Health Psychology Lecture 5 Stress Biopsychosocial Factors and Illness I Social Networks Number of relationships has no association with mortality risk in some studies and asso A ciations in other studies 1 Berkman and Syme B Social support 1 Benefits health a Men benefit more from a large social network than do women a Less herpes breakout etc 2 Social networks size a How many people we talk to daily b Large social network longevity 3 Received social support a Amount of support accessed by an individual b Higher levels of social support higher levels of stress 4 Perceived social support Personality variable a Amount of support appraised to be available b c Gives sense of security whether they use the support or not High levels positive psychological and health benefits d 1 Faster recovery time 5 Providing support a Caregiver stress b Increased mortality risk 1 Decreased mortality risk 1 calms Doing things for other people arouses sympathetic nervous system 2 People who provide support have typically have the resources Failure to provide help when help is needed 6 Negative relationships a Rejection neglect b c Dependency diminished self respect d e Increase psychological distress lower well being increased risk of infection Conflict C Health related functions of social support 1 Direct effects hypothesis protection during stressful and non stressful times a Argues that social support is generally beneficial to health People in social network contribute to health behaviors b 2 Buffering hypothesis protection against effects of stress a Anxiety and physiological arousal lower during stress with presence of familiar b Argues that people can intervene by appraising feelings and resources to help others person in need Social resources and health II A Mechanisms 1 Cognitive appraisal 2 Health behaviors a Quit smoking drink less etc b Effective 3 Adherence a Help people adhere to medical recommendations 4 Psychoneuroimmunological pathways a Reduce psychological stress response b Cohen et al 1 sity c Lenore et al 2 1 d Tend and befriend 1 2000 Studied people s resistance to the common cold by social network diver High diversity more resistant Presence of a supportive person when one is completing a stressful task reduces cardiovascular and HPA axis responses to stress Females responses to stress may be different than male Taylor et al 2 Successful stress responses should involve protection of offspring Tending taking care of offspring Befriending befriending others 3 4 Behavioral mechanism attachment caregiving system Oxytocin released in response to stress Associated with reduced NSN and HPA axis responses to stress Bonding hormone Increases people s desire to affiliate calming more secure less aroused e Oxytocin experiment Detillion et al 2004 1 2 Suppresses cortisol Control loud noise stress Predictable and controllable less physiological reactivity Moot et al 1970 i Electric shock to rats ii How many ulcers developed a b a b c a b c 3 f 5 B III