Social Support

Humans need one another

The 6th century English poet and priest John Donne penned “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…”  Donne identified an essential human need—the need to belong.  This need of belonging and love is central to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  Being human is being part of humanity; human life does not thrive isolated and alone, we need to be united and connected to each other in order to live well.  Humans are social by nature and psychological well-being is directly related to social structures such as institutions (Ryff & Singer, 2005). Quality relationships are critical to physical and psychological health (Taylor, Dickerson, & Klein, 2005). 

Social support is essential

Positive social support is essential for positive quality of life and well-being.  Social support is the assistance given by institutions, groups, and individuals to aid someone in coping with physical and psychological stress.  Social support can be received or perceived, emotional or instrumental, healthy or unhealthy; a source of stress or a resource for coping with stress. Social support involves interaction. Perceived social support may not actually happen; while received social support has happened. Within the transactionist model of stress and coping social support whether perceived or received can be viewed as a coping resource, and can help foster self-efficacy and adaptive coping (Schwarzer & Knoll, 2003).

Social support can be measured

There are various measures of social support such as the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988) or the Postdeployment Social Support (PSS) scale (King, King, & Vogt, 2003).  The PSS is part of the Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory (DRRI). The PSS was used in the Resilient Warrior study because of its focus on military deployments and the family. The PSS is a 15 item scale which purports to measure “emotional sustenance and instrumental assistance” (King, King, & Vogt, 2003, p. 6). The PSS uses a five point Likert scale with one being strongly disagree to five being strongly agree. Sample statements include: (a) the reception I received when I returned from my deployment made me feel appreciated for my efforts, and (b) I have problems that I can’t discuss with family and friends.  Preceived or received social support helps us all cope with stress and live better lives.  We need each other.

References

King, D. W., King. L. A., & Vogt, D. S. (2003). Manual for the Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory (DRRI): A collection of measures for studying deployment-related experiences of military veterans. Boston, MA: National Center for PTSD.

Ryff, C. D., & Singer, B. (2005). From social structure to biology: Integrative science in pursuit of human health and well-being. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 541-555). New York, NY: Oxford  University.

Schwarzer, R., & Knoll, N. (2003). Positive coping: Mastering demands and searching for meaning. In S. J. Lopez & C. R. Snyder (Eds.). Positive psychological assessment: A handbook of models and measures (pp. 393-409). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Taylor, S. E., Dickerson, S. S., & Klien, L. C. (2005). Toward a biology of social support. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology          (pp. 556-572). New York, NY: Oxford University.

Zimet, G.D., Dahlem, N.W., Zimet, S.G. & Farley, G.K. (1988). The Multidimensional  Scale of Perceived Social Support. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52, 30-41.