Abstract
The authors examined two studies that investigated the degree of anticipated social support. In the first study, the authors compared the degree of social support in a clinical sample of National Institute of Mental Health patients and in the general population sample (N = 91) of respondents who were willing to fill out the Social Support Survey - MOS.
The results show that the patients as well as the sample of general population reached the scores of similar values in the Social Support Survey. Most accessible type of social support for clinical sample is real/tangible support, on the other hand most accessible type of social support for general sample is affection.
Conversely, the least accessible type of social support is positive social interaction for clinical sample and emotional/informational support for general sample. In the second study, the authors examined anticipated social support in a clinical sample of Psychiatric hospital Horní Beřkovice patients (N = 44).
The authors examined associations between anticipated social support and maladaptive personality traits. The results show that anticipated social support is the most associated with detachment, disinhibition and psychoticism.
The results of the first study as well as the second study implicate that current situation is one of the important factors influencing the degree of social support and type of social support as well.