Main description:

"No one is rich enough to do without a neighbor." Traditional Danish Proverb This bit of Danish folk wisdom expresses an idea underlying much of the current thinking about social support. While the clinical literature has for a long time recognized the deleterious effects of unwholesome social relationships, only more recently has the focus broadened to include the positive side of social interaction, those interpersonal ties that are desired, rewarding, and protective. This book contains theoretical and research contributions by a group of scholars who are charting this side of the social spectrum. Evidence is increasing that maladaptive ways of thinking and behaving occur disproportionately among people with few social supports. Rather than sapping self-reliance, strong ties with others particularly family members seem to encourage it. Reliance on others and self-reliance are not only compatible but complementary to one another. While the mechanism by which an intimate relationship is protective has yet to be worked out, the following factors seem to be involved: intimacy, social integration through shared concerns, reassurance of worth, the opportunity to be nurtured by others, a sense of reliable alliance, and guidance. The major advance that is taking place in the literature on social support is that reliance is being -placed less on anecdotal and clinical evidence and more on empirical inquiry. The chapters of this book reflect this important development and identify the frontiers that are currently being explored.

Contents:

I Theoretical and Methodological Issues.- 1 Conceptual and Theoretical Dilemmas Facing Social Support.- 2 Social Support: Theoretical Advances, Recent Findings and Pressing Issues.- 3 Social Support - Insights from Assessment and Experimentation.- 4 Social Support and Psychological Well-Being: Theoretical Possibilities.- 5 Measuring the Functional Components of Social Support.- 6 Social Support and Social Health.- II Human Development, Personality and Social Networks.- 7 Social Networks and the Ecology of Human Development: Theory, Research and Application.- 8 Longitudinal Course of Social Support Among Men in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.- 9 Intimacy, Social Support, and Locus of Control as Moderators of Stress.- 10 Coping Styles, Social Support and Sex-Differences.- 11 A Conceptualization of Professional Women's Interpersonal Fields: Social Support, Reference Groups, and Persons-to-be-Reckoned-With.- 12 From Social Support to Social Network.- III Loneliness and Perceived Support.- 13 The Psychology of Loneliness: Some Personality Issues in the Study of Social Support.- 14 The Functions of Social Bonds: Perspectives from Research on Social Support, Loneliness and Social Isolation.- 15 Loneliness Research: Basic Concepts and Findings.- 16 Perceived Support and Social Interaction Among Friends and Confidants.- IV Stress, Coping and Maladaption.- 17 Life Stress and Human Disorder: Conceptualization and Measurement of the Disordered Group.- 18 Life Events, Social Support and Clinical Psychiatric Disorder.- 19 Social Support, Life Events and Depression.- 20 Social Support and Children of Divorce.- 21 Limitations of Social Support in the Stress Process.- V Helping and the Costs of Caring.- 22 Theory into Practice: Issues That Surface in Planning Interventions Which Mobilize Support.- 23 Social Support and the Alleviation of Loss.- 24 Reactions to Victims of Life Crisis: Support Attempts That Fail.- 25 The Costs of Caring: A Perspective on the Relationship Between Sex and Psychological Distress.- Author Index.