The psychological meaning of duel from natural semantic networks

Abstract

The objective of the study was to evaluate the psychological significance of grief in people who have suffered a close loss, through the technique of semantic networks. 120 volunteers participated (74 women 48 men), age from 18 to 81 year old. The Network Size, Network Core, Semantic Weight and Semantic Distance were obtained. Some words that define grief are: pain, sadness and loneliness, but it also related to acceptance and heal learning. Due to the loss of the loved one, people cry, weep and think about hope and family. The results indicate that when there is loss of an affective bond with another person, the mourners perform cognitions, affections and behaviors nuanced with separation anxiety and affective loss that coincide with what Bowly and different authors propose. However, in this sample a positive meaning to mourning, is also given in which another research of this type is not concerned, and that may be a feature of the culture in which the sample is immersed.