Dying Process

1.) Explain how the answers to the self-inventories in the text concerning facts, attitudes, beliefs and feelings about death reflect our societal understanding or lack of understanding of death. I think that the self- inventory question reflected on both our understanding and lack of understanding about death related topics. Some of the answers to the questions on the inventory I knew without look at the answers, but some of the answers actually surprised me. The question about the death certificate was one of the questions that actually surprised me. I assumed before I did the inventory that every death certificate had a specific cause of death that was given on the certificate. Another answer that surprised me was that measles kill more people in third world countries than AIDS. The inventory actually made you think about all aspects of death. Differentiate between attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and feelings about death related topics. Attitudes refer to our action tendencies. Beliefs refer to our relatively stable and broad interpretations of the world and our place in it. Feelings provide us with qualitative information on our total sense of being. Experiences are the things that we go through in life that help form our attitudes, beliefs, and feelings. Each one is important in developing, but each one is also different. Attitude is how we react, or maybe it is the way we do not react. Your attitude can change every five minutes. Beliefs are the things that help us know who we are your beliefs do not change like your attitude. Most people feel more passionate about their beliefs. Our feelings let us know hurt, and happens. Our feelings help us develop our beliefs and attitude. Give an example of how your own experiences may have impacted upon your feelings and beliefs about death. When my grandmother died I felt terrible, I had never felt that way before. It is hard to explain the way I actually felt. I remember that I stayed to myself most of the time. I never wanted to hear anyone else talking about it or talking about her. Eventually I realized that that was how they were grieving, by talking about her and never letting her go in their hearts. I still do not like to talk about her death, but I will not get upset if I her anyone else talking about it. My beliefs about death I am not to sure about yet. There are so many things that are not known about death and dying so I really do not know if I really have any beliefs about death or not. I feel that when it is your time to go, you are going. That’s really the only belief that I have about death. Explain how level of death anxiety may be impacted by gender, age and mental health. Death anxiety in gender, women tend to have higher death anxiety scores than men on self-report scales. This does not mean that women get excited over everything it’s just that men usually tend not to show any emotional feelings about an emotional situation. Death anxiety in age, death anxiety is higher in adolescents and early adulthood. Then it decreases as we settle in life and by the time we get old anxiety gets higher again, by the time you reach seventy your anxiety will go back down. By this time in life you start looking forward to death. Most of your friends maybe dead already, your parents, siblings, and spouse by this time may already be deceased so in a way you have embraced death at this point. Death anxiety in mental health and illness, death anxiety is higher in people with diagnosed psychiatric conditions. Selective attention is when you have so much going on and you get distracted. You are not trying to avoid anything your mind is just on somewhere else. Selective response is when a person has thoughts about death but they choose who they want to talk to about it. Compartmentalizing is when you realize and understand that he is in a life-threatening situation and choose to respond to some aspects of the illness. Deception is when someone deliberately lies or with hold information about dying. Resistance is when someone is in a dangerous situation but refuses to give in to it. Denial is when you are against or resist recognizing death-laden reality. Each one differs from the other in the way an individual choose to handle the situation. In everyone of these situations the person knows to some degree what’s going on they may choose to handle the situation in different ways this is what makes the situation different. Give your personal opinion concerning whether you believe a person’s experiences with death impact upon their feelings and beliefs and explain. Yes I think a person impact with death do impact their feelings and beliefs about death. If someone has a near death experience they may have stronger feelings towards someone that has not had such an experience. Once they go through this experience they have came closer to accepting death. Everyone that I have heard of talking about near death has seen lights and it was not a terrible