Employee health –

Social Relationships,
Shared Identities

• By Ammar Hafeez
 WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “SOCIAL
RELATIONSHIPS”?
• Social integration refers to overall level of involvement with informal
social relationships, such as having a spouse, and with formal social
relationships, such as those with religious institutions and volunteer
organizations.
• Quality of relationships includes positive aspects of relationships, such as
emotional support provided by significant others, and strained aspects of
relationships, such as conflict and stress. Social networks refer to the web
of social relationships surrounding an individual, in particular, structural
features, such as the type and strength of each social relationship. Each
of these aspects of social relationships affects health.
 A shared identity is…

People have a global

People have local National/ identity. For example,
identities, for British having a passport and
example, postal identity visa. We belong global
code, national, church,
to the government,
gym card/Greenwich
People have a with the EU you don’t
card for going
national identity. For need a visit to go on
swimming etc and
example they speak holiday to any EU
school.
the same language member.
but might have a
Local different accent to EU &
identity others. Also you Global
vote for who is in
power
 Shared Identities
• What are the variables that moderate the effect of others on our own
well-being?
• Identity-Based Relationships:
• A key point is the dynamics of support—i.e. giving, receiving, and
interpreting help of various forms—are always structured by the
identity-based relationships between those who give and receive it.
• When these relationships are grounded in, they help to build a mutual
sense of common group membership (i.e., shared social identity) then
support has a greater chance both of being provided and of being
effective. Indeed, when parties to the support process share (or come
to share) identity, the process can be almost heavenly. However, when
they do not, life can be positively hellish.
 Shared Identities
• Indeed, when parties to the support process
share (or come to share) identity, then the
process can be almost heavenly.
• However, when they do not have any shared
identity, then life can be positively hellish.
 SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS BENEFIT
HEALTH
• Many types of scientific evidence show that involvement in
social relationships benefits health.
• The most striking evidence comes from prospective studies
of mortality across industrialized nations. These studies
consistently show that individuals with the lowest level of
involvement in social relationships are more likely to die
than those with greater involvement (House, Landis, and
Umberson 1988).
 SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS BENEFIT
HEALTH
• For example, Berkman and Syme (1979) showed that the
risk of death among men and women with the fewest social
ties was more than twice as high as the risk for adults with
the most social ties.
• Moreover, this finding held even when socioeconomic
status, health behaviors, and other variables that might
influence mortality, were taken into account.
• Social ties also reduce mortality risk among adults with
documented medical conditions.
 SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS BENEFIT
HEALTH
• For instance, Brummett and colleagues (2001) found that, among
adults with coronary artery disease, the socially isolated had a risk
of subsequent cardiac death 2.4 times greater than their more
socially connected peers.
• Marriage is perhaps the most studied social tie. Recent work shows
that marital history over the life course shapes a range of health
outcomes, including cardiovascular disease, chronic conditions,
mobility limitations, self-rated health, and depressive symptoms
(Hughes and Waite 2009; Zhang and Hayward 2006).
 HOW DO RELATIONSHIPS BENEFIT
HEALTH?
Generally, there are three broad ways that social ties work
to influence health:
• Behavioral:
Some of these health behaviors—such as exercise,
consuming nutritionally balanced diets, tend to promote health
and prevent illness, while other behaviors—such as smoking,
excessive weight gain, drug abuse, and heavy alcohol
consumption—tend to undermine health.
• Psychosocial:
This mechanisms include social support, personal control,
symbolic meanings and norms, and mental health.
 HOW DO RELATIONSHIPS BENEFIT
HEALTH?
• Physiological:
Supportive interactions with others benefit immune functions
and reduce stress. These processes unfold over the entire life
course, with effects on health.
Emotionally supportive childhood environments promote
healthy development of regulatory systems, including immune,
metabolic, and autonomic nervous systems.
Underestimation of the effect of social
factors on (employee) health:
Anti-Psychosocial
Health Beliefs
(APHB) Under-Estimation
of the importance
of social Factors
Social Dominance on health
Orientation (SDO)

Belief in Biological
Essentialism (BBE)
 References:
• Haslam, S. A., Reicher, S. D. & Levine, M. (2012). When other people are heaven,
when other people are hell: How social identity determines the nature and impact
of social support. In J. Jetten, C. Haslam & S. A. Haslam (Eds.), The social cure:
Identity, health, and well-being. London & New York: Psychology Press.
• Haslam, S. A., McMahon, C., Cruwys, T., Haslam, C., Jetten, J. & Steffens, N. K.
(2018). Social cure, what social cure? The propensity to underestimate the
importance of social factors for health.
• Social Relationships and Health: A Flashpoint for Health Policy By Debra
Umberson and Jennifer Karas Montez(2011).
• Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review by Julianne Holt-
Lunstad, Timothy B. Smith, J. Bradley Layton., July 27, 2010