Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Core Emotion Themes of Conjugal Loss

  • Published:
Motivation and Emotion Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Previous studies have associated emotion and appraisal with long-term bereavement outcome. The present study extended this research by coding conjugal bereavement narratives for core relational themes (CRT) that served as emotional summaries of unique combinations of appraisal features. A range of CRTs was evidenced at 6 months after loss, with positive CRTs, such as love/affection and pride, occurring most frequently. As a way to examine competing models of coping with loss, CRTs were grouped by goal-congruence (positive/negative) and appraisal features (self/interpersonal) into four thematic categories, and they were compared with 6-, 14-, and 25-month outcome. Results contradicted the traditional “grief work” perspective, but they were consistent with the alternative view that recovery is fostered by identity continuity and a continued emotional bond with the deceased. With initial symptoms and Dyadic Adjustment Scale scores controlled, enhanced self themes (e.g., self-pride) and interpersonal affirmation themes (e.g., pride in the deceased) were each associated with improved functioning over time, whereas interpersonal discord themes (e.g., anger at the deceased) were associated with chronic grief.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Averill, J. R., & Nunley, E. P. (1993). Grief as an emotion and as a disease: A social-constructionist perspective. In M. S. Stroebe, W. Stroebe, & R. O. Hansson (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 367–380). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T., & Steer, R. A. (1987). Manual for the Beck depression inventory. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belitsky, R., & Jacobs, S. (1986). Bereavement, attachment theory, and mental disorders. Psychiatric Annals, 16, 276–280.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonanno, G. A. (1997). Examining the “grief work” approach to bereavement. Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Grief and Bereavement, Washington, DC.

  • Bonanno, G. A. (1998). The concept of “working through” loss: A critical evaluation of the cultural, historical, and empirical evidence. In A. Maercker, M. Schuetzwohl, & Z. Solomon (Eds.), Post-traumatic stress disorder: Vulnerability and resilience in the life-span. Seattle: Hogrefe & Huber.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonanno, G. A., & Kaltman, S. (in press). Toward an integrative perspective on bereavement. Psychological Bulletin.

  • Bonanno, G. A., & Keltner, D. (1997). Facial expressions of emotion and the course of conjugal bereavement. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 126–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonanno, G. A., Keltner, D., Holen, A., & Horowitz, M. J. (1995). When avoiding unpleasant emotions might not be such a bad thing: Verbal-autonomic response dissociation and midlife conjugal bereavement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 975–989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonanno, G. A., Notarius, C. I., Gunzerath, L., Keltner, D., & Horowitz, M. J. (1998). Interpersonal ambivalence, perceived dyadic adjustment, and conjugal loss. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66, 1012–1022.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonanno, G. A., Znoj, H. J., Siddique, H., & Horowitz, M. J. (in press). Verbal-autonomic response dissociation and adaptation to midlife conjugal loss: A follow-up at 25 months. Cognitive Therapy and Research.

  • Bowlby, J. (1980). Loss: Sadness and depression: Volume 3, Attachment and loss. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brook, R. H., Ware, J. E., Davies-Avery, A., Stewart, A. L., Donald, C. A., Rogers, W. H., Williams, K. N., & Johnson, J. A. (1979). Overview of adult health status measures fielded in Rand's Health Insurance Study. Medical Care, 17, 1–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butterworth, B. (1975). Hesitation and semantic planning in speech. Journal of Psycholinquistic Research, 4, 75–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1981). Attention and self-regulation: A control theory approach to human behavior. New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cerney, M. W., & Buskirk, J. R. (1991). Anger: The hidden part of grief. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 55, 228–237.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deutsch, H. (1937). Absence of grief. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 6, 12–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P. (1993). Facial expression and emotion. American Psychologist, 48, 384–392.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1986). A new pan-cultural facial expression of emotion. Motivation and Emotion, 10, 159–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1988). Who knows what about contempt: A reply to Izard and Haynes. Motivation and Emotion, 12, 17–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faschingbauer, T. R. (1981). The Texas Revised Inventory of Grief manual. Houston, TX: Honeycomb.

    Google Scholar 

  • Field, N. P., Bonanno, G. A., Williams, P., & Horowitz, M. J. (in press). Applying of blame in conjugal loss. Cognitive Therapy and Research.

  • Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1988). Coping as a mediator of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 468–473.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraley R. C., & Shaver, P. R. (1999). Loss and bereavement: Bowlby's theory and recent controversies concerning grief work and the nature of detachment. In J. Cassidy & P.R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment theory and research: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 735–759). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (1917/1957). Mourning and melancholia. In J. Strachey (Ed.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 14, pp. 152–170). London: Hogarth Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frijda, N. H. (1986). The emotions. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frijda, N. H. (1993). The place of appraisal in emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 357–387.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansson, R. O., Carpenter, B. N., & Fairchild, S. K. (1993). Measurement issues in bereavement. In M. S. Stroebe, W. Stroebe, & R. O. Hansson (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 62–76). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansson, R. O., Remondet, J. H., & Galusha, M. (1993). Old age and widowhood: Issues of personal control and independence. In. M. S. Stroebe, W. Stroebe, & R. O. Hansson (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 367–380). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, T., & Rahe, R. (1967). The social readjustment scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11, 213–218.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, M. J., Wilner, N., & Alvarez, M. A. (1979). Impact of event scale: A measure of subjective distress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 41, 209–218.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, M. J., Bonanno, G. A., & Holen, A. (1993). Pathological grief: Diagnosis and explanations. Psychosomatic Medicine, 55, 260–273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kastenbaum, R. J. (1995). Death, society, and human experience (5th ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keltner, D., & Bonanno, G. A. (1997). A study of laughter and dissociation: Distinct correlates of laughter and smiling during bereavement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 687–702.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klas, D., Silverman, P. R., Nickman, S. L. (Eds.). (1996). Continuing bonds: New understandings of grief. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazare, A. (1989). Bereavement and unresolved grief. In A. Lazare (Ed.), Outpatient psychiatry: Diagnosis and treatment (2nd ed., pp. 381–397). Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazarus, R. S. (1984). On the primacy of cognition. American Psychologist, 39, 124–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazarus, R. S., Kanner, A. D., & Folkman, S. (1980). Emotions: A cognitive-phenomenological analysis. In R. Plutchik & H. Kellerman (Eds.), Emotions: Theory, Research, and Experience (Vol. 1, pp. 189–217). New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • LeDoux, J. (1989). Cognitive-emotional interactions in the brain. Cognition and Emotion, 3, 267–289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lehman, D. R., Wortman, C. B., & Williams, A. F. (1987). Long-term effects of losing a spouse or child in a motor vehicle crash. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 218–231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leventhal, H. (1984). A perceptual-motor theory of emotion. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 17, 117–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindemann, E. (1994). Symptomatology and management of acute grief. American Journal of Psychiatry, 101, 141–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lundin, T. (1984). Long-term outcome of bereavement. British Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 434–428.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marmot, M. G., Smith, G. D., Stansfeld, S., Patel, C., North, F., Head, J., White, I., Brunner, E., & Feeney, A. (1991). Health inequalities among British civil servants: The Whitehall II Study. Lancet, 337, 1387–1393.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mergenthaler, E., & Stinson, C. H. (1992). Psychotherapy transcription standards. Psychotherapy Research, 2, 125–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mossey, J. M., & Shapiro, E. (1982). Self-rated health: A predictor of mortality among the elderly. American Journal of Public Health, 72, 274–279.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoesksema, S., mcBride, A., & Larson, J. (1997). Rumination and psychological distress among bereaved partners. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 855–862.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oatley, K., & Jenkins, J. M. (1996). Understanding emotions. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Opoku, K. A. (1989). African perspectives on death and dying. In A. Berger, P. Badham, A. H. Kutscher, J. Berger, M. Perry, & J. Beloff (Eds.), Perspectives on death and dying (pp. 14–23). Philadelphia, PA: The Charles Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osterweis, M., Solomon, F., & Green, F. (Eds.). (1984). Bereavement: Reactions, consequences, and care. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parkes, C. M., & Weiss, R. S. (1983). Recovery from bereavement. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennebaker, J. W., Mayne, T.J., & Francis, M.E. (1997). Linguistic predictors of adaptive bereavement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 863–871.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raphael, B. (1983). The anatomy of bereavement. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raphael, B., Middleton, W., Martinek, N., & Misso, V. (1993). Counseling and therapy of the bereaved. In M. S. Stroebe, W. Stroebe, & R. O. Hansson (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 23–43). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenblatt, P. C. (1993). Grief: The social context of private feelings. In M. S. Stroebe, W. Stroebe, & R. O. Hansson (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 102–111). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roseman, I. J., Antoniou, A. A., & Jose, P. E. (1996). Appraisal determinants of emotion: Constructing a more accurate and comprehensive theory. Cognition and Emotion, 10, 241–277.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, C. M. (1979). The use of the MMPI in assessing bereavement outcome. In C. S. Newmark (Ed.), MMPI: Clinical and research trends (pp. 223–247). New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, C. M. (1993). Risk factors in bereavement outcome. In M. S. Stroebe, W. Stroebe, & R. O. Hansson (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 255–267). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1988). A model of behavioral self-regulation: Translating intention into action. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in the experimental study of social psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 303–346). New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scherer, K. R. (1993). Studying the emotion-antecedent appraisal process: An expert system approach. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 325–355.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaver, P., Schwartz, J., Kirson, D., & O'Connor, C. (1987). Emotion knowledge: Further exploration of a prototype approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1061–1086.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shuchter, S. R., & Zisook, S. (1993). The course of normal grief. In M. S. Stroebe, W. Stroebe, & R. O. Hansson (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 23–43). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverman, P. R., & Worden, W. (1993). Children's reactions to the death of a parent. In M. S. Stroebe, W. Stroebe, & R. O. Hansson (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement: Theory research, and intervention (pp. 300–316). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C. A., & Ellsworth, P. C. (1985). Patterns of cognitive appraisal in emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 813–848.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C. A., & Lazarus, R. S. (1993). Appraisal components, core relational themes, and the emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 223–269.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spanier, G. B. (1976). Measuring dyadic adjustment: New scales for assessing the quality of marriage and similar dyads. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38, 15–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stansfeld, S. A., Smith, G. D., & Marmot, M. (1993). Association between physical and psychological morbidity in Whitehall II Study. Unpublished manuscript. University College of Middlesex Hospital School of Medicine, London.

  • Stinson, C. H., Milbrath, C., Reidbord, S. P., & Bucci, W. (1994). Thematic segmentation of psychotherapy transcripts for convergent analyses. Psychotherapy, 31, 36–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein, N. L., Folkman, S., Trabasso, T., & Christopher-Richards, A. (1977). Appraisal and goal processes as predictors of well-being in bereaved care-givers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 863–871.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stroebe, M., Gergen, M. M., Gergen, K. J., & Stroebe, W. (1992). Broken hearts or broken bonds: Love and death in historical perspective. American Psychologist, 47, 1205–1212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stroebe, M., & Stroebe, W. (1991). Does “grief work” work? Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 479–482.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stroebe, W., & Stroebe, M. (1987). Bereavement and health: The psychological and physical consequences of partner loss. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wikan, U. (1990). Managing turbulent hearts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Windholz, M. J., Marmar, C. R., & Horowitz, M. J. (1985). A review of research on conjugal bereavement: Impact on health and efficacy of intervention. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 26, 433–447.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zajonc, R. B. (1984). On the primacy of affect. American Psychologist, 39, 117–123.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027

    George A. Bonanno

  2. The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C, 00000

    Michael C. Mihalecz & Jenna T. LeJeune

Authors
  1. George A. Bonanno
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael C. Mihalecz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jenna T. LeJeune
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bonanno, G.A., Mihalecz, M.C. & LeJeune, J.T. The Core Emotion Themes of Conjugal Loss. Motivation and Emotion 23, 175–201 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021398730909

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021398730909

Keywords

Search

Navigation