Adaptive Funeral Rite

A funeral rite that is adjusted to the needs and wants of those
directly involved; one which has been altered to suit the trends of
the times.

Aggression

The intentional infliction of physical or psychological harm on another.

Ceremony

Similar to ritual but it may, or may not, have symbolic content; An
instrumental action dealing with death, that is also expressional and
that may or may not be charged with symbolic content expressing, among
other things, the attitudes of the participants and possible onlookers
(passive participants) who may be regard.

Class

A social grouping in which members possess roughly equivalent
culturally valued attributes.

Committal Service

The rite of finality in a funeral service preceding cremation, earth
burial, entombment or burial at sea.

Contemporary

Living or happening in the same period.

Cultural Assimilation

The process by which a person or group's language and/or culture come
to resemble those of another group.

Cultural Relativism

The emotional attitude that all cultures are equal and pertinent.

Cultural Universal

Like abstract patterns of, and for living and dying, which are
identifiable in all cultures.

Culture

Consists of abstract patterns (the rules, ideas, beliefs shared by
members of society) of and for living and dying, which are learned
directly or indirectly.

Custom

Social behavior as dictated by the tradition of the people.

Demographic

Pertaining to demography; the science of vital statistics, or of
births, deaths, marriages, etc. of populations; The statistical study
of human populations with respect to their size, density,
distribution, composition, and income.

Direct Disposer

A person licensed by the state to dispose of human remains without
formal viewing, visitation, or ceremony.

Direct Learning

The acquiring of the culture by a person through deliberate
instruction by other members of the society.

Discrimination

Treating members of groups differently in circumstances where their
rights or treatment should be identical.

Enculturation

The method by which the social values are internalized (learned).

Ethnic

Designating or of any of the basic divisions or groups of mankind, or
distinguished by customs, characteristics, language, etc.

Ethnocentrism

The emotional attitude that one's own race, nation, group, or culture
is superior to all others.

Folkways

Behaviors which are construed as somewhat less compulsive than mores
of the same society, and do not call for a strong reaction from the
society if violated.

Funeral Service

The rites held at the time of disposition of human remains, with the
body present.

Funeral Rite

An all-inclusive term used to encompass all funeral and/or memorial
services; Any funeral event performed in a prescribed manner.

Funeralization

A process involving all activities associated with final disposition.

Humanistic Funeral Rite

A funeral rite that is in essence devoid of religious connotation.

Immediate Disposition

Any disposition of a human remains which is completely devoid of any
form of funeral rite at the time of disposition.

Indirect Learning

A process by which a person learns the norms of his or her culture by
observations of others in his or her society.

Law

A rule of action prescribed by an authority able to enforce its will;
A must-behavior not necessarily a basic or important pattern of a
people (related to death) but one which is enforced by those governing.

Memorial Service

A ceremony commemorating the deceased without the body present.

Mobility

The state of being mobile; specifically in sociology, the ability to
move from place to place readily, or to move from class to class,
either upward or downward.

Modern

Of, or characteristic of, the present or recent times; not ancient;
often used to designate certain contemporary tendencies.

Mores

Must-behavior; the basic and important patterns of ideas and acts of
a people as related to treatment of the dead which calls for a strong
reaction from the society if violated.

Neo-Localism

The tendency of off-spring to move away from the area in which they
were born.

Non-Traditional Funeral Rite

Religious oriented service that follows a more modern interpretation,
including favorite music, poems, and readings. A funeral rite which
deviates from the normal or prescribed circumstances of established custom.

Norms

The most common characteristics of each feature; typical, common,
average; In sociology, a group held belief about how members should
behave in a given context.

Pre-Literate Society

Designating or of a culture developed before the invention of writing
and, hence, leaving no written records.

Prejudice

Negative attitude towards others based on their gender, religion,
race or membership in a particular group.

Primitive Funeral Rite

A funeral rite which may be construed as being identifiable with a
pre-literate society.

Religion

A culturally entrenched pattern of behavior made up of: 1) sacred
beliefs, 2) emotional feelings accompanying the beliefs, and 3) overt
conduct presumably implementing the beliefs and feelings.

Rite

Any event performed in a solemn and prescribed manner.

Rites of Passage

Ceremonies centering around transition in life from one status to
another (ex: Baptism, marriage, and the funeral).

Ritual

A kind of instrumental action; but also expressional - that is, it is
charged with symbolic content expressing among other things, the
attitudes of the participants and possible onlookers (passive
participants) who may be regarded as co-beneficiaries.

Rules

Enactments by an administrative body governing the jurisdiction of
that agency; In sociology, specified methods of procedure.

Social Facilitation

A phenomenon that occurs when an individual's performance improves
because of the presence of others.

Social Function

An event which allows those who have something in common with each
other to deal with one-another in regard to that which they share.

Social Mobility

Movement of a person or family within social classes of their society.

Social Psychology

The field of Psychology that seeks to understand how behavior effects others.

Social Stratification

Categorization of people by money, prestige, and power; a ranking of
social status (position) in groups such as upper, middle, and lower class.

Socialization (Enculturation)

The method by which the social values of the funeral rite are
internalized (learned).

Society

A group of persons forming a single community with some interests in common.

Sociology

The study of social groups; their internal forms or modes of
organization, the processes that tend to maintain or change these
forms of organizations, and the relations between groups.

Subcultures

A division, or smaller identifiable unit of a culture, connected to
that culture by common traits, having unique traits to itself.

Symbol

Anything to which socially created meaning is given; an object or act
that represents a belief or idea.

Taboos

A social prohibition of certain acts.

Traditional Funeral Rite

A funeral rite that follows a prescribed ritual or ceremony which may
be dictated either by religious belief or social custom.

Visitation

Time set aside for friends and relatives to pay respect for the
deceased prior to the funeral service.

Agrarian

Dealing with agriculture; farm based.

Anonymity

A situation in which a person or entity is unknown.

Blended family

Membership consists of one male and one female and the children from
their previous marriages and may include children from the present marriage.

Bureaucratization

The creation of a system which govern through departments and
subdivisions managed by sets of officials following an inflexible routine.

Civil Union

A legal relationship between two people of the same gender.

Cohabitants

Two unrelated adults sharing the same living quarters.

Egalitarian family

In marriage, to hold that both male and female have equal rights,
duties, and governing power.

Family of orientation

The family into which one is born.

Family of procreation

The family established by one's marriage and the production of children.

Industrialization

The change from independent multi-talented, self-sufficient family
units to employment of family members in jobs outside the unit, making
them dependent on outside resources for their total needs.

Issue - children of a person

Relative, generally a blood relative.

Joint Family (Extended family)

Membership within household includes father and mother, all their
children (except married daughters), their son's wives and children
(except married daughters).

Matriarchal family

The family pattern in which the mother or oldest adult female
possesses power and the right of decision-making.

Modified Extended Nuclear family

Clusters of two or more nuclear families who are united by social
bonds for protection, security and help.

Nuclear family

Membership within household includes one man, one woman, and their
children, if any.

Patriarchal family

In marriage, the father rules the family, specifically in sociology,
the patriarch, the father, and the ruler of the family or tribe; a man
of great age and dignity; the oldest individual of a class or group.

Single Parent family

Membership consists of one adult, either male or female, and his/her children.

Urbanization

The change from rural to urban in character; to make like or
characteristic of a city.

Alienation

The state of estrangement an individual feels in social settings that
are viewed as foreign, unpredictable or unacceptable.

Anomic Grief

The experience of grief, especially in young bereaved parents, where
mourning customs are unclear due to an inappropriate death and the
absence of prior bereavement experience; typical in a society that has
attempted to minimize the impact of death through medical control of
disease and social control of those who deal with the dying and the dead.

Anticipatory Grief

Syndrome characterized by the presence of grief in anticipation of
death or loss.

Blame

To place responsibility for fault or error.

Euthanasia

An act or practice of allowing the death of persons suffering from a
life-limiting condition.

Guilt

Blame directed toward one's self based on real or unreal conditions.

Homicide

The killing of one human being by another.

Hospice

Historically, an inn for travelers, especially one kept by a
religious order; also used to indicated an institution designed to
treat patients with a life limiting condition.

Shame

The assumption of blame directed toward one's self by others.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (crib death)

The sudden and unexpected death of an apparently healthy infant,
which remains unexplained after a complete autopsy and a review of the
circumstances around the death.

Suicidal Gesture

An unsuccessful attempt made by the person to end his or her own life.

Suicide

A deliberate act of self-destruction.

Survivor Guilt

Guilt felt by the survivors.

Ambiguous Response

A disconfirming response with more than one meaning, leaving the
other party unsure of the responder's position.

Articulation

The process of pronouncing all the necessary parts of a word.

Attending

The process of focusing on certain stimuli from the environment.

Attitude

A learned tendency to respond to people, objects, or institutions in
a positive or negative way.

Clarifying

The process of bringing vague content in the interaction into clearer
focus or understanding.

Climate

The emotional tone of a relationship as it is expressed in the
messages that the partners send and receive.

Communication

A general term for the exchange of information, feelings, thoughts,
and acts between two or more people, including both verbal and
nonverbal aspects of this interchange.

Connotation

Th emotional associations of a term.

Credibility

The believability of a speaker or other source of information.

Defensive Listening

Taking innocent comments as personal attacks.

Denotation

The objective, emotion-free meaning of a term.

Empathetic Listening

Listening in which the goal is to help the speaker solve a problem

Environment

Physical location and personal history surrounding the communication.

Equivocal

Words that have more than one dictionary meaning.

Euphemism

A pleasant term substituted for a more direct, less pleasant term.

Evaluative Listening

Listening in which the goal is to judge the quality of accuracy of
speaker's remarks.

Focusing

Centering a client's thinking and feelings on the situation causing a
problem and assisting the person in choosing the behavior or
adjustment to solve the problem.

Illustrating

Detailed examples of adjustments, choices or alternatives available
to the client or counsel, from which a course of action may be selected.

Leading

Process of guiding and/or supervising the activities of an
organization to achieve plans and objectives.

Paraphrasing

Expressing a thought or idea in an alternate and sometimes shortened form.

Perception Checking

Asking for feedback about the accuracy of your listening.

Pitch

The highness or lowness of one's voice.

Pseudo Listening

Giving the appearance of listening.

Questioning

Asking questions to obtain or clarify information or to explore
feelings or thoughts.

Self-disclosure

The process of deliberately revealing information about oneself that
is significant and that would not normally be known by others.

Semantics

Deals with the meanings of words.

Summary

A brief review of points covered in a portion of the counseling
session or the summary at the close of the session.

Adaptation

The individual's ability to adjust to the psychological and emotional
changes brought on by a stressful event such as the death of a
significant other.

Affect

External expression of emotion.

At-Need

The process whereby a funeral director counsels with the family as
they select the services and times of merchandise in completing
arrangements for the funeral service of their choice after a death has occurred.

Congruence

According to client-centered counseling, the necessary quality of a
counselor being in touch with reality and with others perception of oneself.

Counselee

The individual seeking assistance or guidance.

Counselor

The individual providing assistance and guidance.

Counseling (Jackson)

Any time someone helps with a problem.

Counseling (Rogers)

Good communication within and between men; or good (free)
communication within or between men is always therapeutic.

Counseling (Ohlsen)

A therapeutic experience for reasonably healthy persons. Do not
confuse this with Psychotherapy w which is treatment for emotionally
disturbed persons, who seek, or are referred for assistance with
pathological problems.

Counseling (Webster)

Advice, especially that given as a result of consultation.

Crisis

A highly emotional temporary state in which an individual's feelings
of anxiety, grief, confusion, or pain impair his or her ability to act.

Crisis Counseling

Interventions for a highly emotional, temporary state in which
individuals, overcome by feelings of anxiety, grief, confusion or pain
are unable to act in a realistic, normal manner. Intentional responses
which help individuals in a crisis situation.

Directive Counseling

Counseling in which the counselor takes a live speaking role, asking
questions, suggesting course of action, etc.

Grief Counseling

Helping people facilitate grief to a healthy resolution.

Goals

Objectives or adjustments to be achieved.

Guidance

Support or support system provided to the counsel who is seeking an
alternative adjustment to problems.

Informational Counseling

Counseling in which a counselor shares a bodu of special information
with a counselee.

Informational Listening

Listening to understand another person or idea.

Mitigation

Any event, person or object that lessons the degree of pain in grief.

Non-directive (Client-Centered)

A phrase coined by Carl Rogers to refer to that type of counseling
where one comes actively and voluntarily to gain help on a problem but
without any notion of surrendering his own responsibility for the
situations; a non-directive method of counseling which stresses the
inherent worth of the client and the natural capacity for growth and health.

Post-Need Counseling (Aftercare)

Those appropriate and helpful acts of counseling that come after the funeral.

Pre-Need

Any funeral arrangements planned in advance of need whether or not
they include pre-payment. Generally divided into pre-arranged and pre-funded.

Rapport

A relation of harmony, conformity, accord or affinity established in
any human interaction.

Situational Counseling

Related to specific situations in life that may create crisis and
produce human pain and suffering. This type of counseling adds another
dimension to the giving of information in that it deals with
significant feelings that are produce by life crises.

Social function

An event which allows those who have something in common with each
other to deal with one-another in regard to that which they share.

Therapy

The treatment of psychological disorders or maladjustments by a
professional technique, as psychoanalysis, group therapy, or
behavioral therapy.

Unconscious

The region of the mind that is beyond awareness especially impulses
and desires not directly known to a person.