Dual process model of coping

Margaret Stroebe and Henk Schut studied grief through, "The Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement: A Decade On." In this study, the models of coping were examined and how it could be of benefit compared to others. They came up with Dual Process Model which represents human grief. They explain coping with bereavement, a state of loss can be a combination of accepting and confronting it. It informs on how the combination of healthy emotional catharsis and changing perspective can be a good and healthy process to cope. Being able to confront the situation and also deal with everyday life events allows the person to live their lives with desired states of stability in a subjective post-loss world in which bereaved persons find themselves (Parkes, 1993).

Coping

Bereavement and the adjective bereaved derive from a verb, 'reave', which means “to despoil, rob, or forcibly deprive” per Oxford English Dictionary. Thus, a bereaved person is one who has been deprived, robbed, plundered, or stripped of someone or something that he or she valued. Reaction to this state or impact of loss is called grief. According to Lazarus and Folkman (1984), coping strategies are the "constantly changing cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing on or exceeding the resources of the person". People vary in the ways that they grieve and also in the way that they cope. But, acknowledging it and allowing themselves to go through the motions will allow them to cope in a healthy way. To cope with the loss, the person requires relearn the world around them and simultaneously make a multifaceted transition from loving in presence to loving in absence (Attig, 2001). An healthy relocation of the deceased internally and maintaining a healthy dynamic connectedness/relationship is observed to provide solace to the grieving, but they differed in pluralistic cultural settings. Grievers will go through times of extreme sadness and also times where they are numb to what has happened. These times will feel like they are forgetting their loved one. Lack of appropriate coping can bring many ailments to a person including mental and physical ailments. Coping in a state of bereavement through mourning is advised in the Bible as “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Because it helps to achieve growth through thorough acceptance of loss, the transforming capacity of profound human experiences. Freud in 1959 through an article called this as a process of “working through” the grief. Healthy coping is achieved when the bereaved person is enabled to go forward with healthy, productive living by effortfully developing “new normals” to guide that living which is characterized by lesser stressful demands compared to initial phase.

Loss oriented

The Loss Oriented Process focuses on coping with bereavement, the loss itself, recognizing it and accepting it. In this process a person will express feelings of grief with all the losses that occur from losing their loved one. There will be many changes from work to family and friendships. There might also be demographic changes and even economic ones. During this time, people either acknowledge these changes head or ruminate on feelings of lose which might lead to distorted, complicated or prolonged grief. The loss oriented process will bring on a lot of yearning, irritability, despair, anxiety and depression. During this process they are only concentrated on their pain that this loss has caused. Lack or denial of early adaptive acknowledgement that they will no longer speak to deceased or see them again might instigate compulsive and self destructive behaviors. People attached with the deceased have to reconfigure their identity as an autonomous being. These process in a non-resilient griever can appear overwhelming, and associated guilt can be exported over friends and family in an assumptive effort which might affect interpersonal relationships.

Restoration oriented

In Restoration-Oriented Process, the loss of the loved one is accepted and attachments with the deceased are relinquished. These include focusing on the new roles in their post loss reality and responsibilities in lives. The Restoration-Oriented Process incorporates endurance through reconstruction of perspective by taking over grief, grieving thoughts are readjusted adaptively by creating new meanings with the deceased. The Restoration process is a confrontation process, that allows the person to adjust with the world without the deceased. People in this process can feel subjective oscillations of pride and grief related stressors in the avoidance mentalization. This process allows the person to live their daily life as a changed individual without being consumed by the grieving they are facing.

Conclusion

The Dual Process Model of Coping takes into consideration that everyone will have stressful life events, while they are coping with bereavement. Their lives will continue and so will the problems associated with it. There will be many situations that will take them away from grieving. These situations can either benefit them or affect them negatively if they allow them to. Being aware and prepared to change can allow them to continue and deal with post loss life events.

References

• Bennett, K. M.-S. (2010). Loss and Restoration in Later Life: An Examination of Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement. Omega: Journal Of Death & Dying, 315-332.
• Fasse, L. &. (2015). Dual Process Model of Coping With Bereavement in the Test of the Subjective Experiences of Bereaved Spouses. Omega: Journal Of Death & Dying, 1-27.
• Richardson, V. E. (2010). The Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement: A Decade Later. Omega: Journal of Death & Dying, 269-271.
• Stroebe, M. &. (2010). The Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement: A Decade On. Omega: Journal Of Death & Dying, 273-289.