Defining and Measuring Loneliness
Loneliness is not the same as isolation. Some of the loneliest individuals are
surrounded by people most of the day. Rather, loneliness concerns our per-
ception of how much social interaction we have and the quality of that inter-
action. As one team of investigators explained, “Loneliness occurs when a
person ’s network of social relationships is smaller orless satisfying than the
person desires” (Peplau, Russell, & Heim, 1979, p. 55, italics added). You
can have very little contact with people, but if you are satisfied with that con-tact, you won ’t feel lonely. On the other hand, you may have many friends,
yet still feel a need for more or deeper friendships and thus become lonely.
Thinking of loneliness in terms of personal satisfaction with one ’ss o c i a lr e -
lationships helps explain why some people who live in virtual isolation find the
solitude enjoyable, whereas other individuals surrounded by people feel lonely.
I commonly hear college students complain that, although they have a lot ofacquaintances and people to hang around with, they don ’t have many real
friends. For these students, the unmet need to interact with that special person
in an intimate and honest way can create intense feelings of being alone.
Loneliness is often caused by the circumstances people find themselves in,
such as moving to a new city or attending a new school. Moreover, the kindsof relationships we desire change as we pass through the life cycle (Green,
Richardson, Lago, & Schatten-Jones, 2001; Pinquart & Sorensen, 2001).
Young adults often require a larger number of friends to fend off loneliness,
whereas older adults prefer fewer but closer friends. The causes and conse-
quences of loneliness also vary as a function of culture (Anderson, 1999).
The absence of an intimate friend or romantic partner often contributes to
loneliness in Western societies. In fact, when people in individualistic cultures
think of loneliness, they often imagine someone without a spouse or romantic
partner. However, this source of loneliness is less common in Asian cultures,
which emphasize instead associations with family members and the commu-
nity (Rokach, 1998). Because collectivist cultures emphasize one ’s place in a
larger social network, feeling alone in these cultures is more likely to lower aperson ’s sense of well-being (Goodwin, Cook, & Yung, 2001).
Although feelings of loneliness come and go as circumstances change, re-
searchers also find loneliness can be conceived of as a fairly stable personalitytrait. That is, although everyone feels lonely on occasion, some people are highlyvulnerable to feelings of loneliness and seem to chronically suffer from not having
enough close friends. Other people are relatively immune from these experiences.
Several personality inventories have been developed to assess individual differ-ences in our tendency to feel lonely (Cramer, Ofosu, & Barry, 2000; Rubenstein
& Shaver, 1980; Russell, Peplau, & Cutrona, 1980; Schmidt & Sermat, 1983).
Like other personality variables, our vulnerability to loneliness is relativelystable over time (Segrin, 1999; Weeks, Michela, Peplau, & Bragg, 1980).
Chronically Lonely People
Correlations between measures of loneliness and other personality variables
paint a drab and sullen picture of lonely people (Ernst & Cacioppo, 1999).Loneliness 319