The relationship between society and health

Early research has convinced people of the relationship between social support and physical and mental health, but there is still controversy about the mechanism of social support. Some psychologists believe that social support has a universal gain effect. Regardless of whether an individual faces a stressful situation or not, high social support is always accompanied by a good physical and mental state (the main effect model of social support). On the other hand, some psychologists believe that social support will only play a role when people face high life pressure, so that people can avoid or be less affected by stress events and maintain and improve their health (buffer model). Under the guidance of these two theories, people have done a lot of research, but the results are inconclusive.

Due to the fierce conflict between the two theoretical viewpoints, people turned to the discussion of methodology. They found that different measurement methods of social support concept are the key to lead to two different conclusions. Using the whole structure measurement, the results often support the main effect model, while using the special function measurement, the results often support the buffer model.

At the same time, people discovered a new problem. Social support has always been regarded as an environmental variable. Whether it is structural measurement or functional measurement, there is the same assumption, that is, the social support obtained by individuals depends on the provision of environment, and has nothing to do with individual personality factors. But experience tells people that the quantity and quality of social support attracted by different individuals and their feelings and evaluations of social support are different. In view of this, many researchers began to introduce personality factors as independent variables into the study of social support and health, and made new progress.