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University of Bath PHD Loneliness: An analysis of beliefs, experience and communication Garrett, Mario Dominic Award date: 1988 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 10. Oct. 2021 LONELX NESS z AM ANALYSIS OF BELIEFS, EXPERIENCE AND COMMUNICATION Submitted by Mario Dominic GARRETT for the degree of Ph.D of the University of Bath 1988 Copyright "This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no infornation derived fros it may be published without the prior written consent of the author" " This thesis say he made available for consultation within the University Library and say be photocopied or lent to other libraries for the purpose Of consultation Mario Dosinic Garrett 1988 V UMI Number: U009B82 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U009B82 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 UtflVESSlTYOF BATH LBTA^Y j \ ’ 3 - !?r,9 v v\;. — t ------------ C ^ \ Dedicated to my mum and dad Memorandum The work reported here was carried out in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and School of Management at the University of Bath, and at the Department of Economics at the University of Surrey. This research was funded for two years by a Bath University Postgraduate Scholarship. Acknowledgments Respective acknowledgment must be made to individual members of the charity organisations of the Samaratans, CRUSE, and the Bristol One Parent Project for their support and openness in this study. Similarly, for the friendly and enthusiastic reception received from the members of the Brighton and Arundel Diocese which boosted continued belief in this project. For the onerous task of coding the verbatim data, the excellent and diligent work of colleagues Judith Wright, Alan Clay, Ron Cramp and Gillian Tipping is gratefully acknowledged. To all the friends who lent me their cars, showed me patience and gave me their time, too numerous to mention, but to all, warmly indebted. Lastly, an indebted acknowledgment to those who talked about their private feelings, to the partnership that developed and enabled this work. The strength of their feelings provided the continuing spirit for this venture, the troughs are my own misrepresentations. Mario Dominic Garrett. July 1988 Abstract ABSTRACT For many people the experience of loneliness is endured and coped with on a private level. It is rare that Individuals have the chance to talk about and share what they feel when lonely. This study is concerned with exposing this private experience and to understand how and why people report loneliness. This thesis is organised around five chapters. The introductory chapter outlines a critique of the socio-cognitive approach to the study of loneliness. Although this approach has dominated the area, it is argued that; a) it minimises the importance of how the experience feels in favour of how people think about loneliness, and b) implicitly assumes that cognitive correlates of loneliness are sufficient in explaining and predicting loneliness. The proposed alternative model is based on two basic principles which are developed from anomalies within the socio-cognitive approach and from current psychological studies in the area of affect. These two principles are; a) that related thought does not necessarily cause loneliness,' and b) that the permanence of loneliness could be better explained by being aware of the wider social Involvement of relationships.* The three empirical chapters reported in this study test and elaborate these basic principles of affect. In the first empirical study, participants were asked to generate a series of twenty questions to test whether an individual was lonely Abstract or not. The results showed that others evaluate loneliness predominantly by how the experience is reported to feel. As a consequence, it was argued that loneliness acquires meaning not so much from related activities or thoughts but from its relation to other emotions, especially depression. This phenomenon was termed as an 'affective tautology* and refers to the semantics of loneliness being acquired by its relationship with other emotions. The empirical results in chapter four developed this finding, by selecting factors from a longitudinal study which correlated highly with loneliness and applying LISREL IV analysis to test for causal paths. It was found that although loneliness is associated with what people report thinking, these indices are not exclusive causes of the experience. Therefore thoughts which are reported with loneliness are not complete causal explanations of loneliness. The argument developed is that since any reporting of loneliness is made within a social setting (however small the setting is) the experience is, * nevertheless, 'translated'. It is not surprising therefore that several attempts at predicting the duration of loneliness, on the basis of such, translations, have on the whole, generated inconclusive results. The main objective of the fourth study was to investigate what this social setting is for loneliness. The results from interviewing recently divorced and widowed women, and retired Roman Catholic priests showed that intense and consistent loneliness was not only a reflection of a greater disparity between past intentions nd current relationship state, but Abstract that there is also a subtle implication of how the individual expressed his or her relationship within a social setting. Loneliness is therefore seen as a succinct evaluation across one's personal history which transfers over to the present. The argument which is developed in the concluding chapter is that this 'transference' of the affect of loneliness maintains the experience as a characteristic trait. The contention is that although the reporting of loneliness involves language and social consensus, the experience is an individual expression. How the individual reacts to loneliness is related to wider aspects of the individual's social and personal life particularly to their intent, conduct and type of loss of their personal relationships. The theme of this study is that it is the feeling of loneliness which should be the primary concern because it is a succinct expression of a whole history of events. l^NELINESS \ AN ANALYSIS OF BELIEFS. EXPERIENCE AND COMMUNICATION Copyright Memorandum Abstract Contents. PAGES LIST OF TABLES DIAGRAMS APPENDIXES CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION ................. ' 1 - 37 CHAPTER TWO : WHAT THE LABEL MEANS .............. 39 - 69 CHAPTER THREE : LONELINESS IN CONTEXT ........... 70 - 105 CHAPTER FOUR ; RETROSPECTIVE ACCOUNTS ............ 107 - 143 CHAPTER FIVE : EPILOGUE .................... ..145 - 158 APPENDIXES REFERENCES L IST OF TABLES, DIAGRAMS AND APPENDICES Chapter fro PAGES TABLE 1 Percentage of questions vithii each of the three criteria 49 TABLE 2 CHI square anal ye la of the three criteria by group SO TABLE 3 CHI square analysis by Lonely vs loe-lonely SO DIAGRAM 1 HIIISSA output in tvo dinensions of judged esotion labels 63 DIAGRAM 2 HICLUS output shoving the hierarchy of relationships vith esotions 65 Chapter Three TABLE 1 Descriptioo of the participants 82 TABLE 2 Type of activity against reports of lonely or eoo-looely 85 TABLE 3 Type of contact against reports of lonely or noc-looely 85 TABLE 4 Type of passive/iaprovised/organised activity against reports of lonely or non-lonely 85 TABLE S Evaluation of Self/Others/Future against reports of lonely or non-lonely 85 TABLE 6 Overall quality of aood against reports of lonely or non-lonely 85 TABLE 7 Frequency of quality of emotion against reports of lonely or non-lonely 85 TABLE 8 Frequency of emotions reported against reports of lonely or non-lonely 85 TABLE 9 The effect of filling in the Diary against reports of lonely or non-lonely 85 TABLE 10 Coping alternatives vhich vere suggested against reports of lonely or non-lonely 85 TABLE 11 State of relationships currently engaged in against reports of lonely or non-lonely 85 TABLE 12 Total nuiber of reported activities against lonely and non-lonely 85 TABLE 13 Average nuiber of vords used is the Diary against reports of lonely or non-lonely 85 TABLE 14 Frequency table of reported aoods and aaotion 92 TABLE IS Initial LISREL IT schematic aodel 101 TABLE 16 Final LISREL IT aodel 102 DIAGRAM 1 HIHISSA output of experienced amotions 88 Chapter Four TABLE 1 Aggregate data for Divorcees and Vidoved 121 TABLE 2 Aggregate data for retired Rosin Catholic priests 121 TABLE 3 Sanple coapositioo for divorcees .

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