Social support entails emotional as well as resource-based support or help from those around you. No other individual might actually help you with the task. However, you know that they are there to provide you with moral or emotional support. In other words, you know that you are not alone in your turmoil. Talking to your friends and family after experiencing a tough day at work or sharing a piece of good news with your dear ones often makes you feel better. Let us delve deeper into the facts and research about social support and understand what you can do to improve your social support.
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Some research about social support
Most research speaks of social support as a positive coping resource. Friends, family, co-workers, supervisors can provide you with useful resources to solve your problem. Additionally, they can provide you with emotional and moral support. This not only boosts motivation but also helps us feel positive emotions, thereby, improving performance. A sense of belongingness to our community or any social group gives us an anchor and provides a source of social identity. Social identity is extremely important for human beings. Its importance has been highlighted by researchers since the 1980s.
Social identity basically serves as an anchor or a home base to which we can return after any positive or negative events. Our self-esteem is also tied to the fate of the social group. For instance, despite experiencing negative life events, we are much more likely to have high self-esteem if we belong to a prestigious social group. On the other hand, if we believe that we belong to an inferior social group, we are more likely to suffer from poor self-esteem.
Individuals have been seen to go to extreme lengths, like derogating an out-group member or fiercely advocating the agenda of the in-group, despite not having any personal gains from the same. Interestingly, when researchers re-assigned individuals of different social groups to the same group, they worked as a coherent group in order to achieve the superordinate goal. Therefore, group identity directs our behavior and in times of stress, other members of our social group serve as our anchor and provide us with much-needed support.
Specific research in the domain of terminally-ill patients and their caregivers have shown that social support or having the opportunity to interact with people who are in a similar life circumstance increases positive emotions and helps us cope better with stress. Therefore, social support helps us cope with stress. It enhances hope and optimism and reduces negative emotions and mental health problems.
Sources of social support
We can seek social support from many sources. First and foremost is our family. Our family knows us from the day we are born and they can throw light on our strengths and weaknesses much better than anyone else. In fact, there can be times in our lives when our family can help us become self-aware. They can help us see things in a perspective that we ourselves are unable to.
Secondly, we may seek social support from our friends. Since they belong to the same generation and are likely to have similar values, they can help us navigate through difficult situations. Additionally, there may be situations where we are too ashamed of revealing the truth to our family. Friends can support us there.
Thirdly, we can seek social support from our co-workers. Since they are experiencing the same situations at work as we are, they are likely to understand our work world better. Many times, family and friends in different professions are unable to put themselves in our shoes. Hence, their words and advice may dishearten us further. Co-workers can empathize with us better in such situations.
Finally, our bosses can provide us with support in several situations. Owing to their work and life experience, they can serve as our guides and shed light on our feelings and how to overcome the negative phases in our life.
How to increase social support?
Many of us are not very receptive to social support from around us. We tend to isolate ourselves during stressful times and therefore experience high stress for longer durations of time. Here are a few tips that will help us in seeking support.
- Recognize your limitations: We may often feel that we need to be good at everything. In addition, when we are unable to perform well, we feel that we are not good enough. We also feel that others will make fun of us if we confess our limitations to them. This is often the most powerful deadlock to getting social support. Re-define yourself and recognize your limitations. Seek hep when needed.
- Support others: It is important to lend an ear to those around us when they are in need. Social support, just like all other social contracts, works on a give-and-take basis. You cannot expect others to support you when you turn a blind eye to them.
- Join groups and clubs: Social groups are the most prominent sources of social support. Hence, we need to be a part of them so that we do not get isolated. Being a part of groups with like-minded others will definitely help in times of stress.
- Identify trusted allies: Know your group, specially toxic people who have the potential of turning even positive events to negative. Identify a few mature and stable individuals who can understand and empathize with you during stressful time.
Conclusion
Thus, we see that social support is an important source of stress coping and remaining positive in our lives. We also learned about the sources of social support and how we can improve our level of social support.