Role of social support (man and cop)

• Types of social support

  • Social support =  i.e. support from friends, family, colleagues, etc = helps people deal with stress and lessen the effects of stressors
  • Types = instrumental, emotional, esteem
• instrumental support (practical and tangible)

  • physically doing something = eg giving someone a lift to the hospItal
  • Providing information = eg telling someone what you know about stress
• emotional support (concern and affection)

  • helping improve someone’s mood by providing care and comfort - it expresses warmth, concern, affection and sympathy
  • It isn’t intended to offer practical help, but to make the stressed person feel better/to life their mood
  • Eg = ‘I really feel for you’, ‘I’m sorry you’re going through a tough time’
• Esteem support = reinforce a person‘s faith in themselves

  • Esteem = refers to how we regard someone else
  • Esteem support reinforces someone’s faith in themselves and their ability to tackle a stressful situation
  • Increasing confidence reduces feelings of stress
• all 3 types of support are interrelated

  • There is overlap between these types of support
  • Eg being a ‘shoulder to cry on’ = involves all 3 types
  • Even practical instrumental support can help emotionally because of what it means to the individual who receives it, a sign of caring
  • All 3 can be provided without physical presence = emotional and esteem support are given every day over online social networks (eg facebook) or just by listening to someone on the TV
• Cohen et al, hugs as social support study (procedure)

  • 404 healthy adult pps = were telephoned every evening for 14 days to report how many hugs they’d received that day AND completed a questionnaire on perceived social support
  • Researchers placed pps in quarantine, exposed them to a common cold virus and monitored them for illness = stress acts as immunosupressant so we expect people who are more stressed to become ill
• Cohen et al, hugs as social support study (findings/conclusions)

  • pps who experienced most stress (interpersonal conflicts such as arguments) were most likely to become ill
  • Those who perceived they had greater social support had a significantly reduced risk of illness = hugs accounted for up to 1/3 of the protective effect of social support
  • pps who had the most frequent hugs were less likely to become infected (or symptoms were less severe)
  • Suggests that perceived social support is a buffer against stress
• strength = research confirming social support is useful

  • Fawzy et al = pps with skin cancer had emotional and instrumental support in a group (one session a week for 6 weeks)
  • 6 years later = these pps had better NK cell function and were more likely to be alive and cancer-free than control pps
  • Shows that there are substantial benefits to social support that last long after it is given
• Counterpoint to research support

  • After 10 years there was no benefit of support in terms of cancer recurrence, much weaker benefit for survival compared with earlier study
  • Suggests that social support can be beneficial, but such benefit gradually disappears over time
• limitation = social support doesn’t benefit men and women equally

  • Research shows women and men benefit from social support but in different ways - it depends on the type of social support
  • Luckow et al = reviewed studies showed that women used emotional support much more than men, but men did use instrumental support more
  • Suggests that me may only benefit from the support of others in certain circumstances
• limitation = support can have negative effects

  • Emotional support from friends/relatives/online is usually welcomed, but instrumental support from these sources can be unreliable
  • Even emotional support from a friend/relative can be unhelpful = eg they go with us to a hospital appointment and we feel more anxious
  • Suggests that social support is not universally beneficial but depends on many factors
• extra evaluation =support vs hardiness

  • Social support helps us cope with stress = eg Cohen et al showed direct benefits on immunity, it can also benefit both women and men
  • BUT support may be less beneficial then hardiness = Kobasa argued being hardy reduces stress, also doesn’t have negative effects like support can
  • => social support has an important role to play in coping with stress but its value may have been exaggerated