Interpersonal Relationships Summary Lectures

Interpersonal Relationships Summary Lectures

Lecture 1:

Chapter 1 & 2

Why study relationships




 Contacted men in hospital after heart failure
 Fill in questions about relationship status (yes/ no) and about satisfaction
 Then follow for 4 years: are they still alive?
 High Marital satisfaction (above curve) = higher proportion alive




 Contacted 1000s of people (of all ages) & followed over course of 9 years
 Measured at beginning: level of social integration (“are you married”, “how many
friends”, etc.)



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,  Higher chance of dying when not integrated
 This effect stronger for men




 Infected students in lab with rhino virus
 Measured level of social integration
 Follow them over weeks: Did they become ill? (objective & self-reported measure)
 Higher chance of infection if not integrated (both measures




 Social Relationships almost as predictive as smoking

Why is social integration associated with both physical and psychological well-being?




 Because of Social support; a basic psychological mechanism, you need to be taken
care of.
 Emotional support
 Vs. Instrumental support: e.g. doing shopping for you when you’re ill; The two are
often highly correlated and even confounding. E.g. in the example above you also
experience it as emotional support
 Visible support: you experience it as support. Negative side effects: loss of autonomy,
dependency on supporter, victimization



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,  Vs. invisible support: you don’t experience it as support. This sometimes works better
(because not te negative side effects of visible support

These, however, aren’t explanations of how emotional support affects well being. There are
2 effects of how it does (Cohen & Wils, 1985):

1. Direct effect-hypothesis (Main effect hypothesis):
 Social support makes people take better care of themselves (less smoking,
more exercise, healthier diet, etc.)
 Experience more positive affect
2. Stress-buffering hypothesis:
 Social support reduces stress under potentially stressful circumstances
 Stress (e.g. cortisol) directly related to health via cardio-vascular and immune
system
 Evidence for this hypothesis: Lending a hand… (Coan et al., 2006)
o Fmri: pain, by electric shock
o Red X’s (then 20% of receiving another shock) vs. blue O’s on screen
o 3 different conditions:
 romantic partner holding hand
 Stranger holding hand
 No hand
 Less stress related activity when hand is held, especially by partner
 This effect stronger for women satisfied with the relationship

Slatcher (2010, 2016): Strength and Strain model of marriage & health




 Role of relationships (“Marital strength”) on health & well-being often
underestimated even by many psychologists

Conclusion so far:




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,  Having an extensive social network is stronglu associated with people’s psychological
and physical wellbeing
 Social support is the key; has a direct and indirect (stress-buffering) effect
 Role of relationships on health and well being underestimated by laypeople and
psychologists

The need to belong (Baumeister & Weary, 1995):

 Evolved need to initiate and maintain relationships; critical for survival; more than a
motivation
 Support for this hypothesis:

1. Changes in ‘belongingness’ evoke strong effects
 Inclusion/ social integration = healthy and happy; Exclusion/ loneliness =
unhealthy and unhappy
o Social rejection: Frisbee paradigm, first include person and then
suddenly not throw Frisbee at him anymore; good paradigm, since
everyone would feel rejected after this (= ostracism)
o Immediate reactions to ostracism:
 Lower sense of belonging
 Loss of control
 Lower sense of meaningfulness
 Lower self esteem (sociometer theory)
o These reactions take place no matter what, for example even when
you get rejected by a member of the KKK
2. Initiating social interactions seems innate + humans form social relationships really
easy
 Universal
 Minimal group research
 Mere proximity leads to relationships
 Attachment literature
 Innate focus on others (face perceptual systems eg babys gazing longer at
faces than other equally complex stimuli & seeing faces in objects)

Pain-overlap theory:

 Similar neural systems involved in both social and physical pain
 Sensitivity to both social and physical pain is linked to a common gene (OPRM-I)
 Similar psychological responses: both lead to loss of control, lowered self-esteem,
aggression etc.


 Eisenberger et al (2003):
o Ball tossing computer game (cyber ball game, similar to Frisbee)
o Leading to ostracism, with the same immediate responses as describes above



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