Development psychology Death and dying Types of death Functional death brain death 5 stages of death Thanatologist study death

1. Death and Dying

2. Types of Death
Functional Death Brain Death
The absence of a heartbeat and breathing A diagnosis of death based on the
cessation of all signs of brain activity as
measured by electrical brain waves.
People who study death

3. Stages of Dying
• Elizabeth Kubler Ross (1969, 1982)
• Theory of death and dying extensively based
on interviews with people who were dying and
those who cared for them.
• 5 stages of death

4. Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

5. 1. Denial
• People protest on learning that they have a terminal
disease
• Thorough resistance of the idea that they are going to
die

6. 2. Anger
• People may be likely to express anger
• A dying person may be angry at everyone (good health,
spouses, primary caregivers stc.)
• Lashing out at others
• The why phenomenon
• Furious at god that they have led good lives and that there are
far worse people in the world who should be dying

7. 3. Bargaining
• ‘If you are good, you will be rewarded!’
• Applying the analogy to impending death
• Trying to negotiate a way out of death
• Vows of dedicating life to the poor, charity etc.
• The vicious cycle of requests
• All the bargaining in the world is unable to overcome
the inevitability of death
• Realization that death is inevitable leads to
depression.

8. 4. Depression
• Realizing that people cannot bargain their way out of death,
overwhelmed with a deep sense of loss
• Caregivers may feel they are losing their loved ones and life is
coming to an end.
• Reactive depression: - Feelings of sadness that are based on
events that have already covered, loss of dignity accompanying
medical procedures or the knowledge that one may never
return to one’s home from the hospital
• Preparatory depression: - People feel sadness over future
losses. Realization that death will bring an end to their
relationships and they will never see future generations. Reality
of death is inescapable and it brings about profound sadness
over the conclusion of one’s life.

9. 5. Acceptance
• People who have developed a sense of acceptance are
fully aware that death is impending
• Unemotional and uncommunicative
• Loss of feelings
• An ultimate sense of peace with themselves and a
deep desire for isolation.

10. Terminologies
• Bereavement
• Grief
• Living will