Various researchers have explored the nature of bereavement and grief and what these processes do to individuals in terms of how they cope with loss. It is important to understand how bereavement occurs in order to develop more effective intervention methods in a clinical setting that can help bereaved individuals cope better with their loss. Bereavement and Grief The terms “bereavement” and “grief” have often been used interchangeably. These two processes of course occur hand-in-hand with one another. However, scholars have noted that there is a slight difference between these two terms. Bereavement is defined as losing something or someone whereas grief refers to our psychological and physical reactions to that loss (Zisook & Shear, 2013). …show more content…
The first track addresses the individual’s functioning from a variety of perspectives and dimensions, whereas the second track addresses the individual’s enduring attachment and relationship to the person they have lost, and how the individual maintains and adjusts their relationship to the deceased. In reference to the first track, or Track I, of this model, the bereaved individual’s functioning is measured by their ability to rebuild and adapt to a life without the presence of their now deceased loved one, in a variety of areas. The ways in which the individual is able to carry on with life in a balanced and stable manner is considered one of the standards that helps us understand the individual’s response to the loss of a loved one. The first track of this model can be said to focus more on a biopsychosocial perspective in regard to the bereaved individual’s …show more content…
This model, as highlighted by the authors, can be used to further our understanding of bereavement in a variety of contexts (Stroebe & Schut, 1999). One of the contexts in which this model was explored was for understanding more complicated variants of bereavement, which are more chronic. According to a study by Prigerson and colleagues (1997), more complicated forms of bereavement can be seen as a syndrome of loss orientation. Cases in which alternation between the two orientations do not occur was theorised by these researchers to be associated with poor adjustment among the bereaved. Apart from that, this model can also be used to explain gender differences in the bereavement process, as evidence has exhibited that bereaved mothers appear to show more loss orientation than bereaved fathers (Dijkstra, van den Bout, Stroebe, Schut, & Stroebe,