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Comprehensive college notes Interpersonal Relationships
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College notes from the Interpersonal Relationships course.
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HOORCOLLEGES INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPSHOORCOLLEGE 1
Heart-failure study: All the males in this experiment, had heart-failures
and were admitted in the hospital. Males who were in a happy marriage,
74% was still alive after four years. Males who were in a unhappy
marriage, 45% was alive after four years.
A classic: Berkman and Syme study (1979). People who were the least
socially integrated, the mortality rates were much higher.
Relationships support the immune system, this was supported by the
experiment of Cohen et al. (1997): rhino-virus injection. People who were
high social integrated, got less sick of the rhino-virus injection.
So why study relationships? The experiments above describe that the
mortality rates are lower for people with good and a lot of relationships.
Besides, social relationships are a better predictor for mortality rates
compared to smoking, alcohol consumption, etc. But, this is not believed
by people. When asked what the most important mortality risk factor is,
social relationships are ranked very low.
WHY IS SOCIAL INTEGRATION ASSOCIATED WITH BOTH PHYSICAL AND
PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING?
Answer: Social support. There are different types of emotional support:
emotional support and instrumental support. Instrumental support is
practical support, for example, when you are sick and someone does the
groceries for you. Emotional support is support on a more psychological
level.
Direct effect-hypothesis (main effect hypothesis): If you have a
supported network, and socially integrated, these people take better care
of themselves. Social support makes people to take better care of
themselves (less smoking, more exercise, healthier diet, etc). Social
influence/norms. These people experience more positive affect.
Stress-buffering hypothesis: Social support does not directly affect our
health, but it is depending on the circumstances. Social support reduces
stress under potentially stressful circumstances. Social support can take
away the negative effects of stress. Stress (cortisol) is directly related to
health via cardio-vascular and immune system, but the social support is
indirectly related.
One experiment that test the stress-buffering hypothesis is the lending a
hand experiment. This is a fMRI study and the neurophysiological
,responses to anticipated pain are studied. The participants saw a red
cross or a blue circle. The experimenters said that the red cross is
associated with a very big chance of receiving a shock. There were three
conditions: holding hand of romantic partner, holding hand of stranger,
or no hand was hold, while anticipating a hurtful electric shock. The
results show that there is less stress-related brain activity when hand is
held, especially by the partner. This effect was stronger when the
participants were in a satisfied relationship with the romantic partner.
STRENGTH AND STRAIN MODEL OF MARRIAGE AND HEALTH:
SHORT SUMMARY
Having an extensive social network strongly associated with
people’s psychological and physical well-being.
Social support is key: has a direct and indirect (stress-buffering)
effect.
Role of relationships on health and well-being being
underestimated, by laypeople and psychologists alike.
THE NEED TO BELONG
Humans do have an evolved need to initiate and maintain relationships.
This is critical for survival. This is similar to the need for food and water.
Supporting the need to belong-hypothesis:
Changes in ‘belonginess’ evoke strong effects:
o Inclusion/social integration = healthy and happy
, o Exclusion/loneliness = unhealthy and unhappy
Initiating social interactions seems innate + humans form social
relationships really easily.
o It is universal; all people over the world form social
interactions.
o Minimal group research: People immediate start to form
social interactions within their own group. Hereby, there is an
in-/out-group distinction seen.
o Mere proximity leads to relationships.
o Attachment.
o Innate focus on other people (face perceptual system).
New-born babies looked significantly longer to faces
compared to non-faces.
NEED-THREAT MODEL
Immediate reactions to ostracism: need-threat model.
Ostracism threatens fundamental needs:
o Lower sense of ‘belonging’.
o Loss of control.
o Lower sense of meaningfulness.
o Lower self-esteem (sociometer theory).
PAIN OVERLAP THEORY
Pain overlap theory:
Similar neural systems involved in both social and physical pain.
Sensitivity to both social and physical pain is linked by a common
gene.
Similar psychological responses: Both social and physical pain lead
to loss of control, lowered self-esteem, aggression, etc.
Can we treat social pain with painkillers, developed for physical pain?
Participants took three weeks long paracetamol or a placebo. Study 1:
Report ‘hurt feelings’ daily. Study 2: Brain scan during social exclusion.
Results: paracetamol reduced social pain too. So, this is evidence for the
pain overlap theory.
DISSIMILARITIES BETWEEN SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL PAIN
Physical pain is especially felt for the short term, social pain still is
present a long time after the situation occurred.
When breaking your knee, the initial pain is very high, but after five
years this pain is gone. You do not feel this pain in your knee
, anymore. When thinking about a social situation where you got
hurt, the initial pain is approximately as high as physical pain. But
the difference is that the relived pain is much higher after a time,
compared with physical pain.
IS THERE A RELATION BETWEEN SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND AGGRESSION?
After people are excluded, people tend to behave in a much more
aggressive and anti-social manner. This seems to contradict each other.
When acting aggressive, the people see you. And this got lost when the
person got excluded. The people get a sense of control back. If you give
people an opportunity to reconnect, the people tend to behave in a
prosocial manner.
Social exclusion can lead to school shootings: In at least 12 of 15 school
shootings, the perpetrator perceived either chronic ostracism/exclusion
(bullying), or acute exclusion (e.g., romantic break-up).
SUMMARY: NEED-THREAT MODEL OF OSTRACISM
CONCLUSION
Humans are social animals.
The need to belong underlies much of our actions and decisions in
our life.
HOORCOLLEGE 2
EVOLUTION
The three basic principles of evolution are:
1. Variation
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