ABSTRACT
Despite distress associated with grief and bereavement, “people also experience positive psychological states during caregiving and bereavement” and these states are common (Folkman, 1997, p. 2207). The Dual Process Model of coping with bereavement draws attention to restorative coping as a necessary companion to loss-oriented coping in understanding how people adapt to and reconstruct their lives in the aftermath of significant loss (Stroebe & Schut, 2010). Bonanno (2004) suggests multiple pathways to resilience, such as the use of humor, laughter and positive emotion. In coping with bereavement, it is important to focus on an individual’s “regulatory flexibility”: the ability to employ a range of strategies (Bonanno & Burton, 2013). In a study by Lund, Utz, Caserta, and de Vries (2008), recently widowed men and women over the age of 50 found “that most bereaved spouses rated humor and happiness as being very important in their daily lives” and were experiencing these emotions more often than expected (p. 87). Moreover, “humor, laughter and happiness” were associated strongly with favorable bereavement adjustment outcomes (p. 2).
