Module Assignment #8 - Last Rites and Funerals
“Death brings out the beauty in life.”
― Samantha Diaz
8.1 - Overview
Last Rites and Funerals
In this assignment, we explore loss, last rites, and Rituals in lives of we mortals.
"Heartbreak is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace." So wrote George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), the Anglo-Irish playwright and critic. The words are of his character Ellie, in Heartbreak House.
The purpose of Homework Assignment #7 is to: (a) provide you with an understanding of the many experiences that comprise loss, and (b) to provide you with "hands on experience" in learning more about bereavement, grief, and mourning as well as last rites and rituals.
8.2 - Using The Internet To Conduct Psych Research
Researching Thanatology
Theme - For completing this "Internet Research Project," you are to seek out one of the following: (a) a scientific journal article, (b) a national media article or, (c) a Website that discusses, provides a fact sheet, or reports other such findings.
Task - Using one or more of the above resources, discuss some aspect of bereavement, grief, and mourning. Topics might include ways of working through grief, grief models, or how types of death complicate recovery from loss. Your report is to be in the form of a "discussion paper" of at least one to three typed, double-spaced pages.
You are urged to use the Internet exclusively, though you may use Doyle Library or other such "land-based" resources.
Death and Dying Resources Links to an external site.
Doyle Library (Click on Electronic Databases)
The first link below will take you to resources for learning more about "Coping With Loss Resources" for those who have experienced loss," It is an excellent resourse for better understanding the many issures surrounding bereavement, grief, and mourning.
The second link is a wonderful resource for learning more strategies for helping someone --- an adult, a child --- through the painful loss of a pet.
115 Helpful Websites on Grief & Bereavement Links to an external site.
Ten Tips on Coping with Pet Loss Links to an external site.
8.3 - Psychology Based Websites
Using Internet Tools To Learn About Death and Dying
Task - For the following psychologically oriented Website, report back what you learned from exploring any one of the many sub-categories listed. A tightly written paragraph--or better yet a typed, double-spaced page--sharing what you learned and what your reactions were, would be most appreciated.
Professor's Favorite Section: "Complicated Grief"
Death and Dying Resources Links to an external site.
8.4 - Reading Assignment - Chapter 8
Title - Last Rites: Funerals and Body Disposition
Your primary textbooks include The Last Dance (10th ed.) by Lynne Ann DeSpelder and Albert Lee Strickland (New York: McGraw, 2014) and Grieving Days, Healing Days, by J. Davis Mannino (San Francisco, California: TeddyBear Publishing, 2013).
Primary Readings
As you read Chapter 8, "Last Rites: Funerals and Body Disposition" you should keep in mind the following key questions and core concepts.
Content Overview
1. The choices people make involving funeral rituals and body disposition reflect their attitudes and beliefs about death.
2. The psychosocial aspects of funeral rites include announcement of death (including obituaries and death notices) as well as mutual support as an impetus for coping with loss.
3. The American funeral has evolved from handmade coffins and wakes held in the parlor of the family home to ornate caskets and ceremonies managed by funeral directors. Critics maintain that modern funerals are prone to unnecessarily high costs.
4. New options for care and disposition of the dead, personalized funerals, and the advent of Internet memorials commemorating a person’s life have increased choices in last rites.
5. Bereaved people may find solace through remembrance rituals and services and the holding on to possessions and linking objects.
6. Well-informed consumers of funeral services are knowledgeable about costs and are able to compare prices and evaluate the variety of services offered in the marketplace.
7. Funeral and memorial societies are organized to serve their members or customers by negotiating reduced prices for basic services.
8. The laws regulating the disposition of human remains generally specify where and how burials and disposal of cremated remains can be accomplished.
9. Meaningful choices regarding last rites reflect personal as well as community values.
Objectives
1. To describe the function of last rites and funeral rituals, including their psychosocial aspects.
2. To identify social networks set up to identify online friends of a death.
3. To examine the historical changes in American funeral rituals and to assess the relevance of criticism with respect to current professional practices.
4. To describe practices and costs of various mortuary and cemetery options.
5. To identify options for body disposition.
6. To evaluate new directions in funerals and body disposition.
7. To identify remembrance rituals and linking objects.
8. To identify options for memorialization.
9. To design a personally meaningful funeral ritual for oneself.
Key Terms and Concepts
aftercare
ashes
body disposition
burial
casket
cemetery
coffin
columbarium
committal
cremation
cryomation
cryonics
crypt
cyberfuneral
cybermourners
death notification
deathwatch
descansos
direct cremation
directive mourning therapy
embalming
entombment
funeral
funeral director
funeral home
Funeral Rule (FTC)
funerary artifacts
grave goods
grave liner
grave marker
green burial
home funeral
immediate burial
indigent burial
itemized pricing
last rites
life-centered funeral
linking objects
mausoleum
memorial magazine
memorial service
memorial society
memorialization
mortician
mortuary
necropolis
niche
procession
remembrance rituals
resomation
roadside memorials
spontaneous shrines
undertaker
vault
viewing room
vigil
virtual cemeteries
visitation
wake
water burial
Questions For Guided Study and Evaluation
1. Describe the psychosocial functions of the announcement of death and funeral rites. Identify how these social activities serve the psychological needs of the bereaved.
2. Describe the major requirements of the FTC Funeral Rule.
3. Summarize the major criticisms of the American funeral and assess their validity.
4. Describe the four categories of charges that make up the total cost of a funeral and body disposition.
5. Compare the various methods of body disposition and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.
6. Explain the functions of memorial societies and contrast them with conventional funeral practices.
7. Define the purpose of the funeral, and assess current funeral practices in light of that definition.
8. Describe the significant new directions in funerals and body disposition.
9. Write a detailed description of the funeral you would plan for yourself, giving reasons for your choices.
Task 8.4 - In the section above entitled: "Questions For Guided Study And Evaluation," briefly discuss any two questions you wish. Be sure to have enough length and quality to properly respond to each question.
Related Link -
In his book, How We Die, author Sherwin Nuland notes, "On a late summer day in 1899, a sixty-eight-year-old real estate broker, ironically bearing the name Henry Bliss, stepped off a trolley car in New York City and was killed by a passing automobile, thereby acquiring the dubious distinction of becoming our country's first automotive traffic fatality. Since then, almost 3 million people have died of motor vehicle injuries." How we die and when we die, greatly shapes how others, who survive, in fact grieve and mourn.
The following link takes you to a superb site for understanding one of life's great sufferings, pregnancy loss. Such losses include, stillbirth, miscarriage, and infertility issues. The site is sponsored by the American Pregnancy Association.
Task - Provide a reaction response to what you discovered and learned at these website(s).
American Pregnancy Association - Pregnancy Loss Links to an external site.
Practice Quiz - Chapter #8
In this section you will find a practice quiz for each assigned textbook chapter in The Last Dance. The quiz is presented in a link below.
Psych 56 - Chapter #8 Quiz - "Last Rites"
8.5 - "Grieving Days, Healing Days" - The Workbook
Learning Through "Hands-On" Doing
Overview
Grieving Days, Healing Days, is an interactive workbook written by Dr. J. Davis Mannino, 2013 (Formerly, Boston: Simon & Schuster, 1996). It is required for this course, because specific pages in the workbook are assigned as part of each homework assignment that you chose to complete.
Assignments to complete in Grieving Days, Healing Days will be listed in this section for each of the 16 homework assignments. Generally speaking, assignments are due by the assigned date. This workbook is loaded with readings, exercises, and activities that will enhance your learning of many important topics in the study of death and dying --- a field that is better known as "thanatology."
It is also important to remember that certain workbook pages will be required reading for assignments that you choose to complete. Therefore, always review and read workbook readings for each of the homework assignments you choose to complete as part of the course requirement. Choose assignments that fulfill your overall course requirement from GDHD.
Workbook Reading Assignment
1. Review Grieving Days, Healing Days, and become familiar with it.
2. At minimum, read and complete ANY THREE of the following assignments in Grieving Days, Healing Days. This only applies to those HW assignments you are completing as part of the course requirement. They may also be credited towards your overall course workbook requirement as well. Please note that all online homework assignments must, at minimum, still be read and reviewed.
Funeral Wishes, p. 99
Obituary, p. 192
Eulogy, p. 194
Gravestone Pictures, p. 194
Tombstone Epitaph, p. 195
Funeral Home Field Trip, p. 233
Cemetery Field Trip, p. 236
8.6 - Course Discussion Board
Module #8 - Thought Provoking Question (TPQ) or Article
Overview - The purpose of a course discussion board is to allow students and professor an opportunity to interact about topics of common interest. A discussion board is also a fine tool to share commonly asked questions, answers, and concerns.
You are urged to use the message board, when you have questions that you think others may wish to know; when you have technical questions or answers that others may wish to know, and to share other useful tidbits with each other. I want each of you to become familiar with the message board system.
Once you have composed your thoughts and written them down in a word application program [i.e., Microsoft word] --- with grammar and spell check---you follow through with posting (copy and pasting) them. Remember, to be sure you also post your comments in the appropriate place in the task boxes that links later in this assignment. You only do this if you are also submitting this ENTIRE assignment as one of your required four online assignments for this course.
Task - In each class module, there will be one thought-provoking course related question or article for which discussion is expected from students. While not always directly related to assigned readings, they have important course-wide implications. You are expected to respond to each TPQ by the end of each class module's deadline Be sure to place the question/article module number (#) in the "subject line" so your classmates will know which module topic you are addressing.
Since there is only one "thought-provoking question or article " (TPQ) due per module during the regular semester, a minimum response of 250 to 500 words is required for each message board TPQ posting. Also, students need to post a TPQ for EACH of the 15 online assignments.
This Assignment's Thought Provoking Question (TPQ) or Article
The following link is a graded assignment for the TPQ. (1) Click on the link below, (2) read the TPQ or article, and then (3) respond in the student posting area provided at the end of the article.
Thought Provoking Reading #8 - "The Importance of Miracles ..."
8.7 - Death: A Personal Understanding
Oveview
Welcome to a new video feature for my online course.
It is a very fascinating series by the world-renowned Annenberg Media Series. This video instructional series on death and dying is intended for college classrooms and adult learners. It is a 10 part series of half-hour video programs that focus on death and its many facets.
Gain a greater understanding of death and dying through case studies and moving personal stories of people facing their own death or the death of a loved one. This series explores a wide range of North American cultural perspectives on death within the context of current issues, including AIDS, death by violence, suicide, assisted suicide, hospice care, end-of-life decision making, and how children react to death. Leading authority Robert J. Kastenbaum guides you sensitively through these topics. This series is appropriate for courses in allied health, psychology, sociology, religion, and death studies.
Directions
When you arrive at the website, click the video icon you wish to view that says "VoD" [Video on Demand] and then when the "pop-up box" opens, click on the start arrow. Keep in mind that with "streaming videos," some of the film [buffering] must load so it can take up to a minute to load and sometimes it helps if you click on the start arrow again in the "pop-up box." Once you get the hang of it, you will find they all work the same, though with some quirky moments at times. You can also click on an icon in the video box allowing you to enlarge the video as to fill your entire screen. Just click on the "esc" button on our keyboard to leave the "large view" format.
Closed Captioning Note: For my students with disability challenges, there is a "closed captioning" option with this series. As you watch this video, after start up, click in the upper right hand side of the screen and you will see a icon that shows whether the captioning is on or off. To turn it on, click on it and you will see the on off switch change. I find I like watching the videos with captioning on as I have some hearing problems and I can catch everything everyone is saying especially if they are not talking clearly.
"Death: A Personal Understanding" - The Series Link
Video #7 - A Child's View of Death
Special issues arise when death comes without warning. A woman widowed by Children often understand that death is a changed state of being, but not how final it is. Between the ages of seven and ten, their questions about death become more frequent and complicated. In this program, we look at children’s developing understanding of death as well as their growing fears as they react to losing a parent or sibling. One section is devoted to the special anguish of a teenager's reaction to death.
Task
When done reviewing the assigned video, prepare a thorough reaction statement at the "Blue Book" section link described further down at the end of this assignment.
"Death: A Personal Understanding" - The Series Link Links to an external site.
8.8 - Assignment #8 "Blue Book" Responses
Composing Your Responses To Assignment #8 in Module #8
Overview - For each course module there is a major homework assignment that must be completed. Each of these module homework assignments has several tasks. Some entail reading, some include exploring and reviewing websites, reviewing videos, and still others involve written tasks --- work that must be submitted for review and/or grading.
Responses to "tasks" must be sent on time or you will either fail the assignment or be severely penalized. Late homework assignments are perceived as both a student who is "absent from class" and "late with work." Please always maintain a backup copy of all your written work. Glitches occur in online technology-based education, but ultimately it is your responsibility to maintain adequate backup of all work submitted. You are also encouraged to compose your work within a word-processing application and then "copy and paste" into "task boxes." This is so you may avail yourself of spell and grammar check options provided in most modern word processing software.
Please be aware that all submissions are automatically received by the course "gradebook," where they will be evaluated by your professor for acceptance, rejection, or acceptance with penalty. So make sure your work is received promptly. Much the same way that attendance is determined by you presence in the traditional classroom at the regularly scheduled class time, so too is attendance determined by your prompt submission of assignments while enrolled in an online course. Furthermore, arriving to class without homework or with incomplete homework is also perceived in the same manner with an online course. Accordingly, you are encouraged to submit you weekly work prior to deadlines, to avoid computer glitches, "downtime," and other "technological spills and inconveniences."
Directions - Each numbered task box listed below corresponds with tasks described in each module's homework assignment. Usually, tasks outlined on this webpage require written reactions and/or responses.
Be sure to follow directions carefully and precisely when completing each task. "A word to the wise!" Minimal work receives a minimal grade. For example, if a task asks that you provide a written paragraph or two, and you provide just that, then you have provided only minimal work. Simply said, minimal work is "C" work. Well thought out writing that exceeds both excellence and minimal length (word count) and quality requirements is, generally speaking, graded higher and indicative of a "good and solidly motivated student." However length in of itself does not assure quality either, so learn to strike a balance. Good luck!
Particulars - Remember this module is due by a certain date or will be penalized. Overly late assignments may NOT be accepted at all, and at minimum, marked down. The discretion of the professor rules in all such matters. Was your assignment "Online and Ontime?" Before beginning this first homework assignment be sure you understand the word count and quality requirements (1500 to 3000 words depending on grade desired). See Grading Policy in Course Basics at the Course Syllabus for further information regarding requirements and grading of module submissions.
Module Assignment #8 "Blue Book" [Graded Responses Go Here]