Interpersonal relationships
Lecture Summary
Week 1
WHY STUDY RELATIONSHIPS ?
Humans are social animals
Behaviour influenced by others, specific brain regions for social interactions.
Relationships are strongly related to mental and physical health.
Coyne et al., 2001: Found that men who had a heart failure and were in a happy marriage were alive
after more months than those in an unhappy marriage. Of course, no causality.
Berkman and Syme 1979: social integration so relationship, friendships (low/high) people were
followed for years and then looked whether they were still alive. Chances of dying are higher for
those with a low level of integration. Significant and huge effect.
Cohen et al. 1997 found that relations support the immune system. The higher social integration, the
lower the chances of becoming sick from a virus given to you.
Lacking social relationships is similar to smoking in the effect it has on mortality. Perceived ranking of
impacts and the actual ranking differ, relationships are often not seen as a strong factor.
Why is social integration associated with both physical and psychological well-being?
Social social Health and
Integration support well-being
SOCIAL SUPPORT
- Emotional support -> psychological resources, rely on others
- Instrumental support -> practical things others do (e.g., drive you somewhere)
- Calibrated to the needs of the receiver
,Cohen and Wils (1985):
- Direct affect hypothesis (main effect hypothesis)
o if you have support system, you also take better care of yourself
o experience more positive affect since they have support (more happiness)
- Stress-buffering hypothesis
o Social support doesn’t directly affect health, but it depends on the circumstances.
Only when we experience a lot of stress, social support helps reduce them
o Stress (e.g., cortisol) is directly related to health via the cardiovascular and immune
system
Cohen et al., 2006:
- fMRI study looking at neurophysiological responses to anticipated pain
- female participants who were in a relationship
- Either saw red cross or blue circle on the screen, red cross shown then 17% chance of electric
shock
- Every time a red cross appeared stress peaked
- Three conditions in the study:
o Holding hand of the partner
o Holding hand of a stranger
o No hand holding
- Less stress-related brain activity when holding hands especially that of the partner
- Those more satisfied with the relationship, the effect of handholding was much stronger
STRENGTH AND STRAIN MODEL OF MARRIAGE AND HEALTH
,Summarised:
Having an extensive social network is strongly associated with people’s psychological and physical
well-being
Social support is key, it has a direct and indirect stress buffering effect
Role of relationships on health and wellbeing
THE NEED TO BELONG
People need to belong, to initiate and maintain relationships which this is critical for survival. It is
similar to the need for food and water
SUPPORTING FACTORS FOR THE THEORY :
Changes in belongingness evoke strong effects:
- Inclusion/social integration = healthy and happy
- Exclusion/loneliness = unhealthy and unhappy
Initiating social interactions seems innate and humans form social relationships really easily
- Social interactions and relationships are universal
- Minimal group paradigm: based on random criteria create groups, people almost
immediately identify with their group
FACE PERCEPTUAL SYSTEM
Baby taken from mother, shown boards with no face, face or scrambled face. At 30min old, babies
already recognise the face layout as they prefer face boards
Frisbee throwing and bus drive paradigm
Someone is excluded from an activity/chat
What happens?
Ostracism (being excluded) threatens fundamental needs
- Lower sense of belonging
- Loss of control
- Lower sense of meaningfulness (closely related to ties with others, if others don’t notice you,
life is pretty meaningless)
- Lower self-esteem (we want a good self-image; sociometer theory -> level of self-esteem is
indicator of how much we are included in groups and the social world)
PAIN OVERLAP THEORY
Says that social pain overlaps with physical pain. Why?
, - Similar neural systems are 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,
aggression and lowered self-esteem
Thus, can social pain be treated with physical painkillers?
- Study with 3 weeks of paracetamol or placebo
- Study 1 they reported their hurt feelings each day
- Study 2 (look up in slides
People who took paracetamol had significant reduction in level of hurt feeling. So painkillers also
seemed to kill social pain
INITIAL PAIN VS RELIVED PAIN
When asked about physical pain, there is a huge difference between initial and then relived pain.
However, social pain was remembered more strongly.
AGGRESSION AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION
Social exclusion leads to aggression
But why and when?
The role of control and existence needs play a role
By showing aggression you regain a sense of control and being seen by others
If you give people a sense of control, they react less aggressive. If people are excluded and then
afterwards given an opportunity to reconnect, they act more prosocial since they have the
opportunity to regain their sense of connectedness
School shootings
In at least 12 of 15 school shootings, there is either chronic ostracism/exclusion (bullying) or acute
exclusion (e.g., romantic break-up)
