Meaning & use
psychosocial
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Meaning
adjectivebefore a noun
Involving both a person's mind and emotions and the social surroundings, relationships and pressures that affect them.
Grammar: Usually comes before a noun: psychosocial support, not support that is psychosocial.
Patterns
- psychosocial factors
- psychosocial support for someone
The clinic offers psychosocial support to families dealing with long-term illness.
Researchers studied the psychosocial effects of unemployment on young adults.
Loneliness is a psychosocial risk factor for poor health in later life.
Common combinations
- psychosocial support
- Teachers received training to give psychosocial support to children after the flood.
- psychosocial factors
- Psychosocial factors such as stress at work can affect recovery.
- psychosocial development
- Erikson described eight stages of psychosocial development.
- psychosocial intervention
- The trial tested a short psychosocial intervention for patients with anxiety.
- psychosocial well-being
- Regular contact with friends improves psychosocial well-being.
Synonyms and how they differ
- psychological
- Psychological refers only to the mind, while psychosocial also takes in the person's social environment.
- emotional
- Emotional is an everyday word about feelings alone and is much less technical than psychosocial.
- social
- Social concerns relationships and society but says nothing about the individual's inner mental state.
Opposites
Word family
- psychology noun
- the study of the mind and behavior
- psychological adjective
- relating to the mind
- social adjective
- relating to society and relationships
- psychosocially adverb
- in a psychosocial way
Commonly confused: psychosocial or psychosomatic?
psychosocial vs psychosomatic
Psychosomatic describes a physical illness thought to be caused or worsened by mental stress; psychosocial concerns mind plus social setting.
Practice
A hospital wants to help patients cope with both their feelings and their family and work pressures. Which kind of support does it offer?
Choose one answer.
Psychosocial covers mental and social aspects together. Psychosomatic is tempting but means a physical illness linked to the mind.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “psychosocial”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.