Feeling Supported
Participants make a list of people who they feel supported by, write down brief descriptions of their connection to each person on their list, and then write down the supportive and caring qualities that their list of people all have in common. Then, they recall a situation where one of the people from their list provided support or helped them and describe this experience in writing.
Reasoning
Feeling interpersonally supported increases feelings of personal safety and agency, i.e. like the world is a more navigable, less threatening place where social bonds that are trustworthy and comforting enable pursuit of resources and goals. Social integration, i.e. having supportive interpersonal connections, is associated with lifelong advantages to health and well-being. When people feel safer, they are able to allocate more attention and effort towards novelty seeking, problem solving, creative pursuits, and engaging prosocially with others. Reflecting on the people who have provided or still provide meaningful support in one’s life can orient perception to favor empathic, approachable, trusting, and benevolent interpretations about oneself, others, and the world, and be a reminder of aspirational virtuous characteristics and qualities. Bringing morally kind and compassionate principles to mind through personal experience primes people to behave more supportively and generously when they themselves encounter another person in need, which strengthens social bonds in ways that benefit well-being.
Procedure
Participants are instructed to make a list of people who they currently feel, or have felt, truly supported by in their life, and to briefly describe their relationship to each person on the list. Considering their list of supportive people, participants are asked to reflect on qualities that they most appreciate about the people on their list. Then, participants are instructed to write down at least 6 qualities that the people on their list all have in common. Finally, participants are instructed to think of a specific time where they themselves were feeling distressed or upset where one of the people from their list comforted or helped them, and describe this experience in writing. Participants are instructed to include details about the recalled event, including details about the context, how they felt, and how being supported or helped by the other person made them feel.
Primary Citation & Study Summary:
Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P. R., Gillath, O., & Nitzberg, R. A. (2005). Attachment, caregiving, and altruism: Boosting attachment security increases compassion and helping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
Study participants reflected on a supportive relationship by engaging in this writing exercise; participants in the control condition thought about an acquaintance or a professional relationship. Immediately afterwards, the people who reflected on the supportive relationship reported greater compassion for--and willingness to help--a person in distress.