Image: Aaron Goodman
In Brief
- Membership in a large number of groups was once thought to be detrimental because it complicated our lives and caused stress.
- Now, however, research shows that being part of social networks enhances our resilience, enabling us to cope more effectively with difficult life changes such as the death of a loved one, job loss or a move.
- Not only do our group memberships help us mentally, they also are associated with increased physical well-being.
You have turned up for your annual medical checkup. The doctor has taken your blood pressure, inquired about your diet and exercise patterns, and asked whether you smoke. Then come some rather pointed questions about your social life: Do you have many friends? Do you socialize? Which groups do you belong to? How diverse are they? How important are these groups to you?
Even though these questions are unexpected, you go through the long list of your active memberships: your book club, volleyball team, hiking group, work colleagues, and so on. Your doctor congratulates you and says that you are doing exactly the right things. You even learn that because you belong to so many social groups you should not worry if you skip your gym visit every now and then.
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15 Comments
Add CommentThis is the lowest I've seen of late. Completely ignoring sociological changes to present a "new finding" as if it were a natural phenomena. The thought that you could manipulate medical costs based on popularity or marital status is one step from a place the D of E has been trying to push this country for years.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes I know, with the advent of social promotion and gay marriage an end around plan of "legal" genetic cleansing even might seem coincidental to some, but it is in no way. I have known proponents of just such policies since the seventies, and I can sight popular cultural reference from the ages depicting the depth of such desires. After all, which of the foibles of man are politicly correct?
"Membership in lots of groupsat home, work, the gymmakes us healthier and more resilient."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut the 'us' are not all the same. For extroverts, that formula makes sense, but for introverts it doesn't. Unlike extroverts, who are energized by social mingling, introverts typically find the experience at the least uncomfortable and more often than not, downright exhausting.
What about people on the autistic spectrum? Are they necessarily mentally unhealthy because they do well alone or at least prefer the internet to socialize? Neurodiversity as a value is not yet up there with racial and cultural diversity, yet!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHumans are social in naure and having friends and having some sort of outside influence makes a person feel like a part of something. To isolate makes one withdrawn and afraid in time...of what? LIFE! Keeping with the flow, speaking one's mind makes for a healthy mind and body. Without friends or groups to partner with anxiety will build. Trust me, I learned this the hard way and it almost killed me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is a diference between a shallow socialite who functions on egocentric nonsense and a profound loner who has a deep sense of empathy for fellow human beings. It is hard to see how the socialite is necessarily more mentally healthy. This doesn't mean that all socially active people are shallow or that all loners are profound. There is a whole spectrum involved and this kind of behavioural classification does not do justice to the complexities of the human condition. More social interaction may be good for some loners, but a solitary retreat may be good for some socialites. Behavioral rules just can not reduce us all to a common denominator.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYeah, reasonable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScience at times is trying to prove common knowledge.
yeah, reasonable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisscience is at times trying proving common knowledge
All of this hearkens to the wisdom of the drill sereant, who has to take 8-16 totally confused immature individuals and meld them into a unit capable of achieving a goal, even though it costs the lives of most of the individuals. Believe it or not, this can be done.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is certainly done more easily if there exists some substantial truth to the cause that the drill sergeant serves. Will the homeland and culture of the raw recruits truly be subjugated, even erased, by some conqueror? Is there some noble reason to fight for the protection of neighbors (not actually one's own homeland) but near enough to deserve ultimate sacrfices to protect them and, ultimately, the homeland?
Three weeks ago I returned from Russia, profoundly impressed by the immense natural wealth of the country (they have more natural resources than God) and by the non-Western methods by which all material benefits trickle down to the commoners eventually. It is a nation where 20-yr-olds drive jet skis and sleep on yachts and a nation where other 20-yr-olds prostitute themselves in the streets or kill someone for a few thousand roubles. No rhyme or reason separates the privileged from the desperate, yet the nation of Russia has a certain legitimacy that blesses the fragments and makes them a defensible whole. All in all, Russia is the anti-America in so many profound ways, yet it survives and maybe even will outlast a foolish America, which perishes because of infatuation with foolishly unrealistic social theories.
Have a look at the website article Inside Our Three Brains at www.cosmic-mindreach.com. There is powerful scientific evidence that left brain language functions independently of right brain intuitive insight and that both sides are fueled by our ancient limbic emotional brain. Left brain language is largely socially conditioned and socially directed while right brain insight seeks holistic patterns that can integrate personal experience in the broader context how one sees everything work as an interdependent intuitively meaningful whole. The latter capacity for insight can have countless faces with both limited or broad horizons and it lends implicit mute direction to the former socially oriented brain, not vice versa. The three brains seek some kind of mutually sustainable balance. There are unlimited ways in which this can be achieved constructively and just as many ways in which it can be destructive to the individual in and to their social and natural environment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWeir... that is the sexiest thing I have ever read.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHi Shauncy,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegarding sex, it is a biological fact that the parasympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system is responsible for erection but the sympathetic division is responsible for ejaculation. The two divisions work in mutual polar restraint. The parasympathetic division issues mostly from the cranial nerves with the second synapse at the target organs. The sympathetic division parallels the somatic nervous system down the spinal cord with the second synapse in the sympathetic ganglia just outside the spinal cord. However both divisions come together at the sacral level for the control of uro-genital functions.
Now look at the diagram that shows the reflection of the autonomic nervous system in cerebral awareness across the ancient Limbic Brain in the website article Inside Our Three Brains at www.cosmic-mindreach.com.
The parasympathetic division works in accord with mute right-brain intuition. Both are holistically archetypal in character and concerned with the long term interests of the individual organism and the species.
The sympathetic division works in accord with the left-brain socially oriented language hemisphere. It thus fuels the emotional energies for immediate short term responses in socially appropriate or meaningful ways.
This leaves us with something of a dilemma. We may become easily aroused by the Parasympathetic Division at the appearance of an especially attractive member of the opposite sex (for most of us) even though we may know nothing about them socially. Any member of the species might do. The urge for holistic completion is compelling and it can be quite promiscuous. However there is a hitch. We can not consummate a socially meaningful relationship without the cooperation of the Sympathetic Division. We are faced with finding a socially meaningful reconciliation with primal libidinal urges that can find a balance between right-brain intuitive insight and rational left-brain social concerns across the emotional Limbic brain.
The problem with the left brain is that it uses concepts that oversimplify perceptions - as does this article. Group membership may offer help and support, but can also create conflict and stress which can be distinctly unhealthy. Even family membership can result in more stress than comfort. The "benefit" of membership depends on the individual's needs and the quality of the relationships.
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or introverts, the "social cure" might be different things like alleviating loneliness or a sense of exclusion, and doing so in ways that are variably "social". A problem with this research is that it doesn't make subtle distinctions for "social", that term is thrown about and can be taken to mean different things. There's different ways to be social, offline and online, and relationships aren't the only one (see Jane Dutton's research on positive interactions vs relationships). It might be that introverts prefer interactions , shorter in duration and less frequent than relationships or social experiences, and thus the "social cure" mentioned here seems to not work for them.
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