By Jacob S. Sawyer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology at Penn State Mont Alto Many wonder if they are grieving the “right” way. This can be especially true for those who believe in a linear, stage model of grief. The most well known example of this is likely the Kübler-Ross model, which begins with denial […]

By Jacob Sawyer, Ph.D. Most know the phrase that nothing can be certain except death and taxes. However, despite the universal experience of loss, death, and grief, relatively little is known about specific factors that influence one’s experience during bereavement, at least from a scientific lens. Research around death and dying (or thanatology, as it […]

Do you ever get tired of hearing people say “Well, we don’t know what happens after someone dies”?  Or, “It’s not like anyone can come back to tell us what happens after we die, so we’re never going to know for sure”?  And then they use that as a justification for believing in their pet afterlife hypothesis: heaven or […]