Blog #6

As we continue our discussion of widowhood (or just coping with the loss of a loved one, may it be a spouse, a father, a mother or a sibling) I continue to think of the effects that go into dealing with something like that. I know there are different stages to grieving such as anger, bargaining and eventually coming to terms with the situation. I was curious on what other responses that happen when this type of event happens and I found an article that answered the question. The article was from the academic journal Psychology and Aging and was written by Margaret Gentry and Arthur Shurman. The article answered my question of what people do to deal with the death of a spouse as the article was titled Remarriage As A Coping Response To Widowhood. This article looked at only what certain women do as a result of their husband dying when they were still healthy enough to remarry. The article found that women who had remarried reported fewer current concerns than the people who did remarry or even considered remarrying. Also the authors found that the ones that had the most difficulty and hardest time dealing with the situation immediately after the death were the ones that were most likely ones to remarry as a coping. I found that this article was very interesting that people actually get remarried as a way to deal with the loss of a spouse. After learning about and reading about the widowhood effect I can understand why someone would want to remarry quickly in order to have that companionship again. It makes perfect sense to me although I am not sure I would be able to remarry if I had a long term marriage and my companion suddenly passed away. I was wondering if the class had an opinion on the topic.

Blog #5

The other day in class we discussed the topic of widowhood and as part of that we discussed the widowhood effect. To be honest, I have never heard of of this concept of having a spouse die and this result will in turn lead to your own death. I came across an article the other day from the Seattle Times that discussed this concept. In this article a couple has been married for 81 years and then his wife died and within the next 48 hours he died. The article pointed out that he would always say that he could never live without his wife and what is interesting to me that he was not just saying that, he probably believed in his mind that the bond they had was so strong and there for so many years that once he did end up going that he was not going to be able to go on without her. I don't know about anyone else but when we watched the clip in class about a spouse dying I can see why people would not know how to cope without the aid of a spouse. I found that clip to be very beneficial to clarifying a topic that I did not know about. Also this article was the Seattle Times also showed me more about the topic than I previously knew. I find this topic to be very fascinating how two people can be so connected that they have their lives relying on one another.

Blog #4

In class today we discussed how to keep a spark alive when we talk about long term relationships. We had some good ideas in class such as traveling and having a date night. As I look at a good relationship in my family I look at my Uncle Tom and my Aunt Joan. These two have been together for over 25 years and the majority of the time they have both kept the same schedule; my uncle works nights and my aunt works a regular day shift and they say that this schedule is the reason that they have such a strong relationship. This schedule does not give them a lot of time to see each other during the week but it does give them just enough time together where they are not annoyed with each other and they get enough time apart where they are excited to see each other when they do get a chance to spend time together. This schedule also gives each other enough time to have their own separate lives and a chance to chase their own interests.

Blog #3

Last week in class during our current event class discussion a question was about how siblings deal with problem as they age and it took me a few days to think about this. I believe that the foundations of how siblings, whether it be brother-brother, sister-sister or sister brother, deal with each is established when they are at a young age. I believe that the amount to which this happens depends on how close in age the siblings are, whereas the ones that are closer in age will have a more developed foundation for these siblings. I believe that the closer that siblings are in age the stronger there relationship will be and that is not to say that siblings that have a large age gap cannot have a strong relationship I just believe that you can substitute the bond you have when you are close in age. Someone mentioned that they fight a ton with their siblings and i believe that this due to how close the two are....ironically siblings that are really close can have this closeness bring them apart at times. But once a foundation is established when you are younger you will continue these same types of problem solving behavior into adulthood. Sure it wont be the exact same as problem solving skills grow and people mature but the basic approaches will not change and always remain the same. Examples: if siblings resolve conflicts when they were younger by yelling than I believe they will continue to yell as they get older.