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Cited by 34Grief, Bereavement, and Mental HealthDeath Anxiety and Social ExclusionDeath, Funerary Practices, and Mourning

The push and pull of grief: Approach and avoidance in bereavement

Maccallum, Fiona, Sawday, Simon, Rinck, Mike, Bryant, Richard A.·2015·Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
DOI 10.1016/j.jbtep.2015.02.010
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Abstract

Background and objectives Prolonged Grief (PG) is recognized as a post-bereavement syndrome that is associated with significant impairment. Although approach and avoidance tendencies have both been hypothesized to play key roles in maintaining PG symptoms, understanding of these relationships has been limited by a reliance on self-report methodology. This study applies an experimental paradigm to simultaneously investigate the relationship between PG severity and approach-avoidance behavioral tendencies.Methods Fifty-five bereaved individuals with and without PG completed a behavioral measure of approach and avoidance responding in which they pulled or pushed a joystick in response to grief-related, positive, negative and neutral images that appeared on a computer screen. Concurrent visual feedback created the illusion that the images were either approaching or receding from the participant. Half of the participants also received a prime designed to activate their grief prior to the task.Results Irrespective of prime condition, PG participants pulled grief-related images more quickly than they pushed them. This difference was not observed in response to non-grief related images. Non PG participants showed no difference in their reaction times to grief-stimuli.Limitations This study was undertaken in a nonclinical setting and the majority of participants had lost a loved one due to chronic illness. Future research with treatment-seeking populations and sudden loss will be needed to explore the generalizability of the findings.Conclusions The findings from this study provide preliminary evidence supporting models of PG that integrate approach and avoidance tendencies.

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  • Prolonged grief disorder involves both approach tendencies towards reminders of the deceased and avoidance of these reminders as a strategy to minimize associated emotional distress.

    “It seems that prolonged grief disorder involves both approach tendencies towards reminders of the deceased and avoidance of these reminders as a strategy to minimize the associated emotional distress 108,109 .”

    From Emerging experience with selected new categories in the <scp>ICD</scp>‐11: complex <scp>PTSD</scp>, prolonged grief disorder, gaming disorder, and compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (2022) · cites this paper as [108]

  • Maccallum et al. (2015) did not show that the complicated grief group had significantly larger differences between push-pull difference scores than the non-complicated-grief group.

    “However, this study did not show that the CG group had significantly larger differences between push-pull difference scores than the non-CG group.”

    From Emotion Regulatory Strategies in Complicated Grief: A Systematic Review (2021) · cites this paper as Maccallum et al. (2015)

  • Maccallum et al. (2015) found that people with complicated grief pushed grief stimuli more slowly than non-complicated-grief participants, and that people with complicated grief were faster at pulling grief stimuli towards them than pushing them away.

    “Maccallum et al. (2015) found that people with CG pushed grief stimuli more slowly than non-CG participants, and that people with CG were faster at pulling grief stimuli towards them than pushing them away.”

    From Emotion Regulatory Strategies in Complicated Grief: A Systematic Review (2021) · cites this paper as Maccallum et al. (2015)

  • Findings on approach and avoidance tendencies in complicated grief are mixed, comprising positive associations, null results, and negative associations.

    “Yu et al., 2017), sometimes null-results (Eisma, Rinck, et al., 2015), and sometimes negative associations (Maccallum et al., 2015).”

    From Emotion Regulatory Strategies in Complicated Grief: A Systematic Review (2021) · cites this paper as Maccallum et al., 2015

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Authors
Maccallum, F., Sawday, S., Rinck, M., & Bryant, R. A.
Affiliations
  • UNSW Sydney (AU)
  • Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
Corresponding author
Maccallum, Fiona
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015-09
Volume
48
Pages
105-109
ISSN
0005-7916 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jbtep.2015.02.010
OpenAlex
W2060331481
Cited by
34
References
34
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 1
FWCI
3.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
National Health and Medical Research Council (568970, 123175)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
Keywords
prolonged grief disorder, bereavement, approach-avoidance behavior, reaction time, sudden loss
MeSH terms
Adult, Bereavement, Female, Grief, Humans, Male, Young Adult

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