The psychological significance of the five stages of grief proposed by Kübler-Ross through natural semantic networks

Abstract

The aims of the study were: 1) to identify the psychological significance of the five stages of the grief process proposed by Kübler-Ross, and 2) to design a scale to measure the five stages of grief at the health loss from the obtained results. A test of free association of words from the natural semantic network technique was applied to a non-probabilistic intentional sample of 18 cancer patients and 12 primary caregivers. It was found that the word associations were consistent with the theoretical expectation. From these words and some theoretical considerations, 67 items were written. The items were subjected to the judgment of 9 experts. One item was removed and 19 were corrected. The results are discussed to clarify the content of the phases. Finally the 66-item Likert type Grief Stages Scale was presented for further psychometric study.