Question

Consider Christakis' notion of the social contagion effect. What do you believe are the primary implications of the social contagion effect on physical and mental health? Why? How might this notion influence the self-efficacy of an individual? Explain

Answer 1

• Social interactions can affect health in many ways. A prime example is contagion, in which a disease or condition spreads among people in close contact.Social contact with a person in poor mental health could be an input into one’s own mental health.
• By imagining oneself in the position of the other person with poor mental health (i.e., empathizing), one might experience some of the same stressful and negative emotions. Next, one may feel compelled to offer the person support which may feel rewarding and improve mental health, or feel taxing and reduce mental health and the other person may also be less capable of providing support in return.
• Contagion might occur via social comparisons. People may make upward comparisons with more successful people in order to identify themselves with those people, but these comparisons may also cause envy or a decrease in self-esteem. Also, downward comparisons may provide temporary relief,by showing that one’s situation could be worse, or may cause guilt and defensiveness.
• Contagion may also depend on one’s own mental health. People with poor mental health may be more susceptible to contagion, if they have less ability to cope with the stress of being around someone else with poor mental health.
• Negative social contagion obviously has negative influence on self efficacy of an individual.Negative events do elicit stronger emotional, behavioural, and cognitive responses. a person suffering from poor menal health who already has a low self esteem and self efficacy will transfer the same to the other individual who is living in close proximity with him/her.