Deck 11: Coping With Loss and Grief: Funeral Practices and Other Ways Communities Can Help

Question 1

In order not to risk upsetting mourners, cemetery personnel in contemporary American society usually include mourners in

A) refilling the grave
B) lowering the casket into the grave
C) enclosing the casket within a vault or grave liner
D) all of these
E) none of these

Answer 1

E

Question 2

Sloane has said that the most remarkable changes in the American cemetery industry in the last 40 years have included

A) the resurgence of entombment as an important method of disposal
B) the steady decline of cremation
C) the absence of alternatives to earth burial
D) all of these
E) none of these

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Disposition of the body in contemporary American society is most often governed by

A) religious beliefs
B) federal law
C) social custom
D) philosophical convictions
E) none of these

Answer 3

C

Question 4

For those who wish to donate their bodies for teaching or research purposes,

A) techniques required to prevent decay are considerably less stringent than those used in a typical embalming procedure
B) arrangements must be made well ahead of time
C) following use of the body for scientific or educational purposes, no elements of the body will be left for burial or cremation
D) careful preservation of the body is not very important
E) none of these

Question 5

Research on funeral practices in American has shown

A) widespread social dissatisfaction with these practices
B) that the bulk of these services are provided by friends
C) that they typically extend over a long period of time
D) broad public regard for the comfort they provide
E) many societies have no funeral rituals

Question 6

After the death of a loved one, disintegration can occur at

A) the social level
B) the familial level
C) the individual level
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 7

Disposing of the body in ways that contribute to realization of the implications of death is assisted through

A) bereavement follow-up programs
B) funeral practices
C) bereavement support groups
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 8

The most common form of body disposal in the United States is

A) cremation
B) entombment in a mausoleum
C) burial in the ground
D) donation for research purposes
E) through a memorial service

Question 9

A memorial service is

A) an activity that helps to dispose of the body
B) a ceremony conducted at a cemetery
C) a ritual without the presence of the body
D) an activity involving embalming
E) none of these

Question 10

Roadside memorials are most often used by bereaved persons

A) to mark a death-related site as "sacred" in some sense
B) to take note of the slow death of an elderly person
C) to serve as a warning to other persons
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 11

Another term for the task of "making real" the implications of death for survivors through funeral and memorial ritual is

A) integration
B) separation
C) incorporation
D) investigation
E) memorialization

Question 12

Funeral practices are intended to assist bereaved persons and society by

A) assisting in reintegration
B) contributing to realization of the implications of death
C) disposing of the body in appropriate ways
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 13

Issues involved in making real the implications of death are concerned primarily with taking leave of

A) the body
B) the person
C) the funeral service
D) the cemetery
E) the survivors

Question 14

Funeral and memorial practices in the United States have been criticized for being

A) useless and repugnant
B) lavish and expensive
C) a form of fantasized flight from reality
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 15

Embalming as it is practiced in our society

A) achieves permanent preservation of bodily tissues
B) is mandated for all dead bodies by federal regulation
C) is universally experienced in all parts of the world
D) is not required if a body is to be transported on a common carrier
E) slows decay of bodily tissues

Question 16

Funeral practices are

A) ritualistic in nature
B) symbolic in character
C) social activities
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 17

In accomplishing the task of making real the implications of death through funeral ritual, survivors may

A) stare at the body
B) make repeated returns to the casket
C) kiss the body
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 18

On the basis of her work in anthropology, Margaret Mead wrote that she knew of

A) no people who did not have rituals by which to deal with death
B) some people who did not have rituals by which to deal with death
C) many people who did not have rituals by which to deal with death
D) many strange people
E) many strange anthropologists

Question 19

Roadside memorials have been criticized because it is claimed that they

A) are distracting to drivers
B) violate the separation of church and state
C) interfere with maintenance of the right of way along the road
D) are a form of visual pollution
E) all of these

Question 20

Ritual is said to be "a general word for corporate symbolic activity." In this view ritual involves

A) external actions and it is social
B) external actions and it is private
C) internal actions and it is social
D) internal actions and it is private
E) none of these

Question 21

Hospice bereavement care

A) is an essential component of hospice work
B) arises directly out of the hospice philosophy of holistic care
C) begins at the moment of admission to a hospice program
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 22

Bereavement follow-up services in hospice programs are intended to

A) be accepted by all families served by the hospice program
B) function as transitional services
C) include individuals engaged in complicated mourning
D) exclude old problems and focus on new challenges
E) be utilized for no more than six months

Question 23

Support groups for the bereaved consist mainly of

A) professionals
B) counselors
C) bereaved persons
D) therapists
E) children

Question 24

The central helping factors around which most bereavement support groups are organized include

A) unshared private experiences
B) removal of hope
C) lack of identification with other members
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 25

Achieving a new integration after death may be difficult when

A) mourners find they need not see themselves as alone
B) survivors successfully renegotiate their relationship to whatever they conceive the transcendent to be
C) funeral rituals only last a few days after the death
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 26

The Serenity Prayer asks God to give us

A) courage to change things that should be changed
B) grace to accept things that cannot be changed
C) wisdom to distinguish between things that should be changed and things that cannot be changed
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 27

Hospice bereavement services

A) are exclusively offered to hospice patients and their family members
B) use personal contacts rather than mailings
C) do not include support groups for the bereaved
D) include services offered to community members
E) are limited to services offered by professionals

Question 28

Hospice bereavement follow-up services are usually offered by

A) psychotherapists
B) clergy persons
C) physicians and nurses
D) social workers
E) trained volunteers

Question 29

Aftercare programs in the funeral industry that involve extra staff with specific training in bereavement issues and that offer special holiday programs and community education are
Examples of

A) premier (formal) aftercare programs
B) casual (informal) aftercare programs
C) standard (formal) aftercare programs
D) fundamental (formal) aftercare programs
E) regular (informal) aftercare programs

Question 30

Bereavement support groups are founded on

A) their similarities to therapy groups
B) the shared life experiences of their members
C) their leadership by a professional facilitator
D) their grasp of real, substantive expertise as hierarchical
E) their focus on solving problems

Question 31

The shared loss experience that underlies and makes possible effectiveness in bereavement support groups is called

A) catharsis
B) identification
C) guidance
D) instillation of hope
E) altruism

Question 32

Aftercare programs in the funeral industry that involve extra staff but no extensive training and that offer telephone calls, newsletters, social, dinners, and travel illustrate

A) casual (informal) aftercare programs
B) fundamental (formal) aftercare programs
C) standard (formal) aftercare programs
D) premier (formal) aftercare programs
E) regular (informal) aftercare programs

Question 33

The physical or geographical drawing together after a death of persons who ordinarily see little of each other in their everyday lives is primarily an example of

A) making real the implications of a death
B) disintegration
C) integration
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 34

When All the Friends Have Gone is a book about

A) support groups for the bereaved
B) hospice bereavement follow-up programs
C) aftercare programs
D) grief therapy
E) Widow-to-Widow programs

Question 35

The title of Rabbi Kushner's book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, is an example of which of the following characteristics of bereavement support groups?

A) existential issues
B) cohesiveness
C) instillation of hope
D) guidance
E) altruism

Question 36

Memorial photography in the United States

A) is forbidden by state law
B) is an unhealthy custom
C) serves the needs of some people
D) has been available since the early 18th century
E) none of these

Question 37

Which of the following groups provides support and assistance to all members of the armed services and their family members who are impacted by death and bereavement?

A) THEOS
B) MADD
C) NOVA
D) POMC
E) TAPS

Question 38

Individuals who experience the death of an important person in their lives may undergo "disintegration" in the sense that they experience

A) a loss of integrity and unity within themselves
B) disrupted sleep patterns
C) a feeling that they are "going crazy"
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 39

Support groups for the bereaved that offer opportunities for mutual aid and self-help in coping with loss and grief may be

A) time-limited or ongoing and open-ended
B) led by a professional facilitator or an experienced bereaved person
C) focused on all types of bereavement or on a specific type of loss
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 40

Grave markers in contemporary American society

A) often display elaborate epitaphs
B) frequently take the form of wooden markers
C) typically involve flower arrangements
D) are often flush to the ground
E) none of these