Meaning Reconstruction in the First Two Years of Bereavement: The Role of Sense-Making and Benefit-Finding

2006 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason M. Holland ◽  
Joseph M. Currier ◽  
Robert A. Neimeyer
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Benefit Finding ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Current Investigation ◽  
Personal Benefit ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
High Sense

Contemporary grief theories have highlighted the role of meaning-making in adaptation to bereavement, focusing on two major construals of meaning: making sense of the loss and finding benefit in the experience. The current investigation attempted a conceptual replication of the findings of Davis, Nolen-Hoeksema, and Larson (1998) that suggested that sense-making predicts adaptation to loss in the early period of bereavement, whereas benefit-finding primarily plays an ameliorative role as time progresses. To this end, an ethnically diverse sample of 1,022 recently bereaved college students completed the Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG) as well as questions that assessed sense-making, benefit-finding, and the circumstances surrounding their losses. Results only partially replicated the findings of Davis and his colleagues, demonstrating that: 1) time since loss bore no relation to grief complications; 2) sense-making emerged as the most robust predictor of adjustment to bereavement; and 3) benefit finding interacted with sense making, with the fewest complications predicted when participants reported high sense, but low personal benefit, in the loss.

Positive Resolution of Childhood Sexual Abuse Experiences: The Role of Coping, Benefit-Finding and Meaning-Making

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 597-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret O’Dougherty Wright ◽  
Emily Crawford ◽  
Katherine Sebastian
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Benefit Finding

Hegel’s Philosophy of History as the Metaphysics of Agency

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Pinkard
Keyword(s):  
Essential Role ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
The Self ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Human Enterprise

Rather than understanding history as a process guided by an entity (Geist) that is aiming at the goal of coming to a full self-consciousness, this chapter argues that Hegel’s philosophy should be understood against the background of his Aristotelian- and Kantian-inspired metaphysics. Using his Logic as the background, the author argues that his philosophy of history is an examination of the metaphysical contours of subjectivity and how the self-interpreting, self-developing collective human enterprise has moved from one such shape to another in terms of deeper logic of sense-making, and how this has meant that subjectivity itself has reshaped itself over the course of history. The role of the “infinite end” of justice thereby is shown to play an essential role in making sense of history.

An Examination of Stage Theory of Grief among Individuals Bereaved by Natural and Violent Causes: A Meaning-Oriented Contribution

2010 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason M. Holland ◽  
Robert A. Neimeyer
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Stage Theory ◽  
Limited Support

Despite its popularity, few attempts have been made to empirically test the stage theory of grief. The most prominent of these attempts was conducted by Maciejewski, Zhang, Block, and Prigerson (2007), who found that different states of grieving may peak in a sequence that is consistent with stage theory. The present study aimed to provide a conceptual replication and extension of these findings by examining the association between time since loss and five grief Indicators (focusing on disbelief, anger, yearning, depression, and acceptance), among an ethnically diverse sample of young adults who had been bereaved by natural ( n = 441) and violent ( n = 173) causes. We also examined the potential salience of meaning-making and assessed the extent to which participants had made sense of their losses. In general, limited support was found for stage theory, alongside some evidence of an “anniversary reaction” marked by heightened distress and reduced acceptance for participants approaching the second anniversary of the death. Overall, sense-making emerged as a much stronger predictor of grief Indicators than time since loss, highlighting the relevance of a meaning-oriented perspective.

scholarly journals Sameness and difference in narrative modes and narrative sense making: The case of Ramsey Campbell’s “The Scar”

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-146
Author(s):  
Mari Hatavara ◽  
Jarkko Toikkanen
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Narrative Studies ◽  
Modes Of Representation ◽  
The Everyday

AbstractThe article discusses basic questions of narrative studies and definitions of narrative from a historical and conceptual perspective in order to map the terrain between different narratologies. The focus is placed on the question of how fiction interacts with other realms of our lives or, more specifically, how reading fiction both involves and affects our everyday meaning making operations. British horror writer Ramsey Campbell’s (b. 1946) short story “The Scar” (1967) will be used as a test case to show how both narrative modes of representation and the reader’s narrative sense making operations may travel between art and the everyday, from fiction to life and back. We argue that the cognitively inspired narrative studies need to pair up with linguistically oriented narratology to gain the necessary semiotic sensitivity to the forms and modes of narrative sense making. Narratology, in turn, needs to explore in detail what it is in the narrative form that enables it to function as a tool for reaching out and making sense of the unfamiliar. In our view, reading fictional narratives such as “The Scar” can help in learning and adopting linguistic resources and story patterns from fiction to our everyday sense making efforts.

scholarly journals Making sense of the COVID-19 pandemic from the Bible – Some perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francois Tolmie ◽  
Rian Venter
Keyword(s):  
Sense Making ◽  
Social Location ◽  
Critical Importance ◽  
New Normal ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Crisis Discourse ◽  
Walter Brueggemann ◽  
Biblical Scholar

In this article, a brief survey of some of the ways in which biblical scholars try to make sense of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is offered. The views of the following scholars are discussed: Walter Brueggemann, Ying Zhang, John Goldingay and Kathleen Scott Goldingay, N.T. Wright, Philemon M. Chamburuka and Ishanesu S. Gusha, and Peter Lampe. This is followed by the reflections of a biblical scholar and a systematic theologian. From the perspective of a biblical scholar, the following issues are raised: the richness of biblical traditions, the influence of social location on the interpretation of the pandemic in the light of the Bible, the importance of the emphasis on lament, the reluctance to interpret the pandemic as a punishment from God, the importance of the interpreter’s view of God and the emphasis on the way in which the ‘new normal’ should be approached. From the perspective of a systematic theologian the following issues are discussed: The nature of doing theology, the role of the symbol of the Divine, performativity of sense-making, the Trinitarian confession, an emerging new self and the importance of an ethic of responsibility.Contribution: The article is a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasises the critical importance of engaging the Christian scripture. The role accorded to hermeneutics and to an explicit interdisciplinary conversation makes a particular contribution to the emerging crisis discourse.

scholarly journals Wise academic development: learning from the ‘failure’ experiences of retired academic developers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
JA Timmermans ◽  
Kathryn Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Academic Development ◽  
Developmental Theory ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Constructive Developmental Theory ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Constructive Developmental ◽  
Learning From Failure

© 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Informed by Constructive Developmental Theory and the Threshold Concepts Framework, we interviewed retired academic developers from four continents and asked them to describe their processes of learning from perceived failures and how they see the role of academic developers in supporting academics through failures. Findings regarding participants’ definitions of failure, ways of making sense of and learning from failure, and recommendations for supporting academic colleagues’ learning from failure are shared through tables, quotations, and poetry. Findings show that ‘wise academic development’ embraces curiosity about failure, integrates the (sometimes) transformative nature of failure, shares the load of sense-making, and cultivates connectedness.

Situation Awareness

Conflict ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 53-75
Author(s):  
Neil D. Shortland ◽  
Laurence J. Alison ◽  
Joseph M. Moran
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Situation Awareness ◽  
Mission Planning ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Accurate Picture ◽  
Remote Operations

This chapter explores the process of sense-making in combat. It presents cases of sense-making from those involved in offensive operations in the field as well as those involved in more remote operations whose sense-making is solely reliant upon small snippets of the scene that they can observe through the technology they have deployed at that time. The chapter discusses the limitations (cognitive and situational) in trying to gain an accurate picture of what is happening on the ground and the implications of this for the ensuing stages of the decision-making process. Special attention is paid to the role of cultural differences and the difficulties in making sense and “storytelling” in environments that have little in common with one’s own. Finally, with reference to a real case of mission planning in Afghanistan, the fine balance between acting too soon and becoming inert is discussed.

The Play of Possibility

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas S. Henricks
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
The Relationship

This final chapter summarizes the book's major themes, including the thesis that play is a distinctive strategy of meaning-making that finds its end in self-realization. It begins with a discussion of a general theory of play, with particular emphasis on the relationship between sense-making and play as well as the distinction between ideal play and real play. It then considers the role of play in human agency and revisits Johan Huizinga's challenge to evaluate the role of play in the contemporary era. It also describes some problematic qualities of play and concludes with an analysis of questions of whether and how play should be evaluated by arguing that play as action is not equivalent to play as interaction or to play as activity; therefore, interactive (and thus intersubjective) play should respect the freedom of all participants.

scholarly journals Is There Pain in Champagne? Semantic Involvement of Words within Words during Sense-making

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 2618-2626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra M. van Alphen ◽  
Jos J. A. van Berkum
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Context ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Lexical Competition ◽  
Sentential Context ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Lexical Activation

In an ERP experiment, we examined whether listeners, when making sense of spoken utterances, take into account the meaning of spurious words that are embedded in longer words, either at their onsets (e.g., pie in pirate) or at their offsets (e.g., pain in champagne). In the experiment, Dutch listeners heard Dutch words with initial or final embeddings presented in a sentence context that did or did not support the meaning of the embedded word, while equally supporting the longer carrier word. The N400 at the carrier words was modulated by the semantic fit of the embedded words, indicating that listeners briefly relate the meaning of initial- and final-embedded words to the sentential context, even though these words were not intended by the speaker. These findings help us understand the dynamics of initial sense-making and its link to lexical activation. In addition, they shed new light on the role of lexical competition and the debate concerning the lexical activation of final-embedded words.

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