MAPPING YOUR SOCIAL SUPPORT NETWORK All of us, to one degree or another, rely on others to cope with life stresses

MAPPING YOUR SOCIAL SUPPORT NETWORK

All of us, to one degree or another, rely on others to cope with life stresses. This activity will help you see the structure and quality of the social support system that is around you. One way to do this experience is to focus on a specific, recent stressful event and the people who supported you. Another way is to think more generally about the helpful people in your life.

Step 1
On a separate sheet of paper (preferably unlined), draw three equally spaced concentric circles so that they take up the entire page. The inside ring will show the people in your support system to whom you feel closest, those who know you most intimately and provide the most crucial support. Those in the second ring have a somewhat less intimate relationship with you; those in the outer ring are still supportive but not as critically important to you. Now consider the major categories of people in your life: family, friends from high school, current friends, people you know from work, and so on. There may be three, four, or more such categories. By drawing lines from the middle of the inner most circle, divide the concentric circles into as many pie-shaped pieces as you have categories of support people.  (Don't fill in any names just yet)

Step 2
On the next page, list by initials the people you consider to be the major supportive individuals in your life. Some could be “specialists,” people to whom you go for help on specific problems; some will be “generalists.” Some people you may see virtually every day; some you may see only periodically. Some might provide emotional support (listening to your problems or letting you know you are important to them); some might provide informational support (how to do something); some might provide instrumental support (loaning you money when you are broke); and, of course, some will provide combinations of these types of support. Just stop when you run out of names. Finally, decide whether your relationship with each person is in the inner (most intimate and supportive), the second, or third ring. You may also want to rate the quality of the support each person provides.

Step 3
Now write the initials of each person on the diagram in the location that identifies his or her closeness to you and the category or sphere of your life where you interact (family, work, school, and so on). Draw a small circle around each of the initials (people). At this point you can do many things to depict the nature of your support system. One is to draw lines between all the people in the network who know or are friends with one another. This activity will reveal the density of the network (the number of connections out of the total possible). It can also reveal how integrated or isolated the various spheres
of your life might be. For instance, if you draw many lines across boundaries of your life, you have a highly integrated network—people at school know your family, and people at work know friends you made in high school. You can use colors or other designations to indicate the kinds of support that people provide (one for emotional, one for information, one for instrumental). You could indicate whether the direction of support is usually from that individual toward you or is mutual—you provide as much support as he or she does. One more issue you could examine is the direction of the relationship: Is the person moving toward the inner ring, toward the outer ring, or staying at the same level of intimacy/support? You can also examine other aspects of the network, but this exercise should have made it messy enough!

Discussion
What did you learn by completing this exercise?  Do you have more or less support than you realized? If you have less, how might you acquire more? Was it easy or difficult to come up with names of supportive individuals? Would you recommend this practice to a friend?  If so, why?