Does social support have a great impact on a person’s wellbeing and health thus making it an important factor for longevity? It is a major difference in people who live happy, healthy and longer lives versus people who are depressed and lonely. The more I read on the topic and realized how important social support truly is, the more interested I became in the topic. Brown, Nesse, Vinkur, & Smith (2003) conducted a study to see if giving support had more of influence on decreasing the risk of mortality than receiving support (p. 320). Brown et al (2003) monitored over a five year period the mortality of 423 married couples in Detroit, noting if and when they died, by observing the obituaries in Detroit newspapers and Michigan’s death records.
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So, when we form close and supportive relationships that need is satisfied, making us experience all these positive emotions, increasing our subjective wellbeing (SWB). Social support also acts a stress buffer (Baumgardner & Crothers, 2009, p.49). So, it comes to no surprise that people with more social support are happier but are also healthier because they are less stressed and will then have a better functioning immune system which is inhibited by stress. According to Ozbay, Johnson, Dimoulas, Morgan III, Charney, & Southwick, those who lack social support are two to three times more susceptible to die from a cardiovascular disease than those with support from others (2007). Probably why married people tend to be happier and healthier than unmarried people, because marriage is one of the closest and supportive relationship a person can form. Baumgardner & Crothers (2009) state that the amount of very happy people is twice as many in people who are married than who are not (p.89). However, the quality of the relationship matters, according to Baumgardner & Crothers it is a better to be in no relationship than to be in a bad one. An individual in a bad relationship would have a much lower SWB than someone not in a relationship. (2009, p.90). But if someone has poor social support, a way to increase their happiness is to give support to others, for example, volunteering. Brown et al (2003) state that volunteering improves physical and mental health, it brings a person a sense of importance and makes them feel like they matter and belong (p. 320). According to Ditzen & Heinrichs, men and women react differently to how support is given to them. In a stressful situation, men react better to verbal support, such as offering advice whereas women show an increase in stress to verbal support. Women, actually
So, when we form close and supportive relationships that need is satisfied, making us experience all these positive emotions, increasing our subjective wellbeing (SWB). Social support also acts a stress buffer (Baumgardner & Crothers, 2009, p.49). So, it comes to no surprise that people with more social support are happier but are also healthier because they are less stressed and will then have a better functioning immune system which is inhibited by stress. According to Ozbay, Johnson, Dimoulas, Morgan III, Charney, & Southwick, those who lack social support are two to three times more susceptible to die from a cardiovascular disease than those with support from others (2007). Probably why married people tend to be happier and healthier than unmarried people, because marriage is one of the closest and supportive relationship a person can form. Baumgardner & Crothers (2009) state that the amount of very happy people is twice as many in people who are married than who are not (p.89). However, the quality of the relationship matters, according to Baumgardner & Crothers it is a better to be in no relationship than to be in a bad one. An individual in a bad relationship would have a much lower SWB than someone not in a relationship. (2009, p.90). But if someone has poor social support, a way to increase their happiness is to give support to others, for example, volunteering. Brown et al (2003) state that volunteering improves physical and mental health, it brings a person a sense of importance and makes them feel like they matter and belong (p. 320). According to Ditzen & Heinrichs, men and women react differently to how support is given to them. In a stressful situation, men react better to verbal support, such as offering advice whereas women show an increase in stress to verbal support. Women, actually