Abstract:
Q-methodology permitted 41 people to communicate their perspective of grief. In
an attempt to clarify the research to date and to allow those who have experienced this
human journey to direct the scientists, 80 statements were chosen to present to the
participants based on the research from academic and counselling sources. Five different
perspectives emerged from the Q-sorts and factor analysis. Each perspective was valuable
for the understanding of different groups of mourners. They were interpreted using
questionnaire data and interview information. They are as follows: Factor 1- Growth
Optimism; Factor 2 - Schema Destruction and Negative Affect; Factor 3- Identification
with the Deceased Person; Factor 4- Intact World view with High Clarity and High Social
Support; Factor 5- Schema Destruction with High Preoccupation and Attention to
Emotion.
Some people grow in the face of grief, others hold on to essentially the same
schemas and others are devastated by their loss. The different perspectives reported
herein supply clues to the sources of these differing outcomes. From examination of
Factor 1, it appears that a healthy living relationship helps substantially in the event of
loss. An orientation toward emotions that encourages clarity, exemplified by Factor 4,
without hyper-vigilance to emotion may be helpful as well. Strategies for maintaining
schematic representations of the world with little alteration include: identification with
the values of the deceased person, as in Factor 3 and reliance on social support and/or
God as demonstrated by Factor 4. When the relationship had painful periods, social
support may be accessed to benefit some mourners.
When the person's frame of reference or higher order schemas are assaulted by
the events of loss, the people most at risk for traumatic grief seem to be those with
difficult relationships as indicated by Factor 5 individuals. When low social support, high
attention to emotion with low clarity and little belief that feelings can be altered for the
better are also attributes of the mourner devastating grief can result. In the end, there are
groups of people who are forced to endure the entire process of schema destruction and
devastation. Some appear to recover in part and others appear to stay in a form of
purgatory for many years. The results of this study suggest that, those who experience
devastating grief may be in the minority. In the future interventions could be more
specifically addressed if these perspectives are replicated in a larger, more detailed study.
