“Prior research on social relationships and health has primarily looked at blood pressure in a laboratory setting,” Holt-Lunstad said. “But in our study, they were out in their everyday lives, interacting with people; and we recorded their blood pressure while they were doing it. This methodology affords such nice naturalism and realism and in prior research has been shown to be highly predictive of clinical outcomes.”
Because of the extra precision of the study, Holt-Lunstad can look beyond general axioms that declare social relationships are healthy and negative relationships raise blood pressure in the lab or clinic. By recognizing nuance in the relationships, people can begin to evaluate their social networks to consider who might be most beneficial to approach in various circumstances.
“We might know some people who are unreliable in some situations but who are there for us in others,” said Holt-Lunstad. “We can be strategic about our coping. If we can avoid seeking support from them in unfavorable circumstances and instead seek them out in situations in which we can count on them, or seek support from someone who is more consistently helpful or understanding, we might be better off.”
Research continues in the effort to offer more clues about how we can better understand our relationships and other aspects of our everyday lives to better our long-term health.
“Psychology is really gaining in influence now that our leading causes of death have a high behavioral component,” said Holt-Lunstad. “Many of them, like heart disease, develop slowly over time and are chronic, so people need to adjust their lifestyles to prevent and deal with those illnesses.”
Refrences: Holt-Lunstad, Uchino, Smith, Cerny, and Nealey-Moore. Health Psychology, July 2003.
Last updated 1/5/06.
