Exploring Loneliness: The Effects of Self-consciousness and Other Intrapersonal Factors

Loneliness is a feeling of deprivation and dissatisfaction produced by a discrepancy between the kind of social relations we want and the kind or social relations we have, and it affects millions of people. The literature suggests relationships between loneliness and interpersonal factors associated with poor quality relationships, such as social skills deficits; however, little research attention has been focused on the intrapersonal factors associated with loneliness. The current study is an exploratory investigation of the factors. It was specifically hypothesized that loneliness would be associated with various forms of self-consciousness. Additionally, because previous research on gender differences in relationships suggests that women invest more of themselves in social thinking, we predicted these relationships to be stronger for females. A sample of 122 college students (25 males, 97 females) was used. Participants completed basic demographic questions as well as several measures of loneliness and self-consciousness, including: the UCLA Loneliness Scale (revised version), The Self-Consciousness Scale, and the Imaginary Audience Scale. Correlational analyses were conducted separately for males and females. For females, the results showed significant relationships between loneliness and public and private self-consciousness, social anxiety and the imaginary audience phenomenon. For males, loneliness was related to social anxiety and aspects of the imaginary audience phenomenon, but not to private or public self-consciousness