Aloneliness predicts relational anger and aggression toward romantic partners

Assessment and correlates of aloneliness among Indonesian adolescents

Introduction

The goals of this study were to: (1) adapt and validate a measure of aloneliness (Solitude and Aloneliness Scale; SolAS) for use among Indonesian adolescents; (2) examine the associations between aloneliness and indices of well-being in this unique developmental and cultural context; and (3) explore possible grade and gender effects.

Methods

Participants were Indonesian adolescents aged 11-18 years (M = 14.13 years, SD = 1.62; 58.51% girls) who completed self-report assessments of the adapted SolAS (newly created Indonesian translation), as well as indices of adjustment (e.g., well-being, basic psychological need satisfaction).

Results

Among the results, the Indonesian version of the SolAS demonstrated good psychometric properties (e.g., factor structure, good internal reliability) and initial evidence of validity (e.g., significant negative correlations with measures of psychological well-being and basic psychological needs satisfaction). Girls reported higher levels of aloneliness than boys, but no significant grade differences emerged.

Conclusions

The SolAS evidenced good psychometric properties and evidence of validity in a sample of Indonesian adolescents, suggesting it is desirable for cross-cultural research.

Away from the herd: loneliness as a dysfunction of social alignment

The tendency of all humans to experience loneliness at some point in their lives implies that it serves an adaptive function. Building on biological theories of herding in animals, according to which collective movement emerges from local interactions that are based on principles of attraction, repulsion and alignment, we propose an approach that synthesizes these principles with theories of loneliness in humans. We present here the 'herding model of loneliness' that extends these principles into the psychological domain. We hold that these principles serve as basic building blocks of human interactions and propose that distorted attraction and repulsion tendencies may lead to inability to align properly with others, which may be a core component in loneliness emergence and perpetuation. We describe a neural model of herding in humans and suggest that loneliness may be associated with altered interactions between the gap/error detection, reward signaling, threat and observation-execution systems. The proposed model offers a framework to predict the behavior of lonely individuals and thus may inform intervention designs for reducing loneliness intensity.