Doing Without Social Support as an Explanatory Concept

Abstract

The social support literature has succeeded in calling attention to the importance of social relationships for adaptation. Yet, it has been less successful in stimulating exploration of how relationships shape adaptation. In particular, this literature has implicitly adopted several crucial assumptions about the nature of social relationships. These are (1) that social support is something that is provided in supportive transactions and marshalled in times of stress; (2) that one's perception of this support is the primary means by which one benefits from it; (3) that the relationships of persons who evaluate themselves as high in support offer something positive that is missing from the relationships of people who evaluate themselves as low in support; and, by implication, (4) that people who fare badly under stress will benefit from an increase in social support. In this paper, we question the validity of each of these assumptions, and we discuss the implications, for theory, method, and intervention, of abandoning these assumptions.