Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T02:29:31.602Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Nature of Emotional Support

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

G. Burnand*
Affiliation:
High Wycombe College of Technology. Saxondale and Balderton Hospitals

Extract

If a person is faced with some potentially frightening task such as making a speech, then the company of a friend, who contributes nothing directly, may improve the delivery of the speech by his emotional support, more traditionally called moral support. It seems the same article as that which ought to be supplied to a child by its parents, to a patient by his therapist, or to a worker by his supervisor so that efficiency can develop and be maintained. However, a therapist or a supervisor may not know when emotional support is being given; sometimes the presence of another person can be embarrassing, and so a normally efficient pattern of behaviour may be disturbed. For this reason an examination of the nature of support seems warranted.

Type
Theoretical
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1969 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, R. A., Ware, J. R., Spires, G. H., and Osborn, W. C. (1966). “The effects of supervisory threat on decision making and risk taking in a simulated combat game.” Behavioral Sci., 11, 167176.Google Scholar
Beckwith, J., Iverson, M. A., and Render, M. E. (1965). “Test anxiety, task relevance of group experience and change in level of aspiration.” J. pers. and soc. Psychol., 1, 578588.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1965). Social Psychology. London: Collier-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Chess, S., Clark, K. B., and Thomas, A. (1953). “The importance of cultural evaluation in psychiatric diagnosis and treatment.” Psychiat. Quart., 27, 102114.Google Scholar
Collins, B. E., and Guetzkow, H. (1964). A Social Psychology of Group Processes for Decision Making. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Fenichel, O. (1934). Outline of Clinical Psychoanalysis. London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Trubner.Google Scholar
French, J. R. P., Kay, E., and Meyer, H. H. (1966). “Participation and the appraisal system.” Hum. Rel., 19, 320.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1938). Moses and Monotheism. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Goodchilds, J. D., and Smith, E. E. (1964). “The wit and his group.” Hum. Rel., 17, 2331.Google Scholar
Hemphill, J. K. (1950). “Relations between the size of the group and the behavior of superior leaders.” J. soc. Psychol., 32, 1122.Google Scholar
Janis, L. L. (1958). Psychological Stress. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Kahn, R. L., Wolfe, D. M., Quinn, R. P., and Snoek, J. D. (1964). Organizational Stress: Studies in Role Conflict and Ambiguity. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Kay, E., Meyer, H. H., and French, J. R. P. (1965). “Effects of threat in performance appraisal interviews.” J. app. Psychol., 49, 311317.Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. (1964). “A laboratory approach to the dynamics of psychological stress.” Amer. Psychol., 19, 400411.Google Scholar
Mead, M. (1942). Growing Up in New Guinea. Middlesex: Pelican.Google Scholar
Marriott, R. (1949). “Size of the working group and output.” Occup. Psychol., 23, 4757.Google Scholar
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On Becoming a Person : a Therapist's View of Psychotherapy. Boston: Houghton.Google Scholar
Seashore, S. E. (1954). Group Cohesiveness in the Industrial Work Group. Ann Arbor: Michigan Institute for Social Research.Google Scholar
Smock, C. D. (1956). “The relationship between test anxiety, threat expectancy, and recognition threshold words.” J. Pers., 25, 191201.Google Scholar
Strupp, H. H., Wallach, M. S., and Wogan, M. (1964). “Psychotherapy experience in retrospect: questionnaire survey of former patients and their therapists.” Psychol. Mon., 78, Whole No. 588.Google Scholar
Talland, G. A., and Clark, D. H. (1954). “Evaluation of topics in therapy group discussion.” J. clin. Psychol., 10, 131137.Google Scholar
Winnicott, D. W. (1958). “The capacity to be alone.” Int. J. Psychoanal., 39, 416420.Google Scholar
Zagona, S. V., Willis, J. E., and Mackinnon, W. J. (1966). Group effectiveness in creative problem solving tasks: an examination of relevant variables.” J. Psychol., 62, 111137.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.