REDUCING THE POTENTIAL FOR STRESS:Enhancing Social Support

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Health Psychology PSY408

Lesson 21

REDUCING THE POTENTIAL FOR STRESS

Can people become "immune" to the impact of stress to some extent? Some aspects of people's lives can

reduce the potential for stressors to develop and help individuals cope with problems when they occur.

Prevention is the first line of defense against the impact of stress. We will look at several ways people can

help themselves and others prevent and cope with stress. The first approach makes use of the beneficial

effects of social support.

Enhancing Social Support

We have all turned to others for help and comfort when under stress at some time in our lives, if you have

ever had to endure troubled times on your own, you know how important social support can be. But social

support is not only helpful after stressors appear, it also can help avert problems in the first place. Consider,

for example, the tangible support newly-weds receive when they get married. The gifts they receive include

many of the items they will need to set up a household, without which the couple would be saddled either

with the financial burden of buying the items or with the hassles of not having them.

Although there are people in all walks of life who lack the social support they need, some segments of the

population have even less social support than others. For instance:

· Although men tend to have larger social networks than women, women seem to use theirs more

effectively for support.

· Many elderly individuals live in isolated conditions and have few people on whom to rely.

· Network size is related to social prestige, income, and education: the lower the prestige, income, and

education level of individuals, the smaller their social networks tend to be.

Furthermore, the networks of people from lower socioeconomic classes are usually less diverse than those

of people from higher classes--that is, lower- class networks contain fewer non-kin members. In

contemporary American society, the traditional sources of support have shifted to include greater reliance

on individuals in social and helping organizations. This is partly because extended family members today

have different functions and live farther apart than they did many decades ago.

Social support is a dynamic process. People's needs for giving of, and receipt of support change over time.

Some factors within the individual determine whether he or she will receive or provide social support when

it is needed. One factor is the person's temperament. People differ in their need for and interest in social

contact and affiliation. Those persons who tend to seek interaction with others are more likely to give and

receive support than those who do not. To some extent the experiences people have determine these

tendencies. Children who grow up in caring families and have good relations with peers learn the social

skills needed to seek help and give it when needed. But research has found that people who experience high

levels of chronic stress, such as when their health declines severely, often find that their social support

resources deteriorate at the same time. These results are disheartening because they suggest that people

whose need for social support is greatest may be unlikely to receive it.

Efforts to enhance people's ability to give and receive social support can begin in early childhood,

particularly at school. Teachers can enhance children's giving social support by reading appropriate

storybooks to the class and by having boys and girls engage in cooperative games that promote prolonged

interactions with one another. These experiences can teach children how to talk nicely to and compliment

Health Psychology PSY408

others, share and take turns, include individuals, who have been left out in activities, and help people who

are injured or having difficulty.

In adulthood, people can enhance their ability to give and receive social support by joining community

organizations, such as social, religious, special interest, and self-help groups. These organizations have the

advantage of bringing together individuals with similar problems and interests, which can become the basis

for sharing, helping, and friendship. In the United States, there are many widely known self- help groups,

including Alcoholics Anonymous and Parents without Partners, and special-interest groups, including the

American Association of Retired People and support groups for people with specific illnesses, such as

arthritis or AIDS. Individuals with serious illnesses are most likely to join a support group if they have an

embarrassing or stigmatizing disorder, such as AIDS or breast cancer. Isolated people of all ages--especially

the elderly--with all types of difficulties should be encouraged to join suitable organizations.

Communities can play a valuable role in enhancing people's resources for social support by creating

programs to help individuals develop social networks. Social support can also be encouraged in

occupational settings. Employers can do this in many ways, such as by organizing workers in teams or work

groups, providing facilities for recreation and fitness, arranging social events for workers and their families,

and providing counseling services to help employees through troubled times. Some bosses get so caught up

in the role of manager that they fail to give the personal support their employees need. A supportive boss

discusses decisions and problems with employees, compliments and credits them for good work, and stands

behind reasonable decisions they make. Less supportive bosses can make a conscious effort to improve

these behaviors.

Although social support is generally helpful and appreciated, it isn't always. Sometimes, well-meaning efforts

by friends and relatives can undermine good health habits and impair the recovery of people who are ill.

Social support can also be ineffective if the recipient interprets it as a sign of inadequacy, feels

uncomfortable about not being able to reciprocate, or believes his or her personal control is limited by it.

Providing effective social support requires sensitivity and good judgment.

Improving One's Personal Control

When life becomes stressful, people who lack a strong sense of personal control may stop trying, thinking,

"Oh, what's the use." Instead of feeling they have power and control; they feel helpless and afraid that their

efforts will lead to failure and embarrassment. For instance, people with painful, disabling, or life-

threatening chronic illnesses may stop trying to improve their conditions. When seriously ill patients who

feel little personal control face a new severe stressor, they show more emotional distress and, perhaps, less

effective endocrine function than those who feel more control. The main psychological help such people

need is to boost their sell-efficacy and reduce their passiveness and helplessness. A pessimistic outlook

increases people's potential for stress and can have a negative effect on their health.

How can a person's sense of control be enhanced?

The process can begin very early. Parents, teachers, and other caregivers can show a child their love and

respect, provide a stimulating environment, encourage and praise the child's accomplishments, and set

reasonable standards of conduct and performance that he or she can regard as challenges, rather than

threats. Doing these things is likely also to enhance the child's resilience or hardiness, and hardy individuals

tend to use coping strategies that manage their stress effectively.

Adults' personal control can be enhanced, too. Employers can help by giving workers some degree of

control over aspects of their jobs, allowing them input in decisions about the hours they work, which tasks

to work on, and ways to improve the quality of their work. For people with serious chronic illnesses, health

psychologists can help those with little control by training them in effective ways to cope with stress.

Health Psychology PSY408

Organizing One's World Better

"Where did I put my keys?" you have surely heard someone ask frantically while running late to make an

appointment. People often feel stress because they are running late or believe they don't have enough time

to do the tasks of the day. They need to organize their worlds to make things happen efficiently. This can

take the form of keeping an appointment calendar, designating certain places for certain items, or putting

materials in alphabetized file folders, for instance. Organizing one's world reduces frustration, wasted time,

and the potential for stress.

An important approach for organizing one's time is called time management. It consists of three

elements. The first element is to set goals. These goals should be reasonable or obtainable ones, and they

should include long-term goals, such as getting a job promotion next year, and short-term ones, such as

meeting a weekly sales quota. The second element involves making daily To-Do Lists with priorities

indicated, keeping the goals in mind. These lists should be composed early each morning, or late in the

preceding day. Each list must be written--trying to keep the list in your head is unreliable and makes setting

priorities difficult. The third element is to set up a schedule for the day, allocating estimated time periods to

each item in the list. If an urgent new task arises during the day, the list should be adjusted to include it.

Exercising: Links To Stress and Health

You have probably heard from TV, radio, magazine, and newspaper reports that exercise and physical

fitness can protect people from stress and its harmful effects on health. These reports cite a wide range of

benefits of exercising from increased intellectual functioning and personal control to decreased anxiety,

depression, hostility, and tension. Do exercise and fitness reduce the potential for stress and its effects on

health?

Correlational and retrospective studies of this question have found that people who exercise or are

physically fit often report less anxiety, depression, and tension in their lives than do people who do not

exercise or are less fit.

Preparing For Stressful Events

In our previous lectures we have discussed many types of stressful events, ranging from being stuck in

traffic, to starting day care or school, being overloaded with work, going through a divorce, and

experiencing a disaster. Preparing for these events often can reduce the potential for stress. For instance,

parents can help prepare a child for starting day care by taking the child there in advance to see the place,

meet the teacher, and play for a while.

Many studies have been done to determine what methods are effective in preparing people psychologically

for surgery. The most clearly effective methods of preparing people for the stress of surgery are those

designed to enhance the patients' feelings of control. Health psychologists play key roles in dealing with all

these issues.

In the next lecture, we will consider ways to manage stress, that is, reduce the reaction to stress once it has

begun.

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