Transient Loneliness and the Perceived Provision and Receipt of Capitalization Support Within Event-Disclosure Interactions
Abstract
Research affirms that loneliness is a distressing experience with social-perceptual and behavioral consequences. Yet, little is known about consequences of transient loneliness, particularly within social interactions. The current study builds on reaffiliation motive and evolutionary models of state loneliness to investigate the effects of experimentally manipulated loneliness on individual and interaction partner perceptions during an event-sharing interaction, within 97 female dyads. Actor–partner interdependence mediation analyses revealed indirect effects for induction group (high vs. low loneliness) on positive affect, enjoyment, responsiveness, and partner positive affect, via induced state loneliness. Furthermore, state loneliness influenced actor and partner provision of responsiveness, via perceived responsiveness. Results reveal interpersonal consequences of transient loneliness, offering preliminary insight into conditions through which state perceptions of isolation may interfere with engagement in positive social interactions. Furthermore, implications for previously theorized evolutionary models of state loneliness and the reaffiliation motive are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Aron A., Melinat E., Aron E. N., Vallone R. D., Bator R. J. (1997). The experimental generation of interpersonal closeness: A procedure and some preliminary findings. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 363-377.
Bargh J. A., Chartrand T. L. (2000). The mind in the middle: A practical guide to priming and automaticity research. In Reis H. T., Judd C. M. (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (pp. 253-285). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Baumeister R. F., Bratslavsky E., Finkenauer C., Vohs K. D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5, 323-370.
Baumeister R. F., Leary M. R. (1995). The need-to-belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497-529.
Bekhet A. K., Zauszniewski J. A. (2012). Mental health of elders in retirement communities: Is loneliness a key factor? Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 26, 214-224.
Benjamini Y., Hochberg Y. (1995). Controlling the false discovery rate: A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B (Methodological), 57, 289-300.
Bollen K., Lennox R. (1991). Conventional wisdom on measurement: A structural equation perspective. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 305-314.
Borys S., Perlman D. (1985). Gender differences in loneliness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 11, 63-74.
Cacioppo J. T., Cacioppo S., Boomsma D. I. (2014). Evolutionary mechanisms for loneliness. Cognition & Emotion, 28, 3-21.
Cacioppo J. T., Fowler J. H., Christakis N. A. (2009). Alone in the crowd: The structure and spread of loneliness in a large social network. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 977-991.
Cacioppo J. T., Hawkley L. C., Ernst J. M., Burleson M., Berntson G. G., Nouriani B., Spiegel D. (2006). Loneliness within a nomological net: An evolutionary perspective. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 1054-1085.
Chen G. M. (1995). Differences in self-disclosure patterns among Americans versus Chinese: A comparative study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 26, 84-91.
Clark M. S., Lemay E. P. (2010). Close relationships. In Fiske S. T., Gilbert D. T., Lindzey G. (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 898-940). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
Cook W. L., Kenny D. A. (2005). The actor–partner interdependence model: A model of bidirectional effects in developmental studies. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 29, 101-109.
DeWall C. N., Maner J. K., Rouby D. A. (2009). Social exclusion and early-stage interpersonal perception: Selective attention to signs of acceptance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 729-741.
Dindia K., Allen M. (1992). Sex differences in self-disclosure: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 106-124.
Dindia K., Fitzpatrick M. A., Kenny D. A. (1997). Self-disclosure in spouse and stranger interaction: A social relations analysis. Human Communication Research, 23, 388-412.
Ernst J. M., Cacioppo J. T. (1998). Lonely hearts: Psychological perspectives on loneliness. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 8, 1-22.
Gable S. L., Gonzaga G. C., Strachman A. (2006). Will you be there for me when things go right? Supportive responses to positive event disclosures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 904-917.
Gable S. L., Reis H. T. (2010). Good news! Capitalizing on positive events in an interpersonal context. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 195-257.
Gable S. L., Reis H. T., Impett E. A., Asher E. R. (2004). What do you do when things go right? The intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits of sharing positive events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 228-245.
Gross E. F., Juvenon J., Gable S. L. (2002). Internet use and well-being in adolescence. Journal of Social Issues, 58, 75-90.
Hawkley L. C., Cacioppo J. T. (2010). Loneliness matters: A theoretical and empirical review of consequences and mechanisms. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 40, 218-227.
Kashdan T. B., Ferssizidis P., Farmer A. S., Adams L. M., McKnight P. E. (2013). Failure to capitalize on sharing good news with romantic partners: Exploring positivity deficits of socially anxious people with self-reports, partner-reports, and behavioral observations. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51, 656-668.
Kenny D. A., Kashy D. A., Cook W. L. (2006). Dyadic data analysis. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Langston C. A. (1994). Capitalizing on and coping with daily-life events: Expressive responses to positive events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 1112-1125.
Ledermann T., Macho S., Kenny D. A. (2011). Assessing mediation in dyadic data using the actor-partner interdependence model. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 18, 595-612.
Lim J. W., Shon E. J., Paek M., Daly B. (2014). The dyadic effects of coping and resilience on psychological distress for cancer survivor couples. Supportive Care in Cancer, 22, 3209-3217.
Lykes V. A., Kemmelmeier M. (2014). What predicts loneliness? Cultural difference between individualistic and collectivistic societies in Europe. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45, 468-490.
Maner J. K., DeWall C. N., Baumeister R. F., Schaller M. (2007). Does social exclusion motivate interpersonal reconnection? Resolving the “porcupine problem.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 42-55.
Muthén L. K., Muthén B. O. (2008). Mplus (Version 5.1). Los Angeles, CA: Author.
Nguyen T. V. T., Ryan R. M., Deci E. L. (2018). Solitude as an approach to affective self-regulation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44, 92-106.
Peplau L. A., Perlman D. (1979). Blueprint for a social psychological theory of loneliness. In Cook M., Wilson G. (Eds.), Love and attraction: An international conference (pp. 101-110). Oxford, England: Pergamon Press.
Poerio G. L., Totterdell P., Emerson L. M., Miles E. (2016). Helping the heart grow fonder during absence: Daydreaming about significant others replenishes connectedness after induced loneliness. Cognition and Emotion, 30, 1197-1207.
Pratto F., John O. P. (1991). Automatic vigilance: The attention-grabbing power of negative social information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 380-391.
Preacher K. J., Hayes A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879-891.
Qualter P., Vanhalst J., Harris R., Van Roekel E., Lodder G., Bangee M., . . . Verhagen M. (2015). Loneliness across the life span. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10, 250-264.
Reis H. T. (2003). A self-report measure of perceived partner responsiveness. Unpublished data, University of Rochester.
Reis H. T., Maniaci M. R., Caprariello P. A., Eastwick P. W., Finkel E. J. (2011). Familiarity does indeed promote attraction in live interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 557-570.
Reis H. T., Shaver P. (1988). Intimacy as an interpersonal process. In Duck S., Hay D. F., Hobfoll S. E., Ickes W., Montgomery B. M. (Eds.), Handbook of personal relationships: Theory, research and interventions (pp. 367-389). Oxford, UK: John Wiley.
Reis H. T., Smith S. M., Carmichael C. L., Caprariello P. A., Tsai F. F., Rodrigues A., Maniaci M. R. (2010). Are you happy for me? How sharing positive events with others provides personal and interpersonal benefits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 311-329.
Rokach A., Bacanli H., Ramberan G. (2000). Coping with loneliness: A cross-cultural comparison. European Psychologist, 5, 302-311.
Rotenberg K. J. (1997). Loneliness and the perception of the exchange of disclosures. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 16, 259-276.
Rotenberg K. J., Flood D. (1999). Loneliness, dysphoria, dietary restraint, and eating behavior. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 25, 55-64.
Rubenstein C. M., Shaver P. (1982). The experience of loneliness. In Peplau L. A., Perlman D. (Eds.), Loneliness: A sourcebook of current theory, research, and therapy (pp. 206-223). New York, NY: Wiley-Interscience.
Russell D. W. (1996). UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3): Reliability, validity, and factor structure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66, 20-40.
Schug J., Yuki M., Maddux W. (2010). Relational mobility explains between-and within-culture differences in self-disclosure to close friends. Psychological Science, 21, 1471-1478.
Sheldon K. M., Gunz A. (2009). Psychological needs as basic motives, not just experiential requirements. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1467-1492.
Solano C. H., Batten P. G., Parish E. A. (1982). Loneliness and patterns of self-disclosure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 524-531.
Watson D., Clark L. A., Tellegen A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070.
West T. V., Popp D., Kenny D. A. (2008). A guide for the estimation of gender and sexual orientation effects in dyadic data: An actor-partner interdependence model approach. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 321-336.
Wittenberg M. T., Reis H. T. (1986). Loneliness, social skills, and social perception. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 12, 121-130.
Young J. E. (1982). Loneliness, depression, and cognitive therapy: Theory and application. In Peplau L. A., Perlman D. (Eds.), Loneliness: A sourcebook of current theory, research, and therapy (pp. 379-406). New Work, NY: Wiley Interscience.
Zhou X., Sedikides C., Wildschut T., Gao D. G. (2008). Counteracting loneliness: On the restorative function of nostalgia. Psychological Science, 19, 1023-1029.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
- arpin_online_appendix.pdf
- 34.54 KB
Cite article
Cite article
Cite article
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published online: July 19, 2018
Issue published: February 2019
Keywords
PubMed: 30024294
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
VIEW ALL JOURNAL METRICSArticle usage*
Total views and downloads: 1260
*Article usage tracking started in December 2016
Altmetric
See the impact this article is making through the number of times it’s been read, and the Altmetric Score.
Learn more about the Altmetric Scores
Articles citing this one
Receive email alerts when this article is cited
Web of Science: 12 view articles Opens in new tab
Crossref: 0
-
Pursuing Safety in Social Connection: A Flexibly Fluid Perspective on ...
-
“I Can’t Believe I Phubbed Up Our Friendship!”: Examining Relationship...
-
Teaching in a Lonely World: Educating Students About the Nature of Lon...
-
Going with(out) the flow at home: day-to-day variability in flow and p...
-
Effects of the coronavirus pandemic on perceived capitalization suppor...
-
Associations of social isolation, social participation, and loneliness...
-
The relationship between physical exercise and mobile phone addiction ...
-
Loneliness in Malta: Findings from the first National Prevalence Study
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Get access
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
loading institutional access options
SPSP members can access this journal content using society membership credentials.
SPSP members can access this journal content using society membership credentials.
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
