1
Interpersonal relationships
HC1: relationships and health
Aristotle: humans are social animals.
- Humans are cooperative in what they do and make.
- Humans have a social brain. Size of prefrontal cortex bigger = more
social. We need large brains to navigate interactions with other people
Humans are more pro-social than we often believe they are. Mostly in day to day
life.
Social relationships are strongly associated with our health.
Coyne: heart-failure study
Married men that have just had a heart attack. They got a survey about their
marriage. Then followed them the next four years and counted how many of
these men were still alive. The people with a happy marriage about 70 percent
survived. Under the unhappy married men only 45 percent survived. note: this
is correlational. (health can also impact relationships, but other studies do show
the impact of happy relationships on health).
Cohen et al: rhino-virus injection
Relationships support the immune system.
People with a weak immune system get the rhino-virus (verkoudheid) more easily
than people with strong immune system.
People with high social integration got the virus less often. People with low social
integration got sick more often.
Can the right relationship make you heal?
Research Gouin/Kiecolt-glaser:
- Make blisters on arm
- Level of constructive interaction between couples
- Wound healing
- Couples that were stressed were less likely to have healed wound than
people who had unstressed relationships
- Again: correlation.
Mortality risk:
1. Smoking
2. Barely any/bad social relationships
3. Alcohol consumption
, 2
Why is social integration associated with both physical and psychological well-
being?
- Lower amounts of stress leads to better healing
- Different resources.
- Social support! It can mean that people care for you, both physically and
emotionally.
How does social support help with health and well-being?
- Direct/main effect-hypothesis: social support makes people take better
care of themselves (less smoking, more exercises, heathy diet). Social
support directly influences health this way.
- Stress-buffering hypothesis: social support reduces stress under potentially
stressful circumstances. Stress directly related to health via cardio-vascular
and immune system.
Coan et al:
fMRI study: neurophysiological responses to anticipated pain red cross = 60%
chance of electric shock.
3 conditions: holding hand of romantic partner, holding strangers hand, no hand
held.
Less stress-related brain activity when hand is held, especially by the partner.
When the women were more happy with their relationship, the effect was even
better.
Marital strength and marital strain have direct effect on psych mechanisms, bio
mechanisms and health outcomes.
Outside stressors can be buffered by marital strength. Marital strain intensifies
stress by outside stressors.
Weak ties
It’s not only about close relationships
Weak ties: minimal social interactions, even with strangers, are associated with
psychological well-being.
We are hardly aware of this. People do not interact with each other very often,
even though it had a positive effect.
People who interact with a stranger on a train ride are much happier than people
who are in solitude/control condition.
- Why do people still prefer solitude?
Fear of rejection/hostility
We underestimate how interested others are in us
We underestimate how much others enjoy meeting us
, 3
We underestimate our ability to start and maintain a conversation
For a summary, see slide 27.
The need to belong
Baumeister & Leary:
- Evolved need to initiate and maintain relationships. Critical for survival.
Similar tot the need for food and water.
- They call this the need to belong.
Supporting the need to belong hypothesis:
- Changes in belongingness evoke strong effects
Immediate reactions to social exclusion (need-threat model):
- Ostracism threatens fundamental needs. Needs that are threatened by
social exclusion:
Lower sense of belonging
Loss of control
Lower sense of meaningfulness
Lower 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 a common gene
Similar psychological responses: both social and physical pain lead to loss of
control, lowered self-esteem, aggression, etc.
DeWall et al: Can we treat social pain with painkillers? Paracetamol or placebo.
People with the placebo showed more social pain during an activity during
exclusion/inclusion than people with paracetamol.
Social pain and physical pain dissimilarity:
- You can relive social pain. This is not really the case with physical pain.
Is there a relationship between social exclusion and aggression?
- Exclusion leads to aggression, on various indices of aggression.
- Interesting, because aggression does not seem like a good strategy to
become included. But aggression leads to more control and the need to be
seen (existence needs).
Interpersonal relationships
HC1: relationships and health
Aristotle: humans are social animals.
- Humans are cooperative in what they do and make.
- Humans have a social brain. Size of prefrontal cortex bigger = more
social. We need large brains to navigate interactions with other people
Humans are more pro-social than we often believe they are. Mostly in day to day
life.
Social relationships are strongly associated with our health.
Coyne: heart-failure study
Married men that have just had a heart attack. They got a survey about their
marriage. Then followed them the next four years and counted how many of
these men were still alive. The people with a happy marriage about 70 percent
survived. Under the unhappy married men only 45 percent survived. note: this
is correlational. (health can also impact relationships, but other studies do show
the impact of happy relationships on health).
Cohen et al: rhino-virus injection
Relationships support the immune system.
People with a weak immune system get the rhino-virus (verkoudheid) more easily
than people with strong immune system.
People with high social integration got the virus less often. People with low social
integration got sick more often.
Can the right relationship make you heal?
Research Gouin/Kiecolt-glaser:
- Make blisters on arm
- Level of constructive interaction between couples
- Wound healing
- Couples that were stressed were less likely to have healed wound than
people who had unstressed relationships
- Again: correlation.
Mortality risk:
1. Smoking
2. Barely any/bad social relationships
3. Alcohol consumption
, 2
Why is social integration associated with both physical and psychological well-
being?
- Lower amounts of stress leads to better healing
- Different resources.
- Social support! It can mean that people care for you, both physically and
emotionally.
How does social support help with health and well-being?
- Direct/main effect-hypothesis: social support makes people take better
care of themselves (less smoking, more exercises, heathy diet). Social
support directly influences health this way.
- Stress-buffering hypothesis: social support reduces stress under potentially
stressful circumstances. Stress directly related to health via cardio-vascular
and immune system.
Coan et al:
fMRI study: neurophysiological responses to anticipated pain red cross = 60%
chance of electric shock.
3 conditions: holding hand of romantic partner, holding strangers hand, no hand
held.
Less stress-related brain activity when hand is held, especially by the partner.
When the women were more happy with their relationship, the effect was even
better.
Marital strength and marital strain have direct effect on psych mechanisms, bio
mechanisms and health outcomes.
Outside stressors can be buffered by marital strength. Marital strain intensifies
stress by outside stressors.
Weak ties
It’s not only about close relationships
Weak ties: minimal social interactions, even with strangers, are associated with
psychological well-being.
We are hardly aware of this. People do not interact with each other very often,
even though it had a positive effect.
People who interact with a stranger on a train ride are much happier than people
who are in solitude/control condition.
- Why do people still prefer solitude?
Fear of rejection/hostility
We underestimate how interested others are in us
We underestimate how much others enjoy meeting us
, 3
We underestimate our ability to start and maintain a conversation
For a summary, see slide 27.
The need to belong
Baumeister & Leary:
- Evolved need to initiate and maintain relationships. Critical for survival.
Similar tot the need for food and water.
- They call this the need to belong.
Supporting the need to belong hypothesis:
- Changes in belongingness evoke strong effects
Immediate reactions to social exclusion (need-threat model):
- Ostracism threatens fundamental needs. Needs that are threatened by
social exclusion:
Lower sense of belonging
Loss of control
Lower sense of meaningfulness
Lower 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 a common gene
Similar psychological responses: both social and physical pain lead to loss of
control, lowered self-esteem, aggression, etc.
DeWall et al: Can we treat social pain with painkillers? Paracetamol or placebo.
People with the placebo showed more social pain during an activity during
exclusion/inclusion than people with paracetamol.
Social pain and physical pain dissimilarity:
- You can relive social pain. This is not really the case with physical pain.
Is there a relationship between social exclusion and aggression?
- Exclusion leads to aggression, on various indices of aggression.
- Interesting, because aggression does not seem like a good strategy to
become included. But aggression leads to more control and the need to be
seen (existence needs).
