PSYC 2300H Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Circulatory System, Coronary Artery Disease, Allostatic Load
30 Jan 2018
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Social support: comfort, caring, esteem, help to a person from other people or groups. Received social support: actions actually performed by others. Perceived support: one"s sense (of perception) that comfort, caring and help are available if needed. Two main theories about why social support may impact your health. Buffering hypothesis: social support protects against negative effects of high stress. Only effective when there is a strong stressor. If low stress, social support isn"t really needed. When faced with strong stressor, someone with social support might not appraise it as intense (maybe someone they know will help them (think secondary appraisal) Social support might modify stress response after appraisal (maybe someone will help them change their appraisal). Ie. you are stressed and your friend helps calm you down. Direct hypothesis: social support benefits health regardless of the amount of stress. Effects are similar at low and high level of stress.
