Lesson 6 - Be a Social Animal

The circles of social support

Social networks are made up of supportive people you have in your "inner circle." The MacArthur Foundation developed the following exercise to ascertain peoples' social support. You are handed a piece of paper with three concentric circles with a bulls-eye that contains the word "you".

You are then instructed to think of the people who are important to your life. The three concentric circles represent different levels of importance. People in the innermost circle are those to whom you feel so close that it’s is hard to imagine life without them. People in the next circles are also important to you and your relationship to them are close, but less so.

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