Buffering hypothesis - Direct effect hypothesis скачать в хорошем качестве

Buffering hypothesis - Direct effect hypothesis

Based on: Sarafino, Smith. “Health psychology” Biopsychosocial interactions, Wiley, 2022. pp. 87, 88 #buffering #psychologystudents #healthpsychology Transcript: Hey today we will talk about the buffering hypothesis and direct effect hypothesis. First of all, what is it about? Well they are two theories developed to answer the question how social support influences health. According to the buffering hypothesis social support affects health by protecting the person against the negative effects of high stress. We have a graph here of the buffering hypothesis, as you can see when you experience low stress, little or no buffering happens. But when you experience high stress, social support helps. So according to this theory the protective function of social support is mainly effective when a person encounters a strong stressor. The direct effects hypothesis on the other hand maintains that social support benefits health and well-being regardless of the amount of stress people experience. As you can see on this second graph the beneficial effects are similar under high and low stressors. Now let's look at how these theories work. Buffering works in two ways. First when people encounter a strong stressor, those who have high levels of social support may be less likely to appraise the situation as stressful than those with low levels of support. Second, social support may modify people's response to a stressor after the initial appraisal. For example let's say you are in financial trouble and your initial appraisal of the situation is very stressful but then you talk with your family, and they are willing to lend you the money to fix your problem, that would obviously modify your response. Let's move on to the direct effect hypothesis. So how does it work? One way is that people with high levels of social support may have strong feelings of belongingness and self esteem. The positive outlook it produces may be beneficial to health independently of stress. Other evidence suggests that high levels of support may encourage people to lead healthy lifestyles. So for example people with social support may exercise, eat healthy etc because they feel like others care about them and need them.