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Seeking Social Support: An Observational Instrumental and Illustrative Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Derek Milne  and
Penny Netherwood
Derek Milne
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital, Morpeth
Penny Netherwood
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Abstract

l“Social support” refers to the informal provision of emotional, informational and practical help to those in distress. Its importance as a buffer against stressors is gaining in acceptance, but most measures of social support are based on self-report. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to develop an observational tool with which to record objectively the duration, subject matter and form of client utterances, relating these to corresponding helper responses. This yields their respective speech profiles, together with an analysis of the contingencies. The potential value of this approach is illustrated in terms of clients attending hairdressing salons in a psychiatric hospital (N = 20) and in the local town (N = 19). Clear and predicted differences in the support elicitation skills of these two groups provided evidence of the instrument's validity, and good inter-rater reliability was also demonstrated. Applications for the instrument are outlined.

Type
Clinical Section
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , April 1997 , pp. 173 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1997

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