Short Essay Assignment
For Chapter 11: Death in the Lives of Adults, discuss two of the six questions below. In your submission, identify by number which questions you are answering.
1. Explain how each psychosocial stage of adulthood relates to the experience of loss.
2. Review your adult life and list the losses that have occurred, evaluating the relationship between the type of loss and the age at which it was experienced.
3. Describe why the death of a child may evoke a high-grief response from parents.
4. Distinguish between parental bereavements relative to the loss of the "perfect" child, stillbirth and perinatal death, abortion, sudden infant death syndrome, death preceded by a chronic illness, and the death of an adult child. Point out the kinds of peer support available for these losses.
5. Explain the effects of age and gender on spousal bereavement.
6. Assess how the death of a parent may affect the adult child.
7. List three questions that one might ask about the "public meaning" of aging, and provide detailed answers to each of your questions.