Membership to many groups led to a rapid recovery of physical challenges (eurekalert.org)

 

Los Angeles, CA (15 December 2010) being part of numerous social groups can improve mental health and help a person cope with stressful events. It also leads to better physical health, get better withstand?and recover faster from?physical challenges, according to a study of current social psychology and personality (published by SAGE) science.

Groups, such as networks of friends, family, clubs and sports teams, improves mental health, because groups of provide support, help you to feel well on yourself and you keep active. But belonging to many different groups may also help make you stronger psychologically and physically. Suffering from multiple memberships face better when faced with stressful situations such as recovery from stroke and are more likely to stay cool free when they are exposed to the cold virus.

Researchers Janelle Jones and Jolanda Jetten, University of Queensland were interested in how membership could give people resilience in a novel and challenges aversion. In a study they asked a dozen soldiers in formation of ice-camp to wear the heart rate monitors while experiencing their first bobsled, luge, or skeleton runs?an exciting, but very stressful opportunity. A trip in a glossy course set all heart racing, but soldiers who said that they belong to many groups returned to their normal heartbeat faster than soldiers who do not have. Suffering from numerous accessions recovered by stress faster.

To find out if the makes people aware of their membership would improve their resilience, Jones and Jetten randomly 56 students to reflect on one, three or five groups were members of, take care to describe why the group is important for them. All participants began a physical task?keeping very demanding hands in a bucket of water close to freezing. Memberships more, that participants had thought to, they have managed to keep their hand in the icy water. People who have been informed about thinking five groups were able to keep their hand in twice as long as people who have been informed to think that a single group. Because people randomly the number of groups to think, cope with pain was due to the reflection on the group memberships, and it is not simply due to mental toughness.

"Memberships are an important resource", said the researchers. "The identity that we gain from our membership helps us to develop a sense of purpose and meaning." This gives us the psychological strength to withstand and recover physical challenges. "Encouraging people to think about their groups?and to join the new ones?is a promising way to promote the health and well-being with very few negative side effects.

Section "recovering strains and enduring pain: several group positions promoting Resilience in the face of physical challenges" in social psychology and science of personality is available free of charge for a period limited to: http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/10/24/1948550610386806.full.pdf+html.

Social psychological and personality science is a journal of advanced research in social psychology and personality concise reports. SPPS is sponsored by a consortium of organizations leading the world in social psychology and personality, representing more than 7,000 researchers on six continents in the world. http://spp.sagepub.com

SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books and electronic media for education, education, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped to inform and to educate the global community of researchers, practitioners, researchers and students spanning a wide range of subjects, including business, humanities, social sciences and Humanities, technology and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has main offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. www.sagepublications.com

Contact: Janelle M. Jones, University of Queensland E-mail: j.m.jones@psy.uq.edu.au phone: (61) 733654543

Members of the media are eligible to free access and 560 + other SAGE Journals. For more information, contact Jim Gilden (jim.gilden@sagepub.com).

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