Deck 5: Cultural Patterns and Death

Question 1

An important fact concerning death-related issues in American society is that individuals who make up our society _________.

A) are not a single homogeneous group
B) share common cultural and ethnic values
C) share common educational background
D) All of these
E) None of these

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Death-related practices among Hispanic Americans often involve .

A) prohibitions against touching the body
B) efforts to be present at or near the time of death
C) permission to speak ill of the person who has died
D) All of these
E) None of these

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Among Hispanic Americans, death-related attitudes appear to .

A) favor displacement of the locus of emotional support from the family unit
B) be shaped largely by family and religion
C) derive from the structure of the Spanish language
D) All of these
E) None of these

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Persons of Hispanic origin in the United States:

A) Are primarily individuals who live in or came to the mainland from Puerto Rico
B) May be of any race
C) Exclude individuals from Central and South America
D) Are Caucasians distinguished in government documents from the larger community of "Anglo" whites
E) None of these

Question 5

Among Hispanic Americans deaths in the United States in 2014, .

A) infant mortality rates were much lower than those for non-Hispanic Caucasian infants
B) an excessive number resulted from chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and suicide
C) death rates were much higher than those for non-Hispanic Caucasian Americans
D) death rates were much lower than those for non-Hispanic Caucasian Americans
E) heart disease and cancer are unusually prominent causes of death

Question 6

Focus On 5.1: The eighth edition of Death & Dying, Life & Living describes three books with Hispanic themes. In one of those books, A Mural for Mamita/Un Mural Para Mamita, there is a memorial service for a grandmother who had recently died after a long illness. In this book, we are told that:

A) Grandma picked up a bud and used it to explain that while some buds grow into flowers, others like this one don't.
B) Adults emphasized that this memorial is a celebration of the life of the deceased person.
C) A young girl was not allowed to take part in the service.
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 7

Care of Hispanic Americans who are dying is typically provided by .

A) female family members
B) nursing homes
C) a sense of "machismo"
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 8

The "Tiger Woods description" in the 2000 census refers to:

A) New types of encounters with death
B) The possibility that individuals might classify themselves in more than one racial or cultural category
C) The fact that Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the United States
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 9

Age-adjusted death rates for African Americans in our society are .

A) higher than those for Caucasian Americans
B) about the same as those for Caucasian Americans
C) lower than those for Caucasian Americans
D) undocumented
E) None of these

Question 10

Mourning practices among Hispanic Americans often involve .

A) an emphasis on grief in men
B) the absence of children
C) public expression of emotion by women
D) strong prohibitions against revealing intense feelings of grief by those who take part
E) participation restricted to members of the nuclear family

Question 11

The story about two men visiting the gravesites of their deceased loved ones with items to memorialize their loved ones went this way. One man looked at the other and said, "I would love to see your loved one eat that rice." The other man said in reply, "My loved one will eat this rice when your loved one smells those flowers." What does this story represent:

A) Nonjudgmental approaches
B) Psychopathology
C) Cultural monotheism
D) Ethnocentrism
E) Two weird perspectives

Question 12

High overall death rates among African-Americans .

A) result directly from ethnic and racial characteristics
B) are often associated with disadvantaged socioeconomic standing
C) are more likely to characterize females than males
D) have been overcome in the early 21st century
E) are directly related to educational attainment

Question 13

A major reason that Hispanic Americans had a comparatively low number of deaths in 2014 is:

A) Hispanic Americans have a healthier diet than do other Americans.
B) Hispanic Americans have largely kept separated from the rest of American society.
C) There is a wide gap between the infant mortality rates among Hispanic Americans and other cultural groups in the United States.
D) More Hispanic Americans are recent immigrants than other groups in American society.
E) The Hispanic American population has a greater proportion of young persons than other cultural groups in the United States.

Question 14

To avoid the danger of stereotyping in analyzing cultural diversity among Americans with regard to death, dying, and bereavement, one must appreciate .

A) individuality in particular persons
B) differences between various cultural groups
C) differences within various cultural groups
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 15

Efforts to study death rates among Hispanic Americans face special difficulties because:

A) Data collected on death rates mainly derives from records in county offices.
B) Death records record race, but not Hispanic origin.
C) Noting the Hispanic origin of a person who has died depends upon accuracy by the recorder and reliable information from sources.
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 16

In general, death rates among African Americans are influenced by:

A) Poverty
B) Inadequate access to health care
C) A relatively high incidence of life-threatening behavior
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 17

Which of the following is/are important in Hispanic-American attitudes toward death?

A) A sense of fatalism
B) The importance of family
C) The role of religion
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 18

The vignette in Chapter 5 describes a "happy funeral." It was happy because:

A) Grandmother died without pain or discomfort.
B) Incense sticks were burned in front of the casket.
C) There was a parade through the streets of Chinatown with a marching band.
D) After the ceremony each mourner was given a small candy "to sweeten your sorrow."
E) Grandfather was ready for his death and he left a good legacy.

Question 19

According to recent research studies, the role of the family in African-American society is described as .

A) peripheral to the care provided for the terminally ill among African Americans
B) discouraging members of the immediate family from getting involved in death- related situations
C) usually leading to care for terminally-ill persons in hospitals or nursing homes
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 20

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2014 the largest minority group in the United States was:

A) Native Americans
B) Asian and Pacific Island Americans
C) Hispanic Americans
D) African Americans
E) Caucasian Americans

Question 21

American-Indian and Native Alaskan groups experience high vehicular death rates from:

A) Alcoholism
B) Living in sparsely populated areas
C) Living in areas where roads are often in poor condition
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 22

Research indicates that Asian and Pacific Island American attitudes toward death involve:

A) Preferences that dying persons not be told they are dying
B) A view that talking about bad things may actually produce them
C) A desire to maintain control over communication
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 23

One study of attitudes among Asian and Pacific Island Americans toward physician-assisted suicide found that _________.

A) such attitudes tended to be associated with religious factors
B) acculturation to the dominant culture influenced such attitudes
C) those attitudes were most hostile among sub-groups with the worst health status and the shortest life expectancy among study populations
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 24

In the Tuskegee syphilis study, .

A) participants were informed of the nature of their disease
B) participants were treated with penicillin when it became available in the mid-1940s
C) participants included African-American farmers in Alabama at different economic levels
D) while treatments were initially suspended when results were unimpressive, study of the progress of the disease continued until participants died
E) the study itself was halted before it was exposed by the press

Question 25

In 2014, American Indians and Native Alaskans experienced:

A) About 10% of all deaths in the United States
B) About 5% of all deaths in the United States
C) About 15% of all deaths in the United States
D) More than 25% of all deaths the United States
E) Less than 1% of all deaths in the United States

Question 26

In their relations with the medical community, African Americans have been reported to .

A) display distrust
B) follow the guidance of physicians implicitly
C) have relatively high organ donor rates
D) prefer not to care for dying persons at home
E) have good prenatal care leading to relatively low infant death rates

Question 27

Among Asian and Pacific Island Americans, death-related attitudes and practices .

A) tend to sever links with the deceased after the funeral
B) often frown upon large-scale, public activities
C) permit only infrequent visits to gravesites
D) Allow for continued relationships between the deceased and survivors
E) frequently discourage touching the body of the deceased

Question 28

Research demonstrates that African-American attitudes toward death greatly value .

A) trust in the medical community
B) the writing of living wills
C) family support
D) the work of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment
E) None of these

Question 29

Among American Indians and Native Alaskans, death-related attitudes may include:

A) A high level of death-related fear
B) Strict taboos against polluting the living and their homes
C) Acceptance without anxiety
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 30

In their death-related practices, African Americans are said to be:

A) Unwilling to touch the body at the funeral, but likely to visit the grave
B) Unlikely to be freely expressive in times of grief
C) Likely to regard funerals as unimportant
D) Unlikely to hold funeral directors in high regard
E) Likely to view death as a moment in which recognition can be provided for the deceased person's ability to stand up to others

Question 31

In 2014, Asian and Pacific Island Americans experienced approximately .

A) 117,135 deaths
B) 286,573 deaths
C) 12,415 deaths
D) 61,570 deaths
E) None of these

Question 32

Research on attitudes toward funerals among Asian and Pacific Island Americans indicates that funerals are _________.

A) generally not regarded as very important by the community
B) likely to involve strict rituals and roles for participants
C) usually limited to those who knew the deceased personally
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 33

Death-related practices among Asian and Pacific Island Americans .

A) encourage frequent visits to gravesites
B) reject any blending of Western and non-Western elements in their funeral rituals
C) are quite liberal in their mourning customs
D) deny any continued interaction between the living and the deceased
E) require the exchange of fine Samoan mats

Question 34

In research published in 2015, African-American survivors of the death of a family member or friend coped with their grief by:

A) Using coping mechanisms that emphasized religious faith and social bonds
B) Drawing on social support and emotion for nonviolent deaths
C) Pppealing to religious coping for violent death events
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 35

American Indians and Native Alaskans often view life and death .

A) in a strictly linear fashion, where life precedes death and is completely ended at death
B) as a product of physical events
C) without much anxiety
D) as interwoven and related in a circular fashion
E) as explicitly distinct and unrelated to each other

Question 36

Age-adjusted death rates among Asian and Pacific Island Americans in 2014 were:

A) Higher than those for African Americans
B) Higher than those for American Indians and Native Alaskans
C) Lower than those for all of the other four groups studied in Chapter Five
D) About the same as those for Hispanic Americans
E) None of these

Question 37

One report on death-related practices among American-Indian (or First Nation) peoples in Canada suggested the value of trained native interpreters who could .

A) interpret biomedical concepts to clinical staff
B) explain cultural perspectives on terminal illness and postmortem rituals to native peoples
C) advocate locating death in urban, tertiary-care hospitals
D) conduct memorial "potlach" ceremonies before a person dies
E) serve as advocates to enable patients to return to their home communities in the final days of life

Question 38

Death-related attitudes among Asian and Pacific Island Americans tend to favor communications that are likely to:

A) Involve open expressions of feelings and distress
B) Involve questioning of authority
C) Tell seriously ill persons that they are dying
D) Involve careful control over expressions of feeling
E) None of these

Question 39

American Indians and Native Alaskans .

A) are best described as a single cohesive group, sharing similar beliefs and behaviors
B) are more likely to live on a reservation than in urban areas in the United States
C) have most frequently died from communicable diseases
D) have low mortality rates from automobile accidents
E) None of these

Question 40

Causes of death among American Indians and Native Alaskans have typically most often involved:

A) Communicable diseases
B) Degenerative diseases
C) Increased average life expectancy
D) Rejection of the view that life and death are linked in a circular fashion
E) Low risk of sudden infant death syndrome

Question 41

Discuss two reasons why it is important to examine cultural and ethnic patterns in death-related encounters, attitudes, and practices. Then, discuss two lessons we can learn about ourselves and about others by noting such differences.

Question 42

Identify and briefly explain any two (2) differences between encounters with death in any two (2) of the four groups discussed in Chapter 5.

Question 43

Table 5.2 in Chapter 5 shows important contrasts in age-adjusted death rates between the four cultural groups discussed in this chapter. Identify and discuss one important lesson to be learned from these contrasts?

Question 44

List two important ways in which Hispanic Americans' encounters with dying and death are likely to be different from those of African Americans. Explain in depth your reasons for seeing these as differences. Then suggest how these differences in encounters might affect attitudes toward death in these two communities. (This question could be varied by altering the communities that it compares: for example, Asian Americans vs. Native Americans.)

Question 45

Discuss the limits on what can be said about cultural differences in the field of death, dying, and bereavement?

Question 46

Explain the importance of the family in death-related matters among Hispanic Americans and African Americans. Be specific. Give examples.

Question 47

Contrast what you have learned about cultural differences regarding care of the dying and communications with the dying in any two (2) of the four groups discussed in Chapter 5.

Question 48

What does it mean to speak of "death-related practices"? Identify and briefly explain two (2) different death-related practices mentioned in Chapter 5 in which one notes cultural differences.

Question 49

Identify and explain two (2) important ways in which death-related practices among African Americans are likely to be different from those of Asian and Pacific Island Americans. Explain in depth your reasons for seeing these as differences. Then suggest how these differences in practices might reflect attitudes toward death in these two communities. (This question could be varied by altering the communities that it compares.)

Question 50

Identify and discuss one lesson that is important to our course that we should learn from the account of a "happy funeral" near the beginning of Chapter 5.