Chapter 9: Communicating and Supporting

Question 1

Direct support-seeking behaviours

Answer 1

Involve verbally asking for help
- e.g., an individual in distress may directly solicit help from the partner by talking about the problem
- e.g., indirectly, a person may show distress and convey a need for help through crying, furrowing their brow, making eye contact, etc.

Question 2

Indirect support-seeking behaviour

Answer 2

It may be verbal or nonverbal.
- Indirect verbal tactics for activating the caregiver include complaining about a situation or hinting that a problem exists without directly requesting assistance from the partner; indirect nonverbal strategies include subtly displaying negative affect of personal distress by sighing, sulking, or fidgeting.

Question 3

Emotional Support Behaviours

Answer 3

When faced with a partner in distress, an individual may display verbal and nonverbal behaviour that communicates warmth, empathy, and concern, such as expressing caring and closeness and listening to the partner in a nonjudgmental and nurturing manner.

Question 4

Appraisal Support / Esteem Support

Answer 4

Is closely related to emotional support and is often subsumed into that category; this type of support involves communication that bolster, validate, and affirm the partner’s sense of self-worth and competence.

Question 5

Informational Support

Answer 5

Such as giving advice, asking questions, or conveying information that helps the partner to better understand and cope with the stressful event or situation.

Question 6

Instrumental Support / Tangible Support

Answer 6

Involves the provision of material aid

Question 7

Companionship

Answer 7

Refers to providing comfort by spending time with, and being present for, the distressed partner.

Question 8

Negative Support

Answer 8

Includes verbal or nonverbal actions that deny, dismiss, or minimize the situation, assign blame to the partner, or discourage the partner from displaying negative emotion or seeking assistance.

Question 9

Which types of support are most helpful?

Answer 9

• emotional support is most likely to alleviate distress, increase well-being, and produce other positive outcomes
• three most helpful types of supportive actions involved the provision of emotional support, providing opportunities or the bereaved person to express their feelings, and offering supportive companionship
• informational and negative support behaviours were perceived as particularly unhelpful; providing advice is the least helpful
• those who received emotional support on any given day often experienced increases in mood states indicative of depression
• the act of being supported by an intimate partner was associated with subsequent reductions in participants’ well-being
• When participants were not aware that support had been provided, they had a decrease in depressed feelings
• relationship satisfaction is significantly correlated with both perceived and enacted support

Question 10

Perceived Support

Answer 10

The perception that social support is available from the partner should it be needed and may have stronger links to wellbeing than received support

Question 11

Recieved Support / Enacted Support

Answer 11

Refers to the actual receipt of support from others

Question 12

Invisible support

Answer 12

Support that is actually received by the recipient but that occurs without their awareness processed the most positive benefit and is the more effective form of support transaction

Question 13

Relationships and support

Answer 13

• participants who received emotional support from their partners were more likely to provide emotional support on that same day and a similar pattern was seen with instrumental and practical support
• suggests that partners pay attention to issues of equity and reciprocity
• often times, when a partner is struggling, the other will hold onto their negative feelings, which places them in a state of conflict characterized by feelings of ambivalence, confusion, and discomfort - which prevents them from providing effective support

Question 14

Personal factors and support

Answer 14

• saddened people are often so self-focused that they fail to notice that their partners need support; they are more likely to help when they have a positive emotion
• securely attached people respond more favourably to emotional support than do insecurely attached individuals; and they provide more responsive and sensitive care to their partners, view social support as more readily available, perceive their partners as more effective caregivers, and are more likely to seek support for themselves when needs
• women = support-seeking behaviour; secure women more than avoidant
• e.g., anxious, secure women would seek help as their anxiety increased, and more secure men offered more support than avoidant men
• an individuals attachment style interacts with the situational context
• negative affectivity was negatively correlated with providing positive instrumental support to the helpee

Question 15

Sex differences and support

Answer 15

• women engage in more conversational maintenance and conversational equality by including others in the conversation, expressing support, and demonstrating responsiveness; they also tend to speak about personal topics, have more self-disclosure, and intimacy, and provide more support than men
• heterosexual couples = women provide more comfort and helpful support to their partners and are more responsive to their partners changing needs for support than men
• men are more likely to maintain conversational dominance by rerouting the conversation to their own interests and agendas, interrupting others, and expressing themselves forcefully and authoritatively
• men viewed person-centred messages as the most effective and supportive way of helping someone in emotional distress, however, they viewed these communicative behaviours as a particularly feminine form of conduct; they also viewed other men who displayed these behaviours as atypical (i.e., aligned with the normative motivation account, men viewed these studies possessed the knowledge that person-centred communication the most helpful but thought it was a non-masculine way to behave)
• men are also less likely to provide solace and other sensitive and sophisticated person centered forms of support to another man to a women
• women are more likely to produce highly-person centred messages when comforting another person in distress

Question 16

Different Cultures Thesis

Answer 16

Men and women approach relationships from different cultural perspectives and adopt different standards, values, and beliefs concerning their close relationships.
- women are more socialized to value interdependence, establish intimacy through self-disclosure and effective communication, and pursue communal goals within their close relationships
- men are more socialized to value independence, establish intimacy through shared activities and maintain power and autonomy in their close relationships
- women focus on intimacy, men focus on independence
- HOWEVER: men and women are more similar than they are different in their provision of, and response to, supportive communication
- RESULTS: show very few sex differences; men give more advice, women give more affirmations

Question 17

Person-centeredness

Answer 17

The extent to which the message explicitly acknowledged, elaborated, and legitimated the feelings and perspective of the friend in distress
- RESULTS: released that both men and women evaluated messages that were highly person-centred much more positively than they did messages that were low in person-centeredness

Question 18

Differential Ability / Differential Skill Account

Answer 18

Suggests that men and women hold similar views and expectations about communication, intimacy, and social support and approach their intimate relationships with similar goals and values. Still, over the course of socialization, women acquire more of the skills needed to produce behaviour that fulfills those expectations and meet those goals.

Question 19

Normative motivation account

Answer 19

In addition to possessing different communicative abilities, men and women may also possess differential motivation to engage in emotionally supportive and intimate forms of communication; this account recognizes that the provision of social support in contemporary American society is viewed as a feminine activity by both men and women; most people are motivated to behave in accordance with the norms and expectations associated with their social roles.