Week 5: The Anything Blog

Hello all! I recently came across an article talking about social hierarchies and the different stresses that come from it: (Article link here)

Stress comes for us all, but our cortisol levels can vary depending on the type of situation we are in. However, the responses to these stressors are also impacted by the rank on the social ladder someone is in. A study on mice found that those with a lower social status struggled with social instability. On the flip side, those with a higher social status suffered from social isolation and loneliness. 

Despite these findings, researchers believe that humans live in more complex situations; therefore, more studies are required in order for these results to be applied to us as well.

This article reminded me of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, where social belongingness falls under "belonging and love". Even though esteem may be achieved through social success, they are missing the base of belonging. However, this may also contribute to the theory's fallacies, where individuals can skip across the hierarchy instead of climbing directly upwards.

This is also a major concept of Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development, where our young adulthood has to deal with the conflict with intimacy and isolation, where social ladders may harm our abilities to truly connect with others. Also, an adolescent's conflict between identity and role confusion comes into play, since we may struggle to find our purpose while testing various roles in our friend groups and peers.

Overall, there is many different types of social pressures that we all have to deal with. However, as long as we try to understand each other and stay open-minded, we can overcome the stresses that come from them.

Take care,

Jason 3U