
Other researchers have developed multi-item loneliness tests that provide a more precise assessment of the degree to which a person feels lonely. For instance, a question on an opinion survey might ask, “During the past two weeks, how often have you felt severely lonely or remote from other people?” Respondents would select as their answer “always,” “often,” “sometimes,” or “never.” Survey researchers often ask very direct questions. As she gradually made friends with ocher wives at [he military base, her social loneliness diminished.Īn important step in studying loneliness scientifically was to develop standardized ways to measure the overall amount of loneliness a person is experiencing. Although Mike quickly developed close ties to his buddies at work, Kim desperately missed her friends and neighbors back home. As a happily married new bride, Kim went with her husband to a military post in a remote area of Alaska. Similarly, people who have close emotional attachments may still feel great loneliness if they lack a network of friends or feel alienated from their community. Thus, a man suffering from the breakup of his marriage will feel painfully lonely even though he may have supportive friends at work. One sort of relationship cannot readily substitute for another in alleviating loneliness. Each type of loneliness can be extremely painful, including symptoms of restlessness and depression. Social loneliness results from the loss or absence of social ties to friends, coworkers, or neighbors. Emotional loneliness results from the loss or absence of an emotional attachment to one special person, such as a romantic partner or best friend.

Robert Weiss (1973) identified two kinds of loneliness. Or the problem may be one of quality: loneliness may occur when a person’s relations are superficial, conflict- ridden, or fail in other ways to satisfy important psycho- logical needs. The problem may be one of quantity: loneliness can stem from the lack of a close relationship or a circle of friends.

What is Loneliness this is very interesting question.Loneliness is the unpleasant emotional experience that occurs when a person’s social relationships are deficient in an important way.
