Loneliness and expressive communication.

This experiment examined the communication skills of 66 female undergraduates who were either chronically lonely, situationally lonely, or not lonely. "Sender" subjects were videotaped while they watched and rated the pleasantness of 25 slides. These videotapes were then shown to "receiver" subjects who made judgments about the sender subjects' reactions to each slide. The results indicated that the situationally lonely subjects were more successful as communication senders than were the chronically lonely or nonlonely subjects. This finding was interpreted within a cognitive framework as reflecting the increased motivation created by attributing one's situational loneliness to unstable causes. Beck depression scores were also obtained. In general, highly depressed subjects were less successful as communication senders, but this relation did not hold for the situationally lonely group. Loneliness reflects a deficiency in one's social relationships that is almost always accompanied by a gnawing sense of discomfort. As a phenomenon, it is widespread. We believe that loneliness experiences can profitably be divided into two classes: those which are chronic versus those which are temporary or