside ordinary life, which is closer to the biblical picture of grieving with hope.

Reply to Gabriel

Gabriel, you asked whether all bereaved older adults should be referred for grief counseling. These findings suggest not. If most people are resilient, routine counseling for everyone may waste resources and imply that normal coping is a problem. The groups who struggled, especially those with chronic grief or depression that was already present before the death, are the ones who most need support. Cavanaugh and Blanchard-Fields (2018) describe a smaller group whose grief stays intense for many months and interferes with daily life. Screening for those patterns, rather than treating everyone, seems the wiser use of counselors' time and of a congregation's care. A pastor who checks in at six months, when casseroles and cards have stopped, might notice who is not recovering and gently suggest a counselor.

References

Bonanno, G. A., Wortman, C. B., Lehman, D. R., Tweed, R. G., Haring, M., Sonnega, J., Carr, D., & Nesse, R. M. (2002). Resilience to loss and chronic grief: A prospective study from preloss to 18-months postloss. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(5), 1150-1164. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.5.1150

Cavanaugh, J. C., & Blanchard-Fields, F. (2018). Adult development and aging (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.