Best Answer
In Santrock’s Essentials of Life-Span Development, 7e, the authors address death, dying, and grieving in Chapter 17. They discuss death and grief in many terms, from clinical definitions to the stage of death in term of lifespan development. They focus on lifespan from the perspective of several different theorists, but there is significant overlap in theories, especially in Western theories about death, dying, and grief.
Summary- In this section, you want to summarize what the book contains about this section of the lifespan. We suggest focusing on the various theories in your summary and including the differences and similarities in those theories. By focusing on differences, you will be prepared for both analysis and application. That is because the differences help determine which approach you will choose, and the approach you choose dictates your analysis.
Analysis- The analysis section is not an analysis of your specific example, which you will mention in the application section, but instead an analysis of the various theories. Do you find any parts of the theories to be problematic? Do they contrast with your personal experience of death, dying, or grief? Do they contrast with objective research about the topic? In this section, you want to look at whether the theory, itself, seems valid.
Application- Death, dying, and grief are universal experiences. In the application section, you can discuss how the theories reflect (or fail to reflect) an individual experience with them. The experience can be yours, personally, or derived from a case study. Because of the relatively short essay format of the question, a personal approach would be more logical. By using your own experience with death and grief, you can personally speak to whether or not you find the various theories to be applicable.
