Human Growth and Development / Unit 17 HGD 2440 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Dual-Process Model
The idea
Stroebe and Schut's dual-process model describes two orientations in grief. Loss orientation is confronting the emotional loss itself: sharing grief, looking at photographs, feeling the absence. Restoration orientation is managing the changes the death brings: new roles, new tasks and new relationships. The two are not sequential; the bereaved oscillate between them.
In practice
A widower who cries over wedding photographs in the morning and learns to manage the household finances in the afternoon.
Where people slip
The misconception is that grief moves in one direction, from loss to recovery. The model treats both orientations as necessary, and a person stuck in only one, all loss or all busy restoration, may struggle. Exam items describe grieving activities and ask for the orientation: emotional focus on the deceased is loss orientation; handling new roles is restoration.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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