Stages of Grief and their Relationship to Stage Theory (Essay Sample)

Stages of Grief and their Relationship to Stage Theory
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Stages of Grief and their Relationship to Stage Theory
Grief is a natural reaction to a given loss, fundamentally, the death of a beloved person, the end of a pivotal relationship, or job loss. There are five major stages of grief; rejection, resentment, bargaining or regrets, depression, and eventually reestablishment or acceptance, and they are directly associated with stage theory. This theory offers grieving individuals various patterns of responding and acting in different situations to manage chaos and challenges in their lives. It provides people with an opportunity to adapt to the burdensome occurrence gradually. From denial to acceptance, the steps of grief are explicitly related to stage theory as it explains individuals’ adaptations, attitudes, and perceptions of death.
The initial stage of grief, denial, occurs when people fail to accept the reality of a given event, such as death, due to shock. It provides individuals with a certain degree of psychological protection as they attempt to escape from e truth. Shock and denial are normal responses to loss, as they enable people to adapt to the new situation in a short period and reduce the overwhelming agony of defeat. Most individuals perceive denial as a defense mechanism that pertains to ignoring the reality of an event. The denial phase is explicitly connected to the stage theory since it is the initial step of the grieving process, which every individual should complete (Bregman, 2017). As a protective reaction, this step of grieving is related to stage theory because it enables people to understand their emotions and get along with agony.