This document is a summary of all the lectures, including also the most relevant papers to be studied. It's very detailed and easy to understand. With this summary I scored a 9/10 on the exam!
Why is social integration associated with both physical and psychological well-being?
- social integration → social support → health and well-being
- social support = emotional (psychological) & instrumental (practical) support
- strongly correlated and often confounded
- eg. someone goes shopping for me when ill → instrumental or emotional?
- calibrated to needs of receiver
How?
- direct-effect hypothesis (main effect hypothesis)
- eg. social support makes people take better care of themselves (less smoking, more exercise,
healthier diet, etc.); social influence / norms
- experience more positive affect
- stress-buffering hypothesis
- social support reduces stress under potentially stressful circumstances
- stress (eg. cortisol) directly related to health via cardio-vascular and immune system
- study: less stress-related brain activity when hand is held, especially by partner
Strength and Strain Model of Marriage and Health
Paper: Not only ‘close’ relationships
- power of weak social ties
- eg. students interacting with classmates
- minimal social interactions, even with strangers, associated with better well-being, but we (people) are
hardly aware of this
Study
- on train ride, …
1. don’t talk to anyone
2. do as you would normally do
3. start a conversation
- why do people ‘choose’ solitude?
- people misunderstood consequences of social connection
- pluralistic ignorance = shared belief that others are not interested in connecting
- but: not only increases happiness in person seeking contact, also person whose contact was
sought
Conclusion
- having extensive social network strongly associated with people’s psychological and physical
well-being
- social support is key: has direct and indirect (stress-buffering) effect
- role of relationships on health and well-being is underestimated, by laypeople and psychologists alike
,Need to belong
evolved need to initiate and maintain relationships
- critical for survival
- similar to need for food and water
Supporting need to belong-hypothesis
1. Changes in ‘belongingness’ evoke strong effects
- inclusion / social integration = healthy and happy
- exclusion / loneliness = unhealthy and unhappy
2. Initiating social interactions seems innate + humans form social relationships really easily
- universal
- minimal group research → really easily identity with own group; criteria is relatively irrelevant
- mere proximity leads to relationships
- attachment literature
- innate focus on others (face perceptual system)
- 30 minutes old babies attended gaze more to faces than to other equally complex stimuli
Immediate reactions to ostracism (need-threat model)
- ostracism = exclusion from society or group
Ostracism threatens fundamental needs:
1. sense of belonging
2. control
3. sense of meaningfulness (being noticed)
4. self-esteem (sociometer theory)
Pain Overlap Theory
- similar neural systems involved in both social and physical pain
- sensitivity to both social and physical pain is linked by common gene
- similar psychological responses: both social and physical pain lead to loss of control, lowered
self-esteem, aggression, etc.
Research
- can we treat social pain with painkillers, developed for physical pain?
- participants took 3 weeks paracetamol or placebo
- study 1: report hurt feelings daily → significant decrease for paracetamol use
- study 2: brain scan during social exclusion → effects dampened due to paracetamol use
Dissimilarity social and physical pain
- physical pain: relived pain much lower than initial pain
- social pain: relived pain little lower than initial pain
Social exclusion and aggression
- exclusion leads to aggression, on several indices of aggression
When and why?
- role of control and existence (ie. meaningfulness) needs
- if given opportunity for reconnection: prosocial and not lead to aggression
What social exclusion can lead to
- in at 12 out of 15 school shootings, either chronic ostracism / exclusion (bullying) or acute exclusion
(eg. romantic breakup)
- Oklahoma BTK killer: ‘How many people do I have to kill before someone notices me?’
Need-threat Model of Ostracism
, Papers
Paper on Social Connection
Social connection as continuous and multifactorial
- structure = connection to others via existence of relationships and their roles
- eg. network size, marital status, cohabitation
- function = sense of connection that results from actual or perceived support or inclusion
- eg. perceived or received social support
- quality = sense of connection to others that is based on positive and negative qualities
- eg. relationship satisfaction, strain, ambivalence
→ low levels = risk and high levels = protection related to health
Social connection extends lifespan and social disconnection is associated with …
- physical health outcomes (eg. type 2 diabetes & susceptibility to cold viruses)
- health-related lifestyle behaviors
- psychological factors (eg. stress, depression, resilience, sense of purpose)
So: social connection is protective factor + social disconnection is risk factor for morbidity and mortality
Paper on Vitamin S
Interactions among strangers are benign, because …
- the situations are benign
- the strangers are often benign
- the gratification of social contact fulfills basic psychological needs
Interdependence theory describes 3 basic features of situations:
1. conflicts of interest
- people may experience conflicts of interest with one another, but other interactions provide
opportunities for mutual gain
2. mutual dependence
- people may be more or less dependent on one another in the pursuit of their own goals
3. relative power
- people may experience that someone else holds power over them or they may be the ones who
hold power
Added value of stranger interactions:
1. close others are often part of network of family members or friends
- strangers are far less likely to spread private information because they are unlikely to be part of
one’s social network
2. strangers are more likely to be dissimilar in their background, attitudes or opinions
- may yield gains in information and amusement or excitement
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