Profiles of Change in Self-Constructions among Early- and Later-Bereaved Widows

Abstract

The portrayal of the construct self was formulated using the protocols of 12 bereaved widows ranging in age from 56 to 82 years of age at the time of the interview. Each widow was interviewed every two to three weeks using a structured interview together with a self-report scale. They were asked to revisit their experiences of coping with the death of their husbands in their efforts to adapt to life without their husbands and assess the nature of their coping actions. Using Lazarus and Folkman's 1986 coping scale enabled the delineation of three coping action modes or solutions of “moving away,” “moving against,” “moving toward,” self and others in terms of Horney's early work. Analysis of the profiles using these coping action modes suggested qualities of restructuring of the self among the 12 bereaved widows. Some simple observations were made about the importance of research on self-constructions and the potential for the use of internal dialogues in grief work.