The Self-Transacting Dying: Patterns of Social-Psychological Adaptation in Home Hospice Patients

Abstract

This study explored the perceptions and reactions of individuals as they dealt with the dying process. As part of a triangulated methodology, the grounded theory method recorded, coded, and analyzed the spontaneous responses of 97 adult home hospice patients. The central construct that emerged was self-transactions. The self-transacting dying was represented by higher and lower patterns of social-psychological integration that reflected the cognition, feelings, and meanings of one's death as well as the supportive others who sustained them. The seven patterns of the self-transacting dying were: transcending; becoming; reconciling; agonizing; avoiding; relinquishing; and repressing. Along with the seven patterns, the self-transactions included a core concept called the integrating forces. The integrating forces were the person/environment influences and a dialectical motion between positive and negative forces of these influences.