Supporting the educational triangle in Grief & Bereavement; Thanato-psychological research & practice.

Lazaros Vlachopoulos, M.Sc.

Doctoral thesis

Abstract:

It is not the life span per se that counts but even more it is the quality of it or in other words the way we use the (unknown) time that has been given to us. Western society is a vastly anility & death denial one. And grief is just building up since death is the one thing that we have for sure just after our birth. In this dissertation the effort is to find ways to support the educational / pedagogical triangle (teachers, pupils and parents) in the process of grief. In the research part we were put in use and thus checked (also moved on) the data from the preliminary research (triangulation: interviews, questionnaires and case studies) which helped us create contemporary views on how teachers (mainly), parents (most of the teachers are also parents), adults in general, see grief & bereavement and the process of mourning. We used that data to extract information (using both qualitative and quantitative techniques) in order to create an educational tool (the “Persephone’s Briefcase!) to teach pupils the “circle of life”. We also provided grief support to educators and parents in order a) to face their own grief issues and b) to be able to support their pupils/children in case of severe loss. Ultimately, we attempted to a) validate for grief purposes a Stress Scaling tool, the PSS 10 and b) to develop a Grief-Stage / Intensity Evaluation Inventory/scale. Both for Grief & Bereavement research & counseling purposes. Overall findings are rather encouraging. “P’s Briefcase” got a rather good first reception from education community, PSS 10 – GR validated in Greek language and connected with stress deriving from grief and GCL shown at least potential in evaluating both the grief stage (following the provisions of Dr. E.-K. Ross “Grief Stages Theory”) and the extend of grief. What is need to be stated at this point is that so far findings point out that we might a new tool (GCL) in Thanatopsychological research and practice. More research, of course, is in need, in time due…

Keywords

Loss, grief, bereavement, mourning, griever, grief work, grief therapy, grief counseling, pedagogical triangle, educational triangle, thanatology, thanato-psychology, stress, stress scale, grief scale.

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 21. 4. 2009

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 4. 6. 2009
• Supervisor: PhDr. Ivana Poledňová, CSc.
• Reader: Dr. Christopher Alan Lewis, Dr. Alexandros Baltzis

Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Doctoral programme / field:
Psychology (4-years) / Social Psychology (Eng.)