Benefits of relationships

- A relationship refers to the bond/connection you have with another human/animal/thing

- A relationship involves a lot of investment from both parties but  it seems the benefits that we get in return are that of improving self esteem and buffering from stress

- Self esteem refers to your self evaluation of yourself, e.g. worth, this has been linked to success at school/ work

- it seems that the social support provided in a relationship effects self esteem

- Selyes GAS shows the damaging effects of stress, research has shown that the social support from relationships protect us from these damaging effects

- Karmak et al conducted a study where he made individuals encounter stressful tasks either alone or next to a friend, he found lower physiological signs of stress in those not alone

- Glaser et al found weak immune systems in those experiencing marital disruption

- This suggests the implications of struggling relationships having implications in a negative way therefore successful ones must have positive implications

- Suggested that there is link between emotional support ( love, care ect) and high self esteem) 

- more support an elderly person has = higher self esteem and lower risk of depression

- conducted a study with 65-95 year olds, interviewing them concerning a number of things including emotional support

- At the end of the study the Rosenburg self-esteem scale was used to measure self esteem 

- He found that those who had reported higher self esteem also had higher emotional support 

- Krause used an elderly sample which can be assumed that there recall is less reliable which dangers the validity of the experiment because they were asked to recall stressful events of the past year 

- The lowered risk of depression may be due to the under diagnosis of depression in elderly people

- Self esteem may be the cause rather than the effect, it is possible they they sought support because of there high self esteem

- Suggest that well being is linked social support because relationships in themselves are rewarding 

- Provide a sense of belonging, therefore increasing self esteem. So we benefit if we are stressed or not

- Predicts that the stronger social networks results in better health regardless of stress exposure

- Bell et al showed that people with more social oppurtnities such as clubs were less depressed regardless of stress levels, although this is only a correlation study 

- Assumes that psychological well being is correlated with social support because our relationships protect us from the negative effects of stress 

- People within our social support can make us better able to cope through things such as giving advice

-Can be seen like a vaccination 

- DeLongis et al found that those who reported having unsupportive marriage became more ill in stressful situations

- we can use this tyoe of research to help people with disorders such as depression to deal with the symptoms