Adams 1

Nathan Adams

English 1201

Professor Ecker

4/18/2019

General Relationships and Their Effects on Human Beings

Relatively recently I had a friend go through a divorce, something horrible for anybody to

go through. Though she seemed happy on the outside, her nature grew more reserved and

depressive. Eventually after a couple months she was able to reorganize herself but in a different

way: she had changed. Her views on life were more pessimistic and she found it harder to get

along with people and trust them, ultimately this made her life a little bit more lonely. Through

friend’s experiences and through my own, relationships have proven to have powerful effects on

how we view the world around us. Nearly everyone can relate to the feeling of “walking on air”

when in a relationship. Possibly even more can relate to the devastation of a relationship ending

regardless of if it was a friendly or romantic relationship. Knowing there are people with similar

situations to what my aformentioned friend had out there, I claim that individuals who in the past

have been hurt by their relationships shouldn't take a defensive stance towards seeking new ones.

Studies show that the quality of a relationship affects the mental health of the people involved in

them. Although a past relationship may have caused harm, forming new relationships can have a

healing effect on the wounded.

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Inside today’s society the desire to make lasting romantic relationships have decreased

significantly. Throughout the recent years the percentage of unmarried adults has steadily been at

an incline; reaching about fifty percent in 2016 (Parker, & Stepler 2017). Even more severely all

the way across the world in Japan, marriage shows the same signs of decreasing among young

adults. Japanese men and women between the ages 18 to 36 that aren’t involved in a stable

romantic relationship is up to an alarming 69.8% for men and 59.1% for women ("Japan's

Unmarried Masses Face Mounting Obstacles to Matrimony" 2019). Some have posed that the

decline in serious relationships in Japan has influence over Japan’s declining population. “About

127 million people live in Japan. The population could drop below the 100 million mark by

2049, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research” (Ingber

2018). If marriage rates of the United States drops to the same level Japan’s has we could run

into the same population problem. As many know, suicide rates in Japan are extremely high

-Japan being the 6th highest in the world- with one of the locations in Japan being called

Aokigahara, quite literally meaning suicide forest. Suicide in Japan is usually linked to the

diagnoses of depression which could possibly stem from the lack of meaningful relationships

being made.

Humans, being social creatures, are reliant on relationships for mental health reasons.

Because of the debate surrounding solitary confinement being inhumane, many people have

heard rumors about how isolation can turn a man crazy. One famous psychological experiment

that helped prove this point was Harry Harlow’s experiment involving rhesus monkeys. Within

the psychological investigation of rhesus monkeys, they were put into custom design isolation
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chambers built by Harlow himself (Harlow, Dodsworth, & Harlow 1965). Three groups were

involved in the test; monkeys isolated for three months, monkeys isolated for 6 months, and

monkeys isolated for an entire year. Notable reactions in most of the monkeys inside the three

month group were, when exposed to others of the same group, “they usually go into a state of

emotional shock, characterized by autistic self-clutching

and rocking” (Harlow, Dodsworth, & Harlow 1965). One

of the monkeys of this group actually died from

starvation because it had refused to eat; the official cause

of death being emotional anorexia. Right of the text is an

image of a rhesus monkey curled in the corner of its cage,

this was a common reaction amongst the isolated

monkeys. The groups of monkeys that were kept for 6

and 12 months had similar results to each other. Abnormal behaviors among these groups

became more frequent, these behaviors include: increased aggression towards other specimens,

self mutilation, fear of interaction, and intense lack of social behavior (Harlow, Dodsworth, &

Harlow 1965). Monkeys are similar to humans in behavior but not the same these types of

studies for human subjects are scarce because the conditions are considered inhumane.

Luckily in 1951 a study at McGill University involved human subjects in isolation. Male

graduate students at the university were paid 20 dollars a day to stay inside small chambers with

each room having only one bed (Butler, et al. 2017). To further the sensory deprivation the

students experienced, the subjects were told to wear goggles, earphones, and gloves to limit their
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vision, hearing, and sense of touch (Breslow 2014). Graduates in the experiment “were given

food by human beings, and also when they needed to use the washrooms and things they would

be escorted there by other human beings. So they weren’t completely alone” (Butler, et al. 2017).

Regardless of if the students were alone or not, the psychological effects left behind from the

isolation were prominent. Nearly every student involved in the experiment lost the ability to

think clearly; some students even began experiencing hallucinations varying from many dogs to

multiple types of eyeglasses appearing around the room (Breslow 2014). Even when conditions

for isolation are not as extreme and forced, effects created by it stand very clear in the general

public.

Social isolation happens more frequently than anybody would really think. Social

isolation is the state of completely lacking or close to completely lacking social interaction

between the individual and society. To be socially isolated, the individual doesn’t necessarily

have to be alone: humans can experience social isolation in the company of others

(“GoodTherapy.org” 2018). Alarmingly, about 47% of americans report having little to no

meaningful social interactions on a daily basis. Commonly isolation is linked to an increase of

mental health issues like depression, dementia, social anxiety, and low self esteem: many of the

aforementioned health issues are seen frequently in America’s youth today. Even inside romantic

relationships individuals can experience social and emotional isolation. Emotional isolation can

result in a multitude of problems inside a romantic relationships like, “Infidelity, abuse, and

other trust issues” (“GoodTherapy.org” 2018). These problems affect the overall quality of a

relationship, which of course, has its own effect on mental health.

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A study titled “Relationship Satisfaction and Risk Factors for Suicide” conducted by:

Benedict Till, member of the Suicide Research Unit at the Medical University of Vienna; Ulrich

Tran, member of the Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods at the

University of Vienna; and finally Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, also a member of the Suicide

Research Unit at the Medical University of Vienna that dives into how the quality of a romantic

relationship affects individuals involved. When communication between partners about their

problems is lost, both partners will experience social isolation which results in decreased quality

of relationships. People in low quality relationships experienced increasing numbers of suicidal

ideas and mental problems like hopelessness and depression. Individuals in higher quality

relationships tend to communicate better and their were less reports of suicidal ideation and

depressive symptoms. Singles reported less mental problems than partners involved in a

relationship of poor quality but more than individuals in higher quality relationships (Till, Tran,

& Niederkrotenthaler 2016). Another mental effect isolation has on an individual is lowering

their self-esteem. One study found that perceived self-esteem plays a significant role in obtaining

happy relationships and that having happy relationships can assist in maintaining self esteem

(Erol & Orth 2017).

Relationships having effects on mental health can be doubtable, one might say that other

problems could have caused an the individual to develop a mental hinderance. As mentioned

earlier humans are creatures that require company which is proven via the isolation experiments

on the college students. Monkeys had the same mentally deteriorating effects and even dolphins
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are known to commit suicide from loneliness. Take Kathy -shown with her trainer below- for

example, one of the dolphins that played the

starring role in Flipper. After filming the show

she was sent to an aquarium by herself for

months away from her trainer where she grew

depressed and lonely. Eventually her trainer

was called to see what was wrong with her and

she took her own life in his arms (Dsiegel

2013). Like 47% of americans reported lacking in GoodTherapy, Kathy also began lacking

meaningful relationships. Having these important relationships maintained and created are vital

for the mental health of humans and animals alike.

Relationships don’t exclusively have an effect on mental health, they also play a role in

our physical health. According to a Japanese study that investigated the affiliation between grey

matter in the brain and romantic relationships, being involved romantically motivates a reduction

of grey matter and an increase in white matter specifically in the right dorsal striatum

(Kawamichi, el al. 2016). Inside the image below shows the dorsal striatum and where the grey

matter would be located and also a chart comparing the amounts of grey matter between singles

and individuals in a relationship (See image below).

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(Table 1 taken from Being in a Romantic Relationship Is Associated with Reduced Gray Matter

Density in Striatum and Increased Subjective Happiness by Kawamichi, el al.)

To understand exactly the findings of Kawamichi’s study means, the reader must know

two things. What exactly is grey matter as opposed to white matter and why is it significant to

brain function? What functions are the brain’s right dorsal striatum involved in completing?

Answering the first question, grey matter is a term for brain cells without a myelinated sheath. A

myelin sheath is a collection of fat cells that does two jobs, helps protect the brain cell and helps

conduct the chemical and electrical signals sent throughout the brain. White matter has a

myelinated sheath, in simpler terms, white matter does the same job as grey matter but better

(Villines 2018). In regard to the second question, the right dorsal striatum plays an important part

in motivation and how we perceive reward. Because of Kawamichi’s findings, there is solid

evidence of why humans experience the previously mentioned “walking on air” phenomenon.
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Romantic relationships result in physical alterations of the brain which allow us to gain more

pleasure out of daily life.

Many physical effects occur outside of the brain, they occur over the whole body

actually. Somebody involved in a romantic relationship is less likely to be obese or get involved

with substance abuse finds a study at Florida University (Braithwaite, Delevi, & Fincham 2010).

Braithwaite’s study also finds a decrease in risky behavior amongst romantically involved

individuals “risky behavior” in this context actually refers to the spread of STIs between the

college students that took part in the survey. Adolescence spurs experimentation with many

partners which can increase the spread of STIs inside any area, to quote, “Casual sex is common

during the emerging adult life course stage” (Ann Lyons 2017). The spread of STIs could be

considered a hazard to any person’s health; being in a monogamous relationship is a type of

prevention against STIs. Perhaps that could also be considered a positive physical impact

relationships have on the body, the avoidance of STIs.

With the avoidance of risky behavior, substance abuse, and obesity comes the avoidance

of mortality. In an article by the name of “Mortality in Single Fathers Compared with Single

Mothers and Partnered Parents: a Population Based Cohort Study” Chiu conducts research on

exactly what could be deduced from title. It finds that single fathers are at 3 times the risk of

mortality which was the highest group examined. Singled mothers were at 1 ⅗ times the risk of

mortality and the baseline being coupled fathers and mothers which share about the same risk of

mortality (Chiu, et al. 2018). As shown in the diagram located in Chiu’s piece, single mothers
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and fathers were more likely to engage in unhealthy habits such as smoking, binge drinking, and

being physically inactive. Chronic conditions including cancer, cardiovascular disease, various

respiratory conditions, diabetes, and hypertension were more common among divorced or single

fathers and mothers.

There are many questions that can arise from the evidence supporting physical benefits of

relationships. How can it be proved that these physical benefits actually come from being in a

romantic relationship? The data stays consistent through every academic article. Substance abuse

is lessened by romantic relationships because if one partner becomes a substance abuser it affects

the other partner and themselves financially, emotionally, and even physically. Abuse of

substances is lessened because there is somebody else to think about. Decrease in chronic

diseases could possibly be a ripple effect of less substance abuse. For example, less smoking

helps avoid developing issues with the respiratory system and the cardiovascular system. Obesity

is a tricky subject regarding how it affects relationships. Obesity could lessen because the

individual in the relationship is motivated to keep their body active or individuals who aren’t

obese have an easier time engaging in a relationship because obesity is typically considered

unattractive. Another cause for less substance abuse in relationships could be because of how the

dorsal striatum is changed when in a relationship. Because of the reduction of grey matter, taken

subjects have increased pleasure in life morphing their situation into one where addictive

substances aren’t even considered. With all reasons being webbed together, what valid reasoning

could be had for actively denying a relationships?

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Whether its trust in friends or trust bestowed to a lover, it can be difficult to truly and

fully trust another human. Why should people who’ve been previously hurt start any relationship

again? Many people have experienced the loss of a friend as a result from a fight or went through

heartbreak when losing a possible significant other, but for the health of society and the

individual trust shouldn’t be withheld from everybody. “Trust is integral to happy and fulfilling

relationships in both our personal and professional lives. We require trust to develop over time to

build successful and meaningful partnerships” (“Importance of Trust in Relationships | Strategic

Psychology” 2019). Forming relationships with other human beings is important for a successful

life.

Why are our relationships crucial to our success in life? John Koshy gives a great

example of why relationships are important to our everyday lives. In his article “The Science of

Human Relationships” he details a life changing conversation he has with his grandfather. Koshy

asks his grandfather the question of how much he values his life having already lived through

most of it. His grandfather pauses for a bit and says “The most important thing in my entire life

are the few relationships I have made. Nothing else matters.” At first, Koshy didn’t realize the

power this statement held but he came to realize that “We live in a connected world” (Koshy

2017) Connections matter in today’s society, they help us to progress our lives. Romantic

relationships help assist partners in becoming financially stable, government programs assist

with that. Business relationships help to gain more power inside of the work environment and

maybe move up positions. Friendly relationships improve quality of life, they’re around to help

in times of need and increase pleasure derived from group activities.

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Revolving back to the topic of America possibly falling down the same antisocial path as

Japan, what are some ways we could fix this? Getting outside and in the public eye can give

anybody a chance at more social interaction. As time passes, the amount of young adults inside

of public areas like malls and parks has significantly decreased. Another solution may be to have

less screen time, as numerous amounts of writers have noticed, teen and cellphone interaction

continue to rise. Screens create a sense anonymity which breaks away any chance at forming

meaningful relationships. Prioritization of significant activities would also allow an individual

more free time to meet others of interest.

In conclusion, taking a defensive stance towards making new relationships is unhealthy

because quality of health and life are degraded. My friend mentioned at the beginning, even

though currently she has distaste for any romantic relationship, she still tells me of crushes she

has which gives me hope that her beliefs towards the subject of relationships will eventually

dissipate. Life becomes more enjoyable the more relationships you establish with people, the

brain, the body, and society rewards those who have open arms towards others.
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Works Cited

Ann Lyons, Heidi. “Heterosexual Casual Sex and STI Diagnosis: A Latent Class Analysis.”

International Journal of Sexual Health : Official Journal of the World Association for

Sexual Health​, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2017,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5737755/.

Braithwaite, Scott R, et al. “Romantic Relationships and the Physical and Mental Health of

College Students.” ​Journal of the International Association for Relationship Research,​

Florida State University, 2010, fincham.info/papers/2010_PR-Braithwaite.pdf.

Breslow, Jason M. “What Does Solitary Confinement Do To Your Mind?” ​PBS​, Public

Broadcasting Service, 22 Apr. 2014,

www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/what-does-solitary-confinement-do-to-your-mind/.

Assisted in confirming specifics of the McGill University isolation experiment

Butler, Kiera, et al. “What Extreme Isolation Does to Your Mind.” ​Mother Jones​, 25 June

2017, www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/donald-o-hebb-effects-extreme-isolation/.

Assisted in getting specifics about the McGill University isolation experiment.

Chiu, Maria, et al. “Mortality in Single Fathers Compared with Single Mothers and Partnered

Parents: a Population-Based Cohort Study.” ​The Lancet Public Health,​ The Lancet, 14
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Feb. 2018,

www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(18)30003-3/fulltext.

Dsiegel. “THE NIGHT FLIPPER COMMITTED SUICIDE.” ​National Enquirer​, National

Enquirer, 3 Oct. 2013,

www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/night-flipper-committed-suicide/.

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American Psychological Association, 2017, psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-05125-004.

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“Japan's Unmarried Masses Face Mounting Obstacles to Matrimony.” ​Nippon.com​, 6 Mar.

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