Learning Theory and Grief

Operant Conditioning and Grief Because grief is an emotional process, many people are reluctant to believe that grief can, in many ways, be explained through operant or classical conditioning principles. However, the biochemical underpinnings of many type of love relationships serve as reward systems that can actually condition a person to feel love, which can result in grief when the object of affection is no longer available.

In both sexual relationships and parent-child relationships, the body releases chemicals at certain times during the relationship- sexual intercourse, nursing, holding an infant, and hugging are all related to the body's release of hormones. Classical or operant conditioning principles suggest, then, that the presence of the loved one will, eventually be sufficient to stimulate the release of those hormones.

If the loved one resides with the person who has done the learning or spends sufficient time with them, then it seems clear that the person will develop a tolerance for the baseline level of hormone released in that person's presence, making the loved one much like an addiction. The absence of the loved one would result in a reduced levels of hormones in the system, which would mean levels that are below the new baseline.

These new levels, though they may be within the normal range for such hormones, would be lower than normal and may appear to be like depression, because they put a person below the baseline level that includes the loved-one. It should come as no surprise that many elements of grief are similar to the feelings described in depression. Furthermore, operant conditioning also helps explain why seemingly innocuous things can trigger grief or sadness.

Operant conditioning suggests that if a person sat in a certain chair, that chair would become a trigger for the presence of the person. Therefore, seeing the chair might trigger expectations that one would see the person, and, in the event of a death or other loss, those expectations would not be met. This would seem to contribute to grief because the expectation would not be met.

Moreover, because extinction can be difficult and because shared life experiences suggest that one would see familiar objects without the loved one at times prior to the death, it seems likely that these associations would linger, so that, even years later, one might feel the emotional impact of grief upon seeing an object that was highly associated with a loved one.

While operant and classical conditioning are components of learning theory, learning theory also encompasses social learning theory and social learning theory can play a tremendous role in how one processes grief. Social learning theory basically suggests that people learn from watching others, and, given how the overt acts of grieving differ from society to society, it certainly seems as if social learning is a component of the grieving process.

Social learning teaches people how to behave in the event of a loss, which would suggest that societies where death is a topic of discussion and where grieving is done in a public forum, rather than privately or in isolation, may result in people who are better able to quickly process grief. Social learning theory helps explain why certain communities continue to practice funeral procedures that no longer have a basis in.