This volume brings together, for the first time, inquiries into the size and proximity of social networks and emotion in social relationships to advance understanding of how emotion in significant social relationships influences health. The collection integrates knowledge from those with expertise in mapping the nature of emotional experience in human relations with those who are linking social ties to health outcomes, and those who explicate underlying neurobiological mechanisms. The book puts forth the idea that full explication of how emotion, social relationships, and health are woven together demands multidisciplinary inquiry and brings together leading experts from fields of affective science, clinical and social psychology, epidemiology, psychiatry, psychoneuroimmunology, psychoneuroendocrinology, and health to promote the above synthesis.

A growing literature, in humans and animals, documents linkages between social integration and affiliative relationships and a variety of health and disease outcomes, including mortality. The actual mechanisms through which these efforts occur are, however, not well understood. Emotion likely plays a central role in mediating connections between relational experiences, underlying neurobiological processes, and health outcomes. Many prior studies have focused on the size and proximity of social networks, thereby neglecting their emotional features. When studied, emotion in social relationships has also been heavily weighted on the side of negative and conflicting interactions, thus giving minimal attention to the possible protective benefits of enduring love, nurturing, and affection. This volume brings together, for the fist time, these differing lines of inquiry to advance understanding of how emotion in significant social relationships influences health. The collection integrates knowledge from those with expertise in mapping the nature of emotional experience in human relations with those who are linking social ties to health outcomes, and those who explicate underlying neurobiological mechanisms. A main message of the book is that full explication of how emotion, social relationships, and health are woven together demands multidisciplinary inquiry. To this end, the volume brings together leading experts from fields of affective science, clinical and social psychology, epidemiology, psychiatry, psychoneuroimmunology, psychoneuroendocrinology, and health to promote the above synthesis. Some address how to formulate, observe, and evaluate social interactions in clinical, laboratory, or daily life contexts. Others link emotional experience in significant social relationships to health outcomes or intervening biological parameters. Still others manipulate social environments or exposure to health challenge to assess impact on respiratory infections and immune function. Collectively, each contributes different pieces to the larger puzzle that connects emotion in social relationships to health. Recurrent themes include the importance of attending to: (1) both positive and negative emotional experience in significant social relationships and how they influence underlying mechanisms; (2) cumulative emotional experience--namely, the repeated, chronic nature of socioemotional experience (both positive and negative); (3) gender differences in how emotion in social relationships is experienced and how it effects underlying mechanisms involved in health outcomes; and (4) the need for multiple methodologies to advance the emotion, social relationships, and health agenda.

"Our relationships with other people are complex, but they matter a great deal. In this edited volume, we review recent perspectives on the connections between social relationships and physical and mental health. Although the potential for psychological events and emotions to affect health is no longer novel, our understanding of their intricacies--from physiological processes to cultural mechanisms--is constantly evolving. The individual chapters in this book explore the myriad connections between stress and illness and how these connections are shaped by the quality of our relationships with other people. Relationships, as examined in this volume, span the full continuum--from social support to social isolation--as do their benefits and costs. Throughout the volume, we emphasize two key themes. First, for all the reasons mentioned previously, the chapters emphasize the fact that relationships matter. The quality and quantity of our connections with other people predict outcomes ranging from happiness to heart disease, from adjustment to maladjustment, and from mortality to longevity. The chapters in this volume are designed to explore the scope of and the mechanisms for these associations, as well as their implications for improving both health and relationships. Second, the chapters emphasize the fact that perceptions matter. One of the most robust conclusions from the stress literature (if not all psychological literature) is that people's perceptions are dramatic and important moderators of emotional, behavioral, and physiological responses. Both actual support (e.g., Cohen, 2004) and perceived support (e.g., Lakey & Cassady, 1990) are predictive of better health; both physical isolation (e.g., Berkman & Syme, 1979) and perceived loneliness (e.g., Hawkley et al., 2003) are predictive of poorer health. A host of individual differences likewise moderate the impact of social threat, caregiver stress, romantic loss, and exposure to risky families. Each of the chapters in this volume highlights the importance of perceptions and individual differences and examines the reasons that these play such an important role. The chapters discuss a number of related constructs under the general umbrella of health, including physical and mental health outcomes, as well as the emotional and physiological mechanisms that may act as precursors to these outcomes. In many cases, these chapters examine moderators of the link between health and relationships--for example, the impact of a romantic loss depends in part on the personality and gender of the person experiencing the loss. In other cases, where the mechanisms are understood, the chapters focus on mediators of the link between health and relationships--for example, physical affection appears to be the mediating mechanism for the health benefits of marriage. The topic of health and social relationships spans multiple perspectives within psychology and related fields, and we have attempted to capture this diversity in this volume. Although the primary intended audience is academic psychologists, we believe that many of the chapters will be of interest to health care professionals and therapists who focus on relationship issues. We also anticipate this volume can be an excellent companion to graduate and advanced undergraduate courses on the topics of stress, health, emotion, and relationships"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Papers and commentary from the 1997 Third Annual Wisconsin Symposium on Emotion delve into the nature of emotional interaction with significant others and its role in illuminating the established ties between social relationships and health. Contributors from the fields of affective science, clinical and social psychology, epidemiology, psychoneuroimmunology, and health address how to observe and evaluate social interactions in clinical, laboratory, or daily life contexts, and link emotional experience to health outcomes. Ryff teaches psychology at the University of Wisconsin. Singer is affiliated with the Office of Population Research. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

This open access textbook represents a vital contribution to global health education, offering insights into health promotion as part of patient care for bachelor’s and master’s students in health care (nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiotherapists, social care workers etc.) as well as health care professionals, and providing an overview of the field of health science and health promotion for PhD students and researchers. Written by leading experts from seven countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, it first discusses the theory of health promotion and vital concepts. It then presents updated evidence-based health promotion approaches in different populations (people with chronic diseases, cancer, heart failure, dementia, mental disorders, long-term ICU patients, elderly individuals, families with newborn babies, palliative care patients) and examines different health promotion approaches integrated into primary care services. This edited scientific anthology provides much-needed knowledge, translating research into guidelines for practice. Today’s medical approaches are highly developed; however, patients are human beings with a wholeness of body-mind-spirit. As such, providing high-quality and effective health care requires a holistic physical-psychological-social-spiritual model of health care is required. A great number of patients, both in hospitals and in primary health care, suffer from the lack of a holistic oriented health approach: Their condition is treated, but they feel scared, helpless and lonely. Health promotion focuses on improving people’s health in spite of illnesses. Accordingly, health care that supports/promotes patients’ health by identifying their health resources will result in better patient outcomes: shorter hospital stays, less re-hospitalization, being better able to cope at home and improved well-being, which in turn lead to lower health-care costs. This scientific anthology is the first of its kind, in that it connects health promotion with the salutogenic theory of health throughout the chapters. the authors here expand the understanding of health promotion beyond health protection and disease prevention. The book focuses on describing and explaining salutogenesis as an umbrella concept, not only as the key concept of sense of coherence.

"A thoughtful, scholarly yet accessible account of emotion that speaks to current debates associated with the ‘affective turn’ in disciplines including sociology, cultural studies, geography and psychology... invaluable for anyone wanting to understand contemporary engagements with affect, emotion and feeling." - John Cromby, Loughborough University "A lucid, engaging, and thoroughly insightful review of current social scientific thinking on emotions in social life by a leading scholar in the field... The book is sure to become essential reading for both students and researchers interested in emotion" - Jason Hughes, University of Leicester "A masterful exposition of the links between emotions and social relations... Empirically rich and theoretically deep, this is a highly readable book. - Svend Brinkmann, University of Aalborg This book is a compelling and timely addition to the study of emotions, arguing that emotion is a response to the way in which people are embedded in patterns of relationship, both to others and to significant social and political events or situations. Going beyond the traditional discursive understanding of emotions, Burkitt investigates emotions as a complex and dynamic phenomenon that includes the whole self, body and mind, but which always occur in relation to others.

How do we define compassion? Is it an emotional state, a motivation, a dispositional trait, or a cultivated attitude? How does it compare to altruism and empathy? Chapters in this Handbook present critical scientific evidence about compassion in numerous conceptions. All of these approaches to thinking about compassion are valid and contribute importantly to understanding how we respond to others who are suffering. Covering multiple levels of our lives and self-concept, from the individual, to the group, to the organization and culture, The Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science gathers evidence and models of compassion that treat the subject of compassion science with careful scientific scrutiny and concern. It explores the motivators of compassion, the effect on physiology, the co-occurrence of wellbeing, and compassion training interventions. Sectioned by thematic approaches, it pulls together basic and clinical research ranging across neurobiological, developmental, evolutionary, social, clinical, and applied areas in psychology such as business and education. In this sense, it comprises one of the first multidisciplinary and systematic approaches to examining compassion from multiple perspectives and frames of reference. With contributions from well-established scholars as well as young rising stars in the field, this Handbook bridges a wide variety of diverse perspectives, research methodologies, and theory, and provides a foundation for this new and rapidly growing field. It should be of great value to the new generation of basic and applied researchers examining compassion, and serve as a catalyst for academic researchers and students to support and develop the modern world.

This book showcases new research and theory about the way in which the social environment shapes, and is shaped by, emotion. The book has three sections, each of which addresses a different level of sociality: interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup. The first section refers to the links between specific individuals, the second to categories that define multiple individuals as an entity, and the final to the boundaries between groups. Emotions are found in each of these levels and the dynamics involved in these types of relationship are part of what it is to experience emotion. The chapters show how all three types of social relationships generate, and are generated by, emotions. In doing so, this book locates emotional experiences in the larger social context.

Almost 25 years have passed since the Demography of Aging (1994) was published by the National Research Council. Future Directions for the Demography of Aging is, in many ways, the successor to that original volume. The Division of Behavioral and Social Research at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to produce an authoritative guide to new directions in demography of aging. The papers published in this report were originally presented and discussed at a public workshop held in Washington, D.C., August 17-18, 2017. The workshop discussion made evident that major new advances had been made in the last two decades, but also that new trends and research directions have emerged that call for innovative conceptual, design, and measurement approaches. The report reviews these recent trends and also discusses future directions for research on a range of topics that are central to current research in the demography of aging. Looking back over the past two decades of demography of aging research shows remarkable advances in our understanding of the health and well-being of the older population. Equally exciting is that this report sets the stage for the next two decades of innovative researchâ€"a period of rapid growth in the older American population.

Social isolation and loneliness are serious yet underappreciated public health risks that affect a significant portion of the older adult population. Approximately one-quarter of community-dwelling Americans aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated, and a significant proportion of adults in the United States report feeling lonely. People who are 50 years of age or older are more likely to experience many of the risk factors that can cause or exacerbate social isolation or loneliness, such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and sensory impairments. Over a life course, social isolation and loneliness may be episodic or chronic, depending upon an individual's circumstances and perceptions. A substantial body of evidence demonstrates that social isolation presents a major risk for premature mortality, comparable to other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, or obesity. As older adults are particularly high-volume and high-frequency users of the health care system, there is an opportunity for health care professionals to identify, prevent, and mitigate the adverse health impacts of social isolation and loneliness in older adults. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults summarizes the evidence base and explores how social isolation and loneliness affect health and quality of life in adults aged 50 and older, particularly among low income, underserved, and vulnerable populations. This report makes recommendations specifically for clinical settings of health care to identify those who suffer the resultant negative health impacts of social isolation and loneliness and target interventions to improve their social conditions. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults considers clinical tools and methodologies, better education and training for the health care workforce, and dissemination and implementation that will be important for translating research into practice, especially as the evidence base for effective interventions continues to flourish.