Lonely – Sources
p. 104 – “inherited basis to loneliness…quarter century ago“: Judith Lobdell and Daniel Perlman, “The Intergenerational Transmission of Loneliness: A Study of College Females and Their Parents,” Journal of Marriage and the Family, 48 (1986) 598-595.
p. 104 – “in a small group of twin children“: Shirley McGuire and Jeanie Clifford, “Genetic and Environmental Contributors to Loneliness in Children,” Psychological Science, 11:6 (2000) 487-491.
p. 105–”a combined U.S.-Dutch team“: Dorret I. Boomsma, Gonneke Willemsen, et. al., “Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Loneliness in Adults: The Netherlands Twin Register Study,” Behavior Genetics, 35:6 (2005) 745-752.
p. 111 –”loneliness as a form of metaphorical hunger“: Not only do researchers suggest that loneliness is like hunger, some studies show that the mood literally promotes a degree of overeating: Ken J. Rotenberg and Darlene Flood, “Loneliness, Dysphoria, Dietary Restraint, and Eating Behaviour,” International Journal of Eating Disorders, 25 (1999) 55-64, and Jack F. Schumaker, Richard C. Krejci, and Linwood Small, “Experience of Loneliness by Obese Individuals,” Psychological Reports, 57 (1985) 1147-1154. Schumaker stresses that, if someone’s weight is a problem, their loneliness has to be responded to as part of any weight-loss regime.
p. 116 – “Hawkley…noticed something about TPR right away“: The findings concerning loneliness, heart rate, and total peripheral resistance are set out at: John T. Cacioppo, John M. Ernst, et. al, “Lonely Traits and Concomitant Physiological Processes: the MacArthur Social Neuroscience Studies,” International Journal of Psychophysiology, 35 (2000) 143-154; and Louise C. Hawkley, Mary H. Burleson, Gary G. Bernston, and John T. Cacioppo, “Loneliness in Everyday Life: Cardiovascular Activity, Psychosocial Context, and Health Behaviours,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85:1 (2003)105-120.
p. 118: “increased blood pressure was what they found“: Louise C. Hawkley, Christopher M. Masi, et. al., “Loneliness is a Unique Predictor of Age-Related Differences in Systolic Blood Pressure,” Psychology and Aging, 21:1 (2006) 152-164.
p. 119: “disguised cries of self pity from unhappy souls“: This passage is taken from Jean and Veryl Rosenbaum, Conquering Loneliness (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1973). For another great depiction of the lonely as unhealthy, see David D. Burns, Intimate Connections: The New and Clinically Tested Program for Overcoming Loneliness (New York: W. Morrow, 1985), who stresses to the lonely person that, “You may live in a messy, undecorated apartment….You may eat fast food on the run….On evenings and weekends, you may sit around and watch TV or drink or overeat because you pine for a companion….”
p. 120: “smoke, drink, and consume caffeine to no greater extent than the nonlonely“: For comparisons of health behaviours between lonely and nonlonely groups, see John C. Cacioppo, Louise C. Hawkley, et. al., “Loneliness and Health: Potential Mechanisms,” Psychosomatic Medicine 64 (2002) 407-417, and Andrew Steptoe, Natalie Owen, et. al., “Loneliness and Neuroendocrine, Cardiovascular, and Inflammatory Stress Responses in Middle-Aged Men and Women,” Psychoneuroendocrinology, 29 (2004) 593-611.
p. 120: “37 percent of lonely individuals described their own health as poor or very poor“: This reference is to a major study of social isolation and loneliness conducted in Holland between 1995 and 1998. For the findings on health, see Roelof Hortulanus, Anja Machielse, and Ludwien Meeuwesen, Social Isolation in Modern Society (London: Routledge, 2006). For additional findings on the likelihood of the lonely to report ill health, see Larry C. Mullins, Harold L. Sheppard, and Lars Andersson, “Loneliness and Social Isolation in Sweden: Differences in Age, Sex, Labor Force Status, Self-Rated Health, and Income Adequacy,” Journal of Applied Gerontology, 10:4 (1991) 455-468.
p. 121: “one study of lonely medical students“: Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser, Warren Garner, et. al., “Psychosocial Modifiers of Immunocompetence in Medical Students,” Psychosomatic Medicine, 46:1 (1984) 7-14. Similar early findings on poor immune response in the lonely are set out at Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser, Denise Ricker, et. al., “Urinary Cortisol Levels, Cellular Immunocompetency, and Loneliness in Psychiatric Patients,” Psychosomatic Medicine, 46:1 (1984) 15-22.
p. 121: “Pressman set out to follow antibody response“: Sarah D. Pressman, Sheldon Cohen, et. al., “Loneliness, Social Network Size, and Immune Response to Influenza Vaccination in College Freshmen,” Health Psychology, 24:3 (2005) 297-306.
p. 124: “To test the stress reactions of lonely people“: Andrew Steptoe, Natalie Owen, et. al., “Loneliness and Neuroendocrine, Cardiovascular, and Inflammatory Stress Responses in Middle-Aged Men and Women,” Psychoneuroendocrinology, 29 (2004) 593-611.
p. 125: “lonely senior citizens…more likely…to develop a heart condition“: Dara Sorkin, Karen S. Rook, and John Lu, “Loneliness, Lack of Emotional Support, Lack of Companionship, and the Likelihood of Having a Heart Condition in an Elderly Sample,” Annals of Behavioural Medicine, 24:4 (2002) 290-298.
p. 125: “more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer“: Cyndy M. Fox, A. Patricia Harper, et. al., “Loneliness, Emotional Repression, Marital Quality, and Major Life Events in Women Who Develop Breast Cancer,” Journal of Community Health, 19:6 (1994) 467-482.
p. 125: “symptoms debilitating enough“: Roelof Hortulanus, Anja Machielse, and Ludwien Meeuwesen, Social Isolation in Modern Society.
p. 127: “an argument among belongingness theorists“: Roy F. Baumeister, Jean M. Twenge, and Christopher K. Nuss, “Effects of Social Exclusion on Cognitive Processes: Antipated Aloneness Reduces Intelligent Thought,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83:4 (2002) 817-827. The experiments conducted at Case Western University are described in this paper.
p. 129: “loneliness and cognitive decline“: Robert S. Wilson, Kristin R. Krueger, et. al., “Loneliness and Risk of Alzheimer Disease,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 64:2 (2007) 234-240. For a further analysis of the links between isolation and cognitive decline, see Laura Fratiglioni, Hui-Xin Wang, et. al., “Influence of Social Network on Occurrence of Dementia: A Community-Based Longitudinal Study,” The Lancet, 355 (2000) 1315-1319. Like Wilson, Fratiglioni found that diminished social networks could increase the risk of dementia by approximately 60%.
p. 130: “‘We need to be aware,’ Wilson has said“: BBC News, 6 February 2007.
p. 139: “pay more attention to the social world around them“: Wendi L. Gardner, Cynthia L. Pickett, et. al., “On the Outside Looking In: Loneliness and Social Monitoring,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31:11 (2005) 1549-1560.
p. 142: “signs of magical thinking“: Leonard M. Horowitz, Rita De S. French, and Craig A. Anderson, “The Prototype of the Lonely Person,” in Loneliness: A Sourcebook. The problem solving exercise involving Candace is at page 202.
p. 144: “the state is responsive to ‘impractical’ strategies“: Nicholas Epley, Scott Akalis, et. al., “Creating Social Connection Through Inferential Reproduction: Loneliness and Perceived Agency in Gadgets, Gods, and Greyhounds,” Psychological Science, 19:2 (2008) 114-120.
p. 148: “social-communicative competencies“: This phrase is from Robert A. Bell, “Conversational Involvement and Loneliness,” Communication Monographs, 52 (1985) 218-235. Bell concluded that “loneliness is usefully conceptualized as an outcome of deficiencies in social-communicative competence.”
p. 148: “saying less than the nonlonely“: William W. Sloan and Cecilia H. Solano, “The Conversational Styles of Lonely Males with Strangers and Roommates,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 10:2 (1984) 293-301.
p. 148: “more likely to be changing the subject, and less likely to be asking questions of their partners”: Warren H. Jones, Steven A. Hobbs, and Don Hockenbury, “Loneliness and Social Skills Deficits,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42:4 (1982) 682-689
p. 148: “fewer hours than the non-lonely“: Robert O. Hansson and Warren H. Jones, “Loneliness, Co-operation, and Conformity Among American Undergraduates,” Journal of Social Psychology, 115 (1981) 103-108.
p. 148: “steered towards the impersonal“: Cecilia H. Solano, Phillip G. Batten, and Elizabeth A. Parish, “Loneliness and Patterns of Self-Disclosure,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43:3 (1982) 524-531.
p. 148: “uncomfortable with disclosure“: Gordon J. Chelune, Faye E. Sultan, and Carolyn L. Williams, “Loneliness, Self-Disclosure, and Interpersonal Effectiveness,” Journal of Counseling Psychology, 27:5 (1980) 462-468. Further information on the idea of the lonely being uncomfortable with what’s known as “accelerating” (or increasingly personal) disclosure is at Ken J. Rotenberg, “Loneliness and the Perception of the Exchange of Disclosures,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 16 (1997) 259-276.
p. 148: “how well they’d gotten to know their lonely counterparts“: Cecilia H. Solano, Phillip G. Batten, and Elizabeth A. Parish, “Loneliness and Patterns of Self-Disclosure,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43:3 (1982) 524-531.
p. 149: “least likely to want to publish something they’d written“: Robert O. Hansson and Warren H. Jones, “Loneliness, Co-operation, and Conformity Among American Undergraduates,” Journal of Social Psychology, 115 (1981) 103-108. I found this study fascinating. Lonely and nonlonely students were asked to write essays on subjects such as contraception and juvenile delinquency, and were then asked if they’d consider contributing the essays to a collection the study authors were thinking of publishing. Sixty-one percent of the non-lonely were willing to publish, compared to just 38 percent of the lonely.
p. 149: “least likely to offer up personal information when asking someone for a date“: Robert A. Bell and Michael E. Roloff, “Making a Love Connection: Loneliness and Communication Competence in the Dating Marketplace,” Communication Quarterly, 39:1 (1991) 58-74.
p. 149: “they said they were socially inhibited“: Leonard M. Horowitz, Rita De S. French, and Craig A. Anderson, “The Prototype of the Lonely Person,” in Loneliness: A Sourcebook.
p. 149: “researchers at Stanford University“: John Vitkus and Leonard M. Horowitz, “Poor Social Performance of Lonely People: Lacking a Skill or Adopting a Role?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52:6 (1987) 1266-1273.
p. 149: “a team of Finnish researchers“: Jari-Erik Nurmi and Katariina Salmela-Aro, “Social Strategies and Loneliness: A Prospective Study,” Personality and Individual Differences, 23:2 (1997) 205-215.
p. 154: “twenty students and hypnotized them“: The hypnosis experiment is described at John T. Cacioppo, Louise C. Hawkley, et. al., “Loneliness Within a Nomological Net: An Evolutionary Perspective,” Journal of Research in Personality. Cacioppo and Hawkley’s ideas about loneliness as an agent of change are also set out at: “People Thinking About People: The Vicious Cycle of Being a Social Outcast in One’s Own Mind,” in Kipling Williams, Joseph Forgas, and William von Hippel, The Social Outcast: Ostracism, Exclusion, Rejection, and Bullying (New York: Psychology Press, 2005).
p. 170: “‘I think it’s about eighty per cent right’“: For studies on the workability and accuracy of Weiss’s typology, see Dan Russell, Carolyn Cutrona, et. al., “Social and Emotional Loneliness: An Examination of Weiss’s Typology of Loneliness,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46:6 (1984) 1313-1321, and Enrico DiTommaso and Barry Spinner, “Social and Emotional Loneliness: A Re-examination of Weiss’ Typology of Loneliness,” Personality and Individual Differences, 22:3 (1997) 417-427.
p. 171: “Weiss had a theory called ‘provisions‘”: Robert S. Weiss, “The Provisions of Social Relationships,” in Zick Rubin, ed. Doing Unto Others (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1974) 17-26.
p. 171: “experience of having had your parents divorce during your childhood“: Carin Rubenstein and Phillip Shaver, “The Experience of Loneliness,” in Loneliness: A Sourcebook. The notion that disrupted childhood attachment could give rise to loneliness is also discussed at Diana T. Hecht and Steven K. Baum, “Loneliness and Attachment Patterns in Young Adults,” Journal of Clinical Psychology, 40:1 (1984) 193-197, and at Mohammadreza Hojat, “Loneliness as a Function of Parent-Child and Peer Relations,” Journal of Psychology, 112:1 (1982) 129-133.
p. 175: “Mima Cattan, a UK-based health promotion researcher“: For Cattan’s work on loneliness interventions, see Cattan, Martin White, et. al., “Preventing Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older People: A Systematic Review of Health Promotion Interventions,” Ageing and Society, 25 (2005) 41-67.
p. 176: “lacking a group of friends, or lacking a close relationship“: Ken J. Rotenberg and Jennifer MacKie, “Stigmatization of Social and Intimacy Loneliness,” Psychological Reports, 84 (1999) 147-148.
p. 181: “situational loneliness might differ from chronic loneliness“: Ann C. Gerson and Daniel Perlman, “Loneliness and Expressive Communication,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88:3 (1979) 258-261.
p. 186: “A state that seemed to refer to an external reality moved ‘indoors’“: The notion of loneliness gradually transforming itself from an objective to a subjective phenomenon is set out in Linda A. Wood, “Loneliness,” Rom Harré, ed., The Social Construction of Emotions (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Ltd., 1986).
p. 187: “eating dinner alone,…spending weekend evenings alone, and…living alone“: In terms of eating alone, see: Dan Rusell, Letitia Peplau, and Carolyn Cutrona, “The Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale: Concurrent and Discriminant Validity Evidence,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Stephanie Hoover, Andris Skuja, and Joseph Cosper, “Correlates of College Students’ Loneliness,” Psychological Reports, 44 (1977) 1116. In terms of being alone on weekends, see Louise C. Hawkley, Mary H. Burleson, et. al., “Loneliness in Everyday Life: Cardiovascular Activity, Psychosocial Context, and Health Behaviours,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85:1 (2003) 105-20. For information on the lonely living alone, see Jenny de Jong-Gierveld, “Developing and Testing a Model of Loneliness,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53:1 (1987) 119-129.
p. 188: “Margaret Mead joked“: “Loneliness, Autonomy and Interdependence in Cultural Context,” in The Anatomy of Loneliness.
p. 190: Ethan Watters, Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Family, Friendship, and Commitment (New York: Bloomsbury, 2003).
p. 191: Anthony Storr, Solitude (London: HarperCollins, 1997).
p. 197: “carry a diary for four days“: Warren H. Jones, “Loneliness and Social Contact,” Journal of Social Psychology, 113 (1981) 295-296.
p. 198: “habitual behaviours and internal processes of the lonely person“: Warren H. Jones, “Loneliness and Social Support,” in Loneliness: Theory, Research and Applications, Mohammadreza Hojat and Rick Crandall, eds. (Newbury Park, Calif.” Sage, 1989). There are many other papers on the idea of loneliness as a subjective phenomenon. See, for example, Letitia Anne Peplau, Dan Russell, and Margaret Heim, “The Experience of Loneliness,” in Irene Hanson Frieze and Daniel Bar-Tal, eds., New Approaches to Social Problems (San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass, 1979), and Vello Sermat, “Some Situational and Personality Correlates of Loneliness,” in The Anatomy of Loneliness.
p. 199: “Disrupted trust has actually emerged as one of the key elements“: Ken J. Rotenberg, “Loneliness and Interpersonal Trust,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 13:2 (1994) 152-173.
