Social Support In Stress Coping Content

Question 1

What is social support?

Answer 1

The help given by friends and family members to assist a person in coping with a stressful situation

Question 2

Are friends and family always good social support?

Answer 2

No, they can often be sources of stress depending on the quality of the relationship with friends and family

Question 3

What is the main source of social support and what is the study to back it up?

Answer 3

Having a general safety net of relationships e.g a ‘shoulder to cry on’
Nabi et al (2013) - surveyed 400 undergraduate Facebook users and found that there was an association between number of friends and higher perception of social support = lower stress = less physical illness
- it seems as though having more friends the better

Question 4

Which study shows what happens when there isn’t a very large net of relationships?

Answer 4

Dickinson et al (2011) - suggested that older people cannot cope with stress very well due to their reduced social contact, especially in care homes and deaths, contributing to their ill health

Question 5

What are the three types of social support and who came up with them?

Answer 5

Schaefer et al (1981)
. Instrumental support
. Emotional support
. Esteem support

Question 6

Who are able to provide the three types of social support?

Answer 6

Your social network of friends and family (if good relationships)

Question 7

What is instrumental support?

Answer 7

. Offering tangible (physical) and practical assistance, such as providing money. This is a problem-focused approach to coping with stress as the focus of coping is on doing something. Empathising and giving practical advice and feedback on the situation.
‘Trying to figure out the problem and be helpful’

Question 8

What is emotional support?

Answer 8

The emotion-focused coping form of support, where another person has the emotional intelligence to understand the associated emotions of the stressed person and address the needs, such as providing comforting statements like ‘I’m here for you.’ Gives advice and guidance based on the emotional needs of the stressed individual

Emotional intelligent form of social support

Question 9

What is esteem support?

Answer 9

Trying to raise the stressed persons self confidence by making them feel better about themselves such as explaining example of situations where they have dealt with similar levels of stress in the past, allowing them to believe that they can cope with the stressor.

‘You’ve fought this before, you can fight it again’ sort of thing

Question 10

Are the different kinds of social support clearly distinct categories?

Answer 10

No, there is a lot of overlap between the types of support e.g:
. In esteem support, you try to point out times a similar stressor has been dealt with before. This seems like also giving practical advice which is more instrumental support, or it may be a response associated to the emotional response of the stressed individual, which is more emotional support.

Question 11

Is physical presence needed to provide social support?

Answer 11

No, it can be provided through social networks such as talking over the phone

Question 12

What is esteem support most likely to be unique to?

Answer 12

Close relationships as you’d know how to raise the stressed persons self-esteem best

Question 13

What is self-esteem/self-appraisal

Answer 13

The way you value yourself

Question 14

What are the two explanations for the effects of social support?

Answer 14

. Buffering hypothesis
. Direct physiological effects

Question 15

What are the direct physiological effects of social support?

Answer 15

Direct effect on the activity of the autonomic nervous system, allowing you to return to a state of homeostasis easier and increasing relaxation

Question 16

What does the buffering hypothesis suggest about social support?

Answer 16

Social support is especially important at times of stress but not necessarily at other times. During stress, friends protect an individual from the negative effects of stress and help friends think about stress differently.

Question 17

Which piece of research supports the direct effect of social support on decreasing the physiological stress response?

Answer 17

Cohen et al (2015): aimed to investigate whether physical contact through hugs (social support) protected against physical stress-related health problems

Question 18

What was the procedure of Cohen et al 2015?

Answer 18

. 404 health adults, contacted by phone each day for 14 days to measure amount of hugs received each day
. Completed a questionnaire to assess perceived social support, and stress was measured by assessing the daily personal conflict experienced by participants.
. Participants were exposed to the common cold virus and monitored for signs of illness

Question 19

What were the findings and conclusion of Cohen et al 2015?

Answer 19

. Participants who experienced more interpersonal conflict were more likely to get ill, however those who reported more social support had a reduced risk of illness.
. Participants who received hugs more frequently were less likely to get ill, and those who did get ill had less severe symptoms if they received more hugs.

This suggests that social support does act as a protector against the effects of stress.

Question 20

What did Fawzy et al 1993 find about the effects of emotional support?

Answer 20

Cancer patients randomly allocated to a support group for 6 weeks, providing them with emotional support, were more likely to have better NK cell functioning and be free of cancer six years later, than a control group