Social Ecology and Development Flashcards
What are the microsystems for personal relationship?
- Friendship
- Romantic relationships
- Family life
What is the definition of friendship in research?
- Mutual relationship where you can influence each others behavior and beliefs
- Friendship quality from satisfaction from the relationship
- Less emotionally intense
- Support and well-being
How does the social network look like for young adults?
- Large networks
- Big periphery
- Friends of friends
- Provide important info of transition to adulthood
How does the social network look like for middle adult?
- Smaller network
- Greater density, more reciprocated friendships
- Peripheral trimmed
- Friends of friends are the spouses friends
- Endurance of friendship despite less contact
- Friends with similar lifestyle
How does the social network look like for older adult?
- Even smaller number of friends
- More reduced contact
- Support via mutual care
What are the themes for friendship
Affective or emotional basis
- Self-disclosure, intimacy, support, appreciation
- Based on trust, loyalty or commitment
Shared interests
Sociability and compatibility
- Having fun together
What are 3 theories on engagement?
- Activity Theory
- Disengagement theory
- Socioemotional selectivity theory
Activity Theory
The more active we are in society, the longer we will live
- Based on cross-sectional data
- Not active = poor health
- With lower activity we have fewer friends
Disengagement Theory
Once you get older, you disengage from activity as it takes more resources from you
- Same data as activity theory
- Preparation for death
- Natural process that we shouldn’t interfere with
Socioemotional selectivity theory
Social contact is motivated by different goals, where information seeking, self-concept and emotional regulation play its part (differences across the ages)
- Lifespan theory of changes
- Emotional and social goals
- Young adult: information seeking
- Older adult: emotion regulation
- Both for middle adult
- Research support + older people are more selective and have fewer opportunities to make new friendship
- Disengagement due to higher level of stress
How does SST relate to SOC?
- Similar to SOC model
- Selection: of social network and interactions
- Optimizes: prioritising social relationships that are beneficial to us
- Compensates: flagging resources and difficulty handling stress
What are 3 differences between male and females when it comes to friendships?
- Relational basis
Females focus on shared intimacy, males on interests/activities - Network size
Females has larger networks - Expectations and effort
Females expect more
Battered woman syndrome
Occurs when a women believes she cannot leave the abusive situation/relationship and may go as for as to kill her abuser
- Learned helplessness
Should it be called battered woman syndrome?
- Stereotypes, males can get abused as well but will others believe them?
- Easier to find physical abuse than emotional or psychological abuse
- Most research based on relationship where male is the abuser
- Majority are heterosexual women
What micro and macro systems plays a role in battered women syndrome?
Micro-system
- Family
- Relationships
Macro-system
- Society
- Work
- Stereotypes
- Norms
Patriarchy, honor and chastity
How does the aggression progress in an abusive relationship?
- Verbal aggression
- Physical aggression
- Severe aggression (object or several beatings)
- Murder
Causes to each level - Abuse
Verbal aggression
- Need for control
- Misuse of power
- Jealousy
- Marital discord
Physical aggression
- Acceptance of violence
- Prior experience
- Alcohol/drugs
- Personality styles
Severe Aggression
- Personality disorders
- Emotional lability
- Poor self-esteem
In what 4 ways are older adults being mistreated by others?
- Financial or material exploitation
Older people funds, property or assets - Abandonment
By an individual who had physical custody or assumed responsibility - Neglect
Refusal or failure to fulfil the obligations toward the older adult - Self-neglect
Not from a mentally competent and healthy adult
How has singlehood changed through out the years?
- More common than before
- Males stay single longer
- Millennials might stay single to their 40s
- Ethnicity differences
How have the changes to singlehood affected single people and when is it a problem for someone?
- Stereotypes exists
Married couple= seen as warmer, get rental agreement more often - Women gets pressured to get married
- Cultural and religious belief
What kinds of cohabitation are seen across the world?
Living together but not getting married
- Premarital cohabitation; seen as a trial (most common in Sweden)
- Substitute marriage: long-term commitment
- Limited cohabitation: for convenience, share expenses and sexual accessibility
How does cohabitation look like around the world?
- Getting more common
- Millennials and older adults
- Often females
- Before marriage
- Sweden, part of its culture
Under what conditions is cohabiting related to relationship health?
The happiest cohabiting couples are the ones who are most similar to married couples
- Share financial responsibilities and child care
- Cohabiting does not equal to happy marriage
What are the measurement used when it comes to marriage?
- Marital success
Any marital outcome, divorce rate - Quality
Subjective evaluation - Adjustment
Changes or compromises made over time - Satisfaction
Global assessment
What predicts marital successions and satisfaction?
- Age of the couple
The younger the are, the lower the odds - Financial security and pregnancy
- Homogamy
How much both individuals values and interests are share within the couple - Exchange theory
How much they are contributing to the relationship, fair exchange?
What contributes to a successful relationship, when it comes to marriage?
- Respect for emotion
- Attitudes toward marriage
- Expression of love
- Interests
- Values
How does the marital satisfaction change over time?
- Overall satisfaction is the highest at the beginning, sometimes higher after retirement(health dependent)
- General downtrend after the start, most common when having kids(what kind of kid) and parenthood
- Uptrend after children leave home
- Vulnerability-stress-adaption model
Vulnerability-stress-adaption model
The marital quality is seen as a dynamic process, caused by peoples abilities to handle stressful event in life. Often regards to their particular vulnerabilities and resources.
- How do they handle problems together as a couple affect their quality
What are signs that a marriage is in trouble?
- How people handle conflicts and stress
- Financial struggle
- More arguments, and not solving them
- Higher negative feelings as a result of marital conflicts, or lack of positive emotion
Four horsemen Gottman - Ad Hominem attacks
- Contempt (single greatest predictor)
- Defensiveness, making excuses
- Stonewalling; dismissal, emotional wall
What are the psychological effects of divorce?
- A reminder of failure
- Unhappy or feeling low initially
- Divorce hangover
Inability to let go, form new friendships or reorient themselves as single parents(if having children) - Middle age or later: self-focused growth and optimism with their own initiation (females), otherwise rumination and feeling vulnerable
What are psychological effects of losing a spouse through death?
- A traumatic event
- Increased risk of dying, stay for years
- Loneliness, loss of family who do not know how to support, and feelings of loss (sometimes do not go over quickly)
- Increased self-esteem, knowing they can do things on their own
- Increased need for companionship (cohabiting)
What are some recent changes in parenthood?
- Single parents are typically more women
Fewer resources, may deal with negative feelings - Increase in step, foster and adoptive parenting
Extended family - Being older at the birth of first child
Women often focuses on their career first
Allow children to develop relations at their own pace
Foster relationships is most tenuous to shape - Having children later or no children at all
What are some changes in parenthood that have been seen across adulthood?
Transition to parenthood
- Most often in early adulthood
- Adjustment to needs of child
Midlife - Sandwich generation
- In-between two generations
- “launching” and “empty nest”
Elderly - cared for by children
- Dependency on others
- Source of stress for children
- Kinkeepers
Keep in touch
What are 4 conclusions researches have come to about grandparenthood?
- Becoming a grandparent is meaningful and linked with generativity, but its experience is shaped by the children
- Different ways of interacting with their children, change with time and age
- Seemingly more grandparents have taken the primary caretaker role for their grandchildren
- Ethnic/cultural differences
African American; story telling and religious talk, central role - Types of relationship: involved, compasionate and remote
