1. LONELINESS: SOCIOLOGICAL &
PSYCHOLOGICAL CAUSES AND A
PROPOSED CLASSIFICATION SCHEME
Chris C. Martin | December 6, 2012 | SOC 719R

2. WHAT IS LONELINESS?
 Loneliness is the subjective feeling of having
one’s affiliative needs unmet
Hawkley and Cacioppo 2010; Victor et al. 2000
 Affiliative needs vary by person; perception
of unmet needs also varies
 Loneliness is emotional isolation, not social
isolation
Wenger et al. 1996; Victor et al. 2000

3. BIG NAMES IN LONELINESS RESEARCH
 John Cacioppo  Louise Hawkley  Christina Victor

4. QUESTIONS TO ADDRESS
 How is loneliness measured?
 Can psychological and sociological causes
be separated? Is there evidence for both?
 Is a more granular classification scheme
possible? Can it be tested?

5. PART I: MEASURING LONELINESS

6. DIVERGENT MEASURES
 Single-item vs multi-item
 Single-item example: What other things worry you: Loneliness
(yes/no)
Finnish Voter Barometer 1976
 Short vs. long
 3 questions in Dutch Parl. Elect. Study 1998
 18 questions in Young Life and Times Survey, 2011
 Faceted vs. Non-faceted
 Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults (see next slide)
 Mass administration vs. small-N

7. MULTI-ITEM MEASURES IN SOCIOLOGY
Dutch Parliamentary Election Study 1998
 Nobody has special interest in you
 Even closest family not interested
 I often feel abandoned
Dutch Parliamentary Election Study 2002/2003
 Respondent feels lonely
 When you have problems, you are on your own
 There is always someone you can ask for help

8. MULTI-ITEM MEASURES IN PSYCHOLOGY
Very Commonly Used
UCLA Loneliness Scale (version 3; Russell 1996): frequency and intensity
(e.g., “How often do you feel alone?”, “How often do you feel part of a group of
friends,” and “How often do you feel that there are people who really understand
you?”).
Sometimes Used
Loneliness Scale (De Jong, Gierveld & Kamphuis 1985)
(e.g. “I experience a general sense of emptiness”)
Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults (SELSA; DiTommaso &
Spinner 1993): family vs. friends
(e.g., “I feel close to my family”, "I have someone who fulfills my needs for intimacy”)

9. PART II: MODELING CAUSES OF LONELINESS

10. LONELINESS: MULTIPLE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS
 Finest level: Gene expression
Cole 2009
 Midlevel: Social sciences
 Broadest level: Historical
Elias 1985

11. NEED SETTING CAN BE SEPARATED FROM
NEED SATISFACTION
The Person
Need
s
Friends &
Relatives

12. FOUR PUTATIVE PROCESSES
 SOCIOLOGICAL
 Blockage: Physical barriers to connecting
 Network Loss: Death or other loss of close ties
 Alienation: Unintentionally distancing close ties
 PSYCHOLOGICAL
 Foreclosure: Intentionally pulling self away

13. 1. BLOCKAGE
 Disability
 Neighborhood Decay
----
 What about: Natural disasters, geographical
isolation, stigma

14. 1.1 DISABILITY
 Common among the elderly
 Demands time and effort to compensate for
low mobility
 Could change social habits
 Could be ameliorated by telephone, internet

15. 1.2 NEIGHBORHOOD DECAY
 Described in Heat Wave
Klinenberg 2002
 Associated with White flight, industrial
relocation, poverty
 Removal of some “public” spaces; increased
risk of crime in others
 Could be ameliorated by telephone, internet
 Can be double edged: binding vs. dividing

16. 2. DISCONNECTEDNESS
 Death of spouse or friends
 Relocation or confinement
----
 What about: childlessness (Zhang and Liu
2007)

17. 2.1 DEATH OF SPOUSE
 Widowhood is a robust predictor of
loneliness (Berg et al. 1981; Hansson et al.
1987; Savikko et al 2005; van Baarsen et al.
1999)

18. 2.2 RELOCATION AND CONFINEMENT
 Insufficient research on relocation, such as
expatriation and repatriation
 Prison research shows loneliness during
confinement, but no research about post-
confinement period
Carcedo et al. 2011

19. 3. ALIENATION
 Unintentional distancing of others
 Result of stigmatized or outlying attributes

20. 3.1 ASSOCIATED ATTRIBUTES
 Mental illness
Wright et al. 2007
 Gay/lesbian/bisexual orientation
Kuyper and Fokkema 2010
 Ethnicity, but mixed support here
Fokkema and Kuyper 2009; Victor et al. 2012

21. 4 FORECLOSURE
 Deliberate distancing from other
 Entails change of identity
 Not the same as diffusion

22. 4.1 PROCESSES
 Episodes of loneliness cause identity change
 Identity change causes less socializing
 Social focus is narrowed
Fredrickson 2001
 Outlook becomes hypervigilant and threat-
oriented
Cacioppo et al. 2006
 Cognitive decline may occur
Tilvis et al. 2004

23. 4.1 WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT FORECLOSURE?
 Occurs at the person level
 Interventions are easier to test and
implement
 Most effective intervention: modification of
maladaptive social cognition
Masi et al. 2011

24. PART III: MODELING LONELINESS
Blockage
Disconnectedness
Alienation
Foreclosur
e
Loneliness

25. REFERENCES
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cognition." Trends in Cognitive Sciences 13(10):447-54.
Carcedo, Rodrigo J. et al. 2011. "Heterosexual Romantic Relationships Inside of
Prison Partner Status as Predictor of Loneliness, Sexual Satisfaction, and
Quality of Life." International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative
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Cole, Steve W. 2009. "Social regulation of human gene expression." Current
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Fokkema, Tineke, and Lisette Kuyper. 2009. "The relation between social
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Klinenberg, Eric. 2002. Heat wave?: a social autopsy of disaster in Chicago.
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