Sociocultural Explanations of Stress (HL IB Psychology)

 Social support

• Social support from friends and family is a protects health in several different ways that also link to the biological and cognitive explanations

• As Kiecolt-Glaser’s (1984) study showed, the exam-taking medical students with social support had more effective immune systems than those who were without support

• Social support and social contact enhance the physical benefits of oxytocin, including a steadier heart rate (McGonigal, 2013)

• Social relationships buffer the impacts of stress, and reduce the short- and long-term health consequences of stress, as ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’

• This sharing of problems with friends is connected to secondary appraisal of stress and our perceived ability and confidence to cope with it 

• Often, just knowing there are people to whom we could turn if needed is enough to reduce stress, without actually using their support

• Social support does not always have to be in person, as it can also be provided  through social media networks and talking on the phone, for example

• Culture can also be relevant to stress as research shows that acculturative stress among immigrants to a new culture is increased when there is a lack of social support (Lueck and Wilson, 2010)

Social support has been shown to reduce stress

Evaluation of social support

Strengths

• There is plenty of empirical evidence demonstrating the role of social support in reducing stress (see Kiecolt-Glaser,1984 for example)

• Both the cognitive appraisal model and the CATS model suggest that re-appraisal of the situation is vital for stress management, and research into social support shows how friends help with this

Limitations

• The idea that social support reduces stress does not account sufficiently for negative interactions with family and friends which could exacerbate or cause stress in the first place

• Social support does not account for individual differences: why do some people need and benefit more from social support than others?

Research which investigates sociocultural explanations of stress

• Brunet et al. (2013) found that establishing social support groups may help to reduce stress and promote an active lifestyle in adolescents and young adults treated for cancer

• Cohen et al. (2014) found that participants who received frequent hugs were less likely to get ill if deliberately infected with the common cold virus, and if they did, they had less severe symptoms

Both Brunet et al. (2013) and Cohen et al. (2014) are available as ‘Two Key Studies of Sociocultural Explanations of Stress’ – just navigate to the next section of the Sociocultural Explanations of Stress topic.