PSY BEH 101D Chapter Notes - Chapter 17: Reminiscing, Reduced Affect Display, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Document Summary
Section 1: the death system & cultural contexts. Universal components of the death system: people: everyone is involved at one point, places and contexts: hospitals, battlefields, funeral homes, etc, times: memorial day, day of the dead, objects: caskets, black clothing, symbols: skull and crossbones. Death system serves certain functions in a culture: Issuing warnings and predictions: preventing death (firefighters, doctors, caring for the dying, disposing of the dead, social consolidation after death (coping with death, support, making sense of the death, killing (for what reason) People have different attitudes/views towards death: most societies, death not viewed as end of existence - spirit lives on, united states are death avoiders and deniers. In u. s. 80% of deaths occur in institutions or hospitals: care of dying older person shifted away from family, minimized our exposure of death and its painful surroundings. Issues in determining death: brain death: when all electrical activity in the brain has ceased for specified period of time.