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2.5 Focus On Psychological Research – How Would We Study Impacts of Unfamiliarity With Death?

Supposed Consequences of Death Unfamiliarity

It has been argued that until the last century or so, human beings were intimately connected with the reality of death and witnessed it firsthand countless times over the course of a lifespan.  Deaths occurring in childhood and early adulthood were much more commonplace as the average life expectancy was 30 years in 1800 and 50 years in 1900.  Until the last century, when death came there was little that could be done to prevent or delay it.  Family members would gather near the bedside of the dying individual to provide comfort care and social connectivity because cures and medical treatments were rare.  As a result, people observed the dying process regularly throughout the lifespan and although the dying could not be saved, they were more likely to experience social support and connectivity while dying.  In modern times, many previously fatal conditions can be treated and many causes of untimely death have been eradicated.  While this is quite obviously a good thing as evidenced by our extended life expectancy (nearing 80 years of age), it has been argued that it comes at a cost.  Now that dying is a medical problem to be solved or delayed, terminally ill individuals are less likely to be surrounded by loved ones during the dying process.  Similarly, with respect to body disposition, it was not so very long ago that family members had to bathe and dress the body of the deceased, dig a grave, construct a casket and transport the body to the cemetery and bury it. In short, loved ones were involved in all aspects of care for the dying and body disposition.  Now mortuary professionals take the body immediately upon death and perform all functions and duties through ultimate body disposition.  While this is certainly a convenience at a very difficult time, it is not uncommon for loved ones to be notified from afar about a loved ones worsening condition and to receive notification of their death and information about a funeral shortly thereafter.  It is uncommon to witness decline and dying and – with cremation or closed-casket funerals – we may never actually see the dead person.  We have, in recent years, been largely shielded from the reality of death relative to previous generations.  Though this might be emotionally palliating, some have argued that it has resulted in poorer support and “person care” for the dying, less opportunity for meaningful end-of-life conversations with the dying, less preparation for the reality of our own mortality and dying processes, and an overall increase in death anxiety.

Intuitive But Untested?

Although the negative impacts described above may be intuitive, they remain largely untested and unstudied.  After all, we can’t compare death anxiety or aspects of the dying process nowadays with those of yesteryear since prior generations are no longer alive to be studied.  And yet, psychologists often need to approach suppositions about human behavior that are challenging to study and figure out ways to empirically examine intuitive claims.  How would we go about designing a study that could shed light on whether engagement with the dying and body disposition had particular advantages and benefits – either to the dying individual or to the surviving loved one?  Perhaps we could do a cross-cultural comparison in which we assess death anxiety, death acceptance, or grief reactions of people from allegedly more “advanced” societies – where death has been medicalized and morticians process bodies of the deceased – with more “natural” societies where families provide the bulk of the care for dying and are more intimately involved in body disposition.  Or perhaps we could examine folks within a particular country or culture who have had greater and more extensive death experiences (e.g., hospice workers, family caregivers for the terminally ill, etc.) and compare them to individuals who report comparatively little familiarity with death and dying. What outcomes would we want to look at and how would we measure them? For the midterm examination in this class, you might be asked to describe a hypothetical study that could speak to the impacts (good or bad) of being unfamiliar with and disengaged from the reality of death.  Consider what population(s) you would study, what kinds of comparisons you could make, what types of measures you might use, etc.   As is invariably the case with human nature, there are numerous ways to approach a study of human behavior. What approach would you use?

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On Death and Dying Copyright © 2022 by Jacqueline Lewis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.