Interpersonal Relationships and Health Social and Clinical Psychological Mechanisms

by Agnew, Christopher R.; South, Susan C.

• ISBN13: 9780190223250
• ISBN10: 0190223251
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2014-07-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Gathering leading thinkers in social and clinical psychology, public health, medicine, and sociology, Interpersonal Relationships and Health considers theoretical and empirical issues relevant to understanding the social and clinical psychological mechanisms linking close relationship processes with mental and physical health outcomes. The volume arises out of a recent explosion of interest, across multiple academic and research fields, in the ways that interpersonal relationships affect health and well-being. This volume pulls together a range of scholars who focus on different aspects of relationships and health in order to encourage both collaboration and cross-disciplinary initiatives. This is the first edited volume to pull together noted experts across myriad disciplines whose research is at the intersection of human relationships and health. Topics addressed include key biological processes that influence and, in turn, are influenced by close relationships. Interpersonal Relationships and Health presents research that demonstrates the connections between interpersonal relationships, mental and physical health outcomes, and biophysical markers that figure prominently in the fields of psychoneuroimmunology, endocrinology, and cardiology. In addition, it highlights recent work on marital, family, and social relationships and their interplay with health and well-being. Chapters also address sexual health among young and older adults, as well as clinical intervention efforts that focus on the role of relational factors in influencing health. Each chapter highlights extant theoretical and empirical findings and suggests future avenues for research in this burgeoning area.

Author Biography

Christopher R. Agnew, Ph.D., is Professor and Head of the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University. His research focuses on close, interpersonal relationships and the use of relational models to understand broader social and health processes. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, American Psychological Association, and the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and served as President of the International Association for Relationship Research.

Susan C. South, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University. Her research investigates the links between marriage and personality and psychopathology. She has published widely on the assessment of marital satisfaction, the links between mental illness and marital distress, and the gene-environment interplay between marital dysfunction and mental illness. Her work has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology (APA Division 12), and the Kinley Trust.

Table of Contents

Preface
Contributors

Part One: Introduction

Interpersonal Relationships and Health: Where the Social and Clinical Converge
Christopher R. Agnew and Susan C. South

Part Two: Biology of Interpersonal Relationships

1. Relationship Researchers Put the 'Psycho' in Psychoneuroimmunology
Timothy J. Loving and Elizabeth Keneski

2. On Marriage and the Heart: Models, Methods, and Mechanisms in the Study of Close Relationships and Cardiovascular Disease
Timothy W. Smith, Carolynne E. Baron, and Catherine M. Caska

3. Family Relationships and Cortisol in Everyday Life
Richard B. Slatcher

4. Divorce and Health Outcomes: From Social Epidemiology to Social Psychophysiology
David A. Sbarra, Widyasita Nojopranoto, and Karen Hasselmo

Part Three: Marital, Family, and Social Relationships, Health and Well-Being

5. It Sometimes Takes Two: Marriage as a Mechanism for Managing Chronic Illness
Mary Ann Parris Stephens, Rachel C. Hemphill, Karen S. Rook, and Melissa M. Franks

6. The Couple and Family Discord Model of Depression: Updates and Future Directions
Steven R. H. Beach

7. Intimate Partner Violence: A Biopsychosocial, Social Information Processing Perspective
Christopher M. Murphy, Amber E.Q. Norwood, and Gina M. Poole

8. Interparental Conflict and Children's Mental Health: Emerging Directions in Emotional Security Theory
E. Mark Cummings, Kalsea J. Koss, and Rebecca Y. M. Cheung

9. Social Connectedness at Older Ages and Implications for Health and Well-Being
Linda J. Waite, James Iveniuk, and Edward O. Laumann

10. Trajectories of Within-Relationship Relationship Quality, Relationship Satisfaction and Sexual Satisfaction among Young African-American Women
J. Dennis Fortenberry and Devon J. Hensel

11. Personality Effects on Risky Sexual Behavior: The Importance of Dynamic Situational Processes and Relational Contexts
M. Lynne Cooper and Ruixue Zhaoyang

Part Four: Synthesizing Social and Clinical Approaches to Relationships and Health

12. Putting it all Together: Synthesizing Social and Clinical Approaches to Relationships and Health
Susan C. South