Little attention has been paid to personality and its role in resolving grief. This study investigated the relation of the personality factor, hardiness, to resolution of grief. In an anonymous sample of seventy widows, hardiness was a significant predictor of grief resolution in addition to general mental health, time since the death, and the widow's age. Surprisingly, whether the death was expected did not relate to the course of resolution.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
VachonM. L. S.SheldonA.LanceeW.LyallW.RogersJ., and FreemanS. J., Correlates of Enduring Distress Patterns Following Bereavement: Social Network, Life Situation and Personality, Psychological Medicine, 12, pp. 783–788, 1982.
2.
OsterweisM.SolomonF., and GreenM., Bereavement: Reactions, Consequences and Care, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1984.
3.
KobasaS. C., Stressful Life Events, Personality and Health: An Inquiry into Hardiness, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, pp. 1–11, 1979.
4.
KobasaS. C.MaddiS. R., and CouringtonS., Personality and Constitution as Mediators in the Stress-Illness Relationship, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 22, pp. 368–378, 1981.
5.
KobasaS. C.MaddiS. R., and KahnS., Hardiness and Health: A Prospective Study, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, pp. 158–167, 1982.
6.
LopataH. Z., The Social Involvement of American Widows, American Behavioral Review, 14, pp. 41–57, 1970–1971.
7.
LopataH. Z., Self-Identity in Marriage and Widowhood, The Sociological Review, 14, pp. 407–418, 1973.
8.
LopataH. Z., Widowhood, Grief Work and Identity Reconstruction, Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 8, pp. 41–45, 1975–1976.
9.
ZeissA., Aversiveness Versus Change in the Assessment of Life Stress, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 24, pp. 15–19, 1980.
10.
MaddisonD. and RaphaelB., Conjugal Bereavement and the Social Network, in Bereavement Its Psycho-Social AspectsKutscherA.PeretzD., and CarrA. (eds.), Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 26–40, 1975.
11.
MaslowA., Motivation and Personality, Harper and Row, New York, 1970.
12.
CampbellJ.AmerikanerM.SwankP., and VincentK., The Relationship between the Hardiness Test and the POI, Journal of Research in Personality, 23, pp. 373–380, 1989.
13.
ParkesC. M. and WeissR. S., Recovery from Bereavement, Basic Books, New York, 1983.
14.
BallJ. F., Widow's Grief: The Impact of Age and Mode of Death, Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 7, pp. 307–355, 1976–1977.
15.
GlickI. C.WeissR. S., and ParkesC. M., The First Year of Bereavement, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1974.
16.
LehmanD. R.WortmanC. B., and WilliamsA. F., Long Term of Losing a Spouse or Child in a Motor Vehicle Crash, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, pp. 218–231, 1987.
17.
DeutschD. K., The Development, Reliability, and Validity of an Instrument Designed to Measure Grief, Unpublished dissertation, Michigan State University, 1982.
18.
BowlbyJ., Attachment and Loss: Loss (Vol.III), Basic Books, New York, 1980.
19.
EngelG. L., Is Grief a Disease?Psychosomatic Medicine, 23, pp. 18–23, 1961.
20.
FreudS., Mourning and Melancholia, in Collected Papers of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 4), JonesE. (ed.), Hogarth Press, London, 1959.
21.
LindemannE., Symptomatology in Management of Acute Grief, American Journal on Psychiatry, 101, pp. 141–148, 1944.
22.
MarrisP., Widows and Their Families, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1958.
23.
MarrisP., Loss and Change, Random House, New York, 1974.
24.
ParkesC. M., Bereavement: Studies of Grief in Adult Life, Tavistock Publication, London, 1972.
25.
ParkesC. M., Determinants of Outcome Following Bereavement, Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 6:4, pp. 303–323, 1956.
26.
SchneiderJ., Clinically Significant Differences between Grief, Pathological Grief and Depression, Patient Counseling and Health Education, 2, pp. 161–169, 1980.
27.
SchneiderJ., Stress, Loss, and Grief, University Park Press, Baltimore, 1984.
28.
HymanR., Construct Validity of Shostrom's Personal Orientation Inventory: A Systematic Summary, Measurement and Evaluation in Guidance, 3:12, pp. 174–182, 1979.
29.
KeyserD. J. and SweetlandR. C., Test Critiques (Vol. I) Test Corporation of America, Kansas City, 1982.
30.
TosiD. J. and LindamoodC. A., The Measurement of Self-Actualization: A Critical Review of the Personal Orientation Inventory, Journal of Personality Assessment, 3:39, pp. 215–222, 1975.
31.
KnappR. R., Handbook for the Personal Orientation Inventory, Education and Industrial Testing Service, San Diego, 1976.
32.
BornsteinP. E. and ClaytonP. J., The Anniversary Reaction, Disease of the Nervous System, 33, pp. 470–472, 1972.
33.
DokaK. J., Expectation of Death, Participation in Funeral Arrangements, and Grief Adjustment, Omega, 15:2, 1984–1985.
34.
ClaytonP. J., Mortality and Morbidity in the First Year of Widowhood, Archives of General Psychiatry, 125, pp. 747–750, 1974.
35.
ClaytonP. J.HalikasJ. A., and MauriceW. L., The Depression of Widowhood, British Journal of Psychiatry, 120, pp. 71–78, 1972.
36.
ClaytonP. J.HalikasJ. A.MauriceW. L., and RobinsE., Anticipatory Grief and Widowhood, British Journal of Psychiatry, 122, pp. 47–51, 1973.
