“Building a strong social network among adults in the neighborhood is instrumental in promoting healthy outcomes, preventing negative outcomes, such as child abuse and delinquency, and empowering residents to improve their surroundings” (Gruman et al., 2016). This excerpt was taken out of the Applied Social Psychology textbook. It speaks about how building a strong social network is important in city environments. How do we create strong social networks in city environments though? It’s harder than it sounds.
Cities are notoriously known for making people feel alone. The beautiful thing about cities is that there’s a million things to do. Contrarily, one of the horrible things about cities is that there’s too many things to do. Many people in cities experience stimulus overload. “Stimulus overload is a concept that describes a condition in which our nervous systems are overwhelmed to the point that we cannot simultaneously respond to everything in the environment (e.g., traffic, crowds), so we adapt by setting priorities and selecting where we focus our attention. Much of this adaptation involves psychologically retreating so that we cut down (perhaps unconsciously) on responding to all the things that demand our attention” (Gruman et al., 2016). If much of a city goers everyday lives involve psychologically dampening the world to survive, how can social connections be made?
A research study was done on adolescent girls suffering from depression who live in major cities all over the world. The study from Cheng and colleagues (2014) shows that having a caring female adult in the home and feeling connected to their neighborhoods were positively associated with hope and negatively associated with depression and PTSD. This indicates that connections inside the home and in the directly surrounding house outside the home are important for psychological functioning.
Another research study by Cullen (2006) states that regardless of where social support is found, whether it be through government social programs, social networks, families, or interpersonal relations, it reduces criminal involvement. This is important since criminal involvement typically shows higher prevalence in cities than in suburban or rural areas of the country.
In summary, research studying criminality and psychopathology shows that social connections are important for psychological functioning. The problem of cities exacerbating feelings of loneliness is an issue. For those living in cities, it should be a high priority to seek out community and social support. Hopefully, if people feel more encouraged to find support groups and friends, people can feel more connected.
References
Cheng, Y., Li, X., Lou, C., Sonenstein, F. L., Kalamar, A., Jejeebhoy, S., Delany-Moretlwe, S., Brahmbhatt, H., Olumide, A. O., & Ojengbede, O. (2014). The Association Between Social Support and Mental Health Among Vulnerable Adolescents in Five Cities: Findings From the Study of the Well-Being of Adolescents in Vulnerable Environments. Journal of Adolescent Health, 55(6), S31–S38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.08.020
Cullen, F. T. (1994). Social support as an organizing concept for criminology: Presidential address to the academy of criminal justice sciences. Justice Quarterly, 11(4), 527–559. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418829400092421
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
Tags: cities, loneliness