Social Suport With Copying With Stress

Question 1

What is social support

Answer 1

• Support from family, friends and work colleges
• the more support the the better able to cope with stressful situations
• lack of support lead to no being able cope and depression

Question 2

4 types of support

Answer 2

• Emotional support
• esteem support
• informational support
• instrumental support

Question 3

Emotional support

Answer 3

• physical comfort eg hugs/talking to friends

Question 4

Esteem support

Answer 4

• expression of confidence or encouragement
• offering support may point out strengths or that they believe in you

Question 5

Informational support

Answer 5

• advice giving or in gathering and sharing information

Question 6

Instrumental support

Answer 6

• tangible support
• taking responsibility for someone else so they can deal with a problem
• taking an active stance to help someone manages there problems
• eg bringing u dinner when sick

Question 7

2 ways of explaining the effect of social support

Answer 7

The buffering hypothesis and direct physiological effects

Question 8

The bufferin hypothesis

Answer 8

• Social support important in time stress but not necessarily at other times
• friends help protect against negative effect of stress as they change the persons negative way of thinking about stressor

Question 9

Direct physiological effects

Answer 9

• social support positive effect of ANS slow it down possibly increasing relaxation

Question 10

Key study

Answer 10

Kamarck et al
Aim:
See if social support helped in stressful situations

Procedure:
- 39 females psych student volunteers
- perform a difficult mental task while physiological reactions were mounted
- attended alone or with same sex friend
- friend told to touch ptps wrist
- fired has to do the same task to prevent ptp feeling evaluated by friend

Finding:
Ptps who had friends showed lower physiological reactions than those alone

Conclusion
- emotional support has direct physiological effect of reducing stress
- importance of social support

Question 11

Strengths

Answer 11

Pets can provide support
- Allen = found the presence of pets reduced blood pressure in children reading aloud and helped elderly cope with major life event reduced risk of cardio vascular disorders
- suggest explanation for the emotional benefits of ss might be more due to not feeling alone taker than direct psychological effect

Question 12

Weaknesses

Answer 12

Lack of consistency in types of ss
- not a universal agreement about where to draw the line between different types of ss
- house = suggest that esteem support is part of emotional support whereas other researchers only make a distinction between instrumental and emotional
- categorisation not useful as lacks consistency

Ss not always beneficial
- research reviewed studies on martial relations and found that ss didn’t alwasy result in benefits in terms of physical and psychological health
- benefits depends on quality of relationships