Solitary Experiences Research Articles

Perinatal Loneliness and Isolation Early in the COVID‐19 Pandemic in New York City: A Qualitative Study

IntroductionDuring the COVID‐19 pandemic, birthing parents were identified as a high‐risk group with greater vulnerability to the harms associated with SARS‐CoV‐2. This led to necessary changes in perinatal health policies but also to experiences of maternal isolation and loneliness, both in hospital settings, due to infection mitigation procedures, and once home, due to social distancing.MethodsIn this study, we qualitatively explored birthing and postpartum experiences in New York City during the early days of the pandemic when lockdowns were in effect and policies and practices were rapidly changing. Using thematic analysis, our focus was on experiences of isolation, navigating these experiences, and the potential impacts of isolation and loneliness on maternal health for 55 birthing people.ResultsParticipants described numerous stressors related to isolation during the birthing process, including reconciling their hopes for their birth with the realities of the unknown and separation from partners, family, and friends in the hospital. During the postpartum period, loneliness manifested as having limited or no contact with family and friends, which led to feelings of a need for strengthened social support systems. The impact of these negative experiences shaped mental health. Overall, we found that solitary experiences during birthing and postpartum isolation were major sources of stress for participants in this study.DiscussionTo support impacted families and prepare for future crisis events, clinicians and researchers must prioritize the development of strong clinical and social support structures for perinatal people to ensure both maternal and child health.

Solitary Experience and Problematic Social Media Use Among Young Adults: A Systematic Review with Recommendations for Future Research.

This study was conducted to summarize existing studies on the association between solitary experiences and problematic social media use (PSMU) among young adults. A systematic review was performed according to the PRISMA guidelines, implemented in Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and PsycINFO. We selected studies if they presented original data, assessed solitary experiences and PSMU in young adults (i.e., 18-30 age range), were published in peer reviewed journals between 2004 and 2023, and were written in English. After duplicate removal, 1,841 eligible studies were found. From these, 12 articles were selected, encompassing 4,009 participants. Most studies showed a positive association between general loneliness and PSMU. Some of these suggested that this relationship varies based on the facets of loneliness, other potential variables, and the type of social media. No mediating factors were found. Few studies assessed solitary experiences other than general loneliness, highlighting the need for a multidimensional perspective on solitary experience in investigating PSMU. Implications and future research orientations are discussed.

Changes in adolescents’ daily-life solitary experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic: an experience sampling study

BackgroundAdolescent solitude was drastically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As solitude is crucial for adolescent development through its association with both positive and negative developmental outcomes, it is critical to understand how adolescents’ daily-life solitary experiences changed as a result of the pandemic.MethodsUsing three waves of Experience Sampling Method data from a longitudinal study, we compared adolescents’ daily-life solitary experiences in the early (nT1=100; MAge=16.1; SDAge=1.9; 93% girls) and mid-pandemic (nT2=204; MAge=16.5; SDAge=2.0; 79% girls) to their pre-pandemic experiences.ResultsWe found that adolescents with lower levels of pre-pandemic social support and social skills reported wanting to be alone less and feeling like an outsider more at both time points during the pandemic. In the mid-pandemic wave, adolescents with higher levels of pre-pandemic social support and social skills reported decreases in positive affect compared to the pre-pandemic wave.ConclusionThis study shows that adolescents’ daily-life solitary experiences worsened throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. There should be continued concern for the wellbeing of all adolescents, not only those already at risk, as effects of the pandemic on mental health might only manifest later.

The Impact of Preschool Outdoor Environment on Children’s Socio-Emotional Development

Children are involved in various forms of social interactions, experiences, and the setting of environments in outdoor play areas that support children’s socio-emotional growth. It is necessary because the environment leaves a memorable experience for children. Other than that, it is crucial for their training and physical coordination. In addition, children’s emotional and social skills were indirectly assessed. This paper intends to incorporate an outdoor environment in preschools to meet the socio-emotional developmental needs of preschool children. Preschools located in Peninsular Malaysia were considered to be discussed in this paper. Conducting interviews with four teachers from various types of preschools can provide an initial picture of the external environment development in preschools. Early experiences of external environment interactions and the presence of social interactions with teachers and peers in preschool often impact the children’s learning experience. Two conclusions from the research findings guide the discussion on how the relationships of the preschools’ outdoor environment can foster the preschoolers’ socio-emotional growth. First, they acquire social and emotional competence with a combination of different experiences through shared or solitary experiences. Second, it was found that a variety of outdoor games with engaging spaces that offer attractions imminently stimulates game-based learning in contributing to the socio-emotional competence of preschoolers.

Solitary Prosociality in Later Life: An Experience Sampling Study.

Loneliness is a risk factor for older adults, one exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although time spent alone is associated with both loneliness and greater well-being, the experience of solitude may depend on the type of activity pursued. We examined formal prosocial activity as one facilitator of positive solitary experiences. Older adults (N = 165, Mage = 71.13, SD = 5.70) highly committed to prosocial-program work (e.g., tutoring) filled out surveys at six random times every day for a week. Using multilevel modeling, we investigated whether participating in prosocial-program activity alone was associated with greater well-being compared to other solitary activity. While prosocial-program activity did not buffer against negative affect in solitude, it promoted positive affect and relatedness when alone. To the extent that prosocial-program work can facilitate positive solitary experiences by enhancing feelings of connection, it may protect against threats to well-being posed by loneliness in later life.

Frequency Versus Intensity: How Thinking of a Frequent Consumption Indulgence as Social Versus Solitary Affects Preferences for How to Cut Back

Many consumers engage in frequent consumption indulgences. Because such indulgences accumulate resource costs (e.g., money, calories), consumers are often prompted to cut back, posing questions for how to design cutback programs with consumer appeal. This research distinguishes between frequent indulgences that consumers think of as social (vs. solitary), demonstrating that thinking of an indulgence as social (vs. solitary) decreases preferences to cut “frequency” (how often the indulgence occasion occurs) and increases preferences to cut “intensity” (choosing a within-category substitute that involves lower resource expenditure). The author explains these effects by differentiating between enjoyment from the product itself and enjoyment from aspects outside the product. Thinking of an indulgence as social (vs. solitary) heightens people’s anticipated enjoyment, particularly for aspects outside of the product, decreasing interest in cutting the number of occasions (cutting frequency) and increasing interest in cutting back on the product itself via a within-category substitute (cutting intensity). This divergence in cutback preferences for social (vs. solitary) experiences is thus eliminated (1) when consumers think of social experiences with distant (vs. close) others, which involve lower enjoyment outside of the product, or (2) when solitary experiences primarily involve heightened enjoyment for aspects outside of the product.

Lighthouse Tourism: Suggestions for an Innovative and Sustainable Use of the Greek Traditional Lighthouses

The Hellenic Lighthouse Network (HLN) is one of the most extensive and organized systems worldwide. Some of its most remarkable and historic lighthouses and beacons have been characterized as “Monuments of Modern Cultural Heritage” and are available to the public for small-scale, non-profit cultural uses. An increasing number of activities have taken place at or near lighthouses for the past decade, but lighthouse enthusiasts are convinced that such events could be organized on a more frequent and regular basis. Lighthouses are delicate albeit multifaceted structures that attract people seeking sophisticated and solitary experiences beyond the mass tourism realm. Since the practical significance of lighthouses is declining due to advances in navigation technology, their cultural worthiness is rediscovered and utilized in many tourism development plans across the world. This paper aims at suggesting an innovative and sustainable framework for the tourist valorization of Greek traditional lighthouses that is respectful of their inherent tangible and intangible values. The historical background explaining the cultural heritage Greek lighthouses represent, as well as national legislation restrictions regarding their management, are discussed and taken into account.

Relational Reading and Imagined Religious Community in Catherine Livingston’s Evangelical Spirituality

Although Catherine Livingston Garrettson (1752–1849) initially encountered feelings of isolation upon converting to Methodism, she discovered that the written word allowed her to engage in relational rather than solitary religious experiences. Over time, the written word helped her create a web of meaningful ties with imagined and actual kin and motivated her to form, develop and foster additional relationships in multiple contexts. Garrettson’s story thus demonstrates the need to consider how the real and imagined communities encountered through reading and constructed through writing have played a role in the spiritual development of early American women. Indeed, women’s experiences serve not simply to explain aspects of American social development, but to illuminate their broader world of connections – familial, religious, social and literary.

Re-examining the Experiential Advantage in Consumption: A Meta-Analysis and Review

AbstractA wealth of consumer research has proposed an experiential advantage: consumers yield greater happiness from purchasing experiences compared to material possessions. While this research stream has undoubtedly influenced consumer research, few have questioned its limitations, explored moderators, or investigated filedrawer effects. This has left marketing managers, consumers, and researchers questioning the relevance of the experiential advantage. To address these questions, the authors develop a model of consumer happiness and well-being based on psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, relatedness, self-esteem, and meaningfulness), and conduct an experiential advantage meta-analysis to test this model. Collecting 360 effect sizes from 141 studies, the meta-analysis supports the experiential advantage (d = 0.383, 95% CI [0.336, 0.430]), of which approximately a third of the effect may be attributable to publication bias. The analysis finds differential effects depending on the type of dependent measure, suggesting that the experiential advantage may be more tied to relatedness than to happiness and willingness to pay. The experiential advantage is reduced for negative experiences, for solitary experiences, for lower socioeconomic status consumers, and when experiences provide a similar level of utilitarian benefits relative to material goods. Finally, results suggest future studies in this literature should use larger sample sizes than current practice.

Considerações sobre a sexualidade e educação sexual de pessoas com transtorno do espectro autista

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder, characterized by deficits in social communication and restricted/repetitive interests or behaviors. This work, focused on the levels of TEA that require less support, previously described as Asperger's Syndrome and here denominated TEA/SA, presents a theoretical revision on the sexuality of this population. Such sexuality is often invisible, the right of access to information and sexual experiences commonly denied, and there is vulnerability to abuse and violence. Studies indicate that deficits in social skills, communication, restricted and repetitive interests and hypersensitivity are possible limiting factors of sexual development. Some data point to the identification of sexual desires focused especially on solitary experiences of sexuality and less frequent sexual practices compared to the population. The difficulties of parents and professionals to talk about sexuality were highlighted, and an efficient program of sexual education for people with TEA/SA was appointed as a protective factor for a satisfactory development and reduction of victimization, including this intervention important aspects such as the use of accessible, direct and clear language; the systematic teaching of social skills; family and professional orientation. The literature review was important to clarify the issue and support the development of sexual education proposals for this population, without omitting, of course, the needs of the people with TEA/SA.

Loneliness, Emotional Autonomy and Motivation for Solitary Behavior During Adolescence

Loneliness is a crucial part of people’s experience in the transition to adulthood. Several developmental tasks, such as the separation/individuation process and exploration in the interpersonal domains connected with identity acquisition, lead adolescents to seek solitary experiences. Adolescents are involved in the redefinition of their relationships with parents and peers, moving away from their dependence on the family. The aim of the present study is to assess the effects of two aspects of autonomy: emotional autonomy (separation and detachment) and autonomous motivation for solitary behavior, on parent- and peer-related loneliness during adolescence. The participants were 977 adolescents (447 males and 530 females), aged between 14 and 20 years (M = 16.31; SD = 1.57), recruited from Italian high schools. The Italian versions of the Loneliness and Aloneness Scale for Children and Adolescents, of the Emotional Autonomy Scale and of the Frequency of and Autonomy for Solitary and Interpersonal Behavior scale were administered to each participant. Structural equation models and path analysis indicate the effects of separation–individuation process dimensions both on parent- and peer-related loneliness. Specific differences emerge between the two dimensions of loneliness. Peer-related loneliness is more influenced by autonomous motivation than is parent-related loneliness, and controlled motivation mediates its relationship with separation. The relationships among the constructs are discussed in the light of the separation–individuation process and with regard to the prevention of maladaptive outcomes.

Volunteers as Products of a Zoo Conservation Education Program

Zoos embrace docents/volunteers as a means of interpreting the threats to wildlife and biodiversity to visitors. To accomplish this, zoos provide docents’ education, training, and work experience. Docents themselves also engage in solitary and social wildlife experiences outside of their volunteer obligations. This study examined what motivates docents and how they change as part of their experience. Results from a mailback questionnaire (91% response rate, n = 365) documented that both altruistic (interpreting wildlife to visitors) and egoistic (learning about wildlife themselves; socializing with like-minded others) motivations were predictive of continuing satisfaction with their volunteer experiences. Docents also reported starting or increasing many conservation behaviors after beginning to volunteer at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Docents with more years of experience tended to report more involvement with conservation behaviors. Results support an environmental socialization framework to explain the impacts of an environmental training program. Implications for future research and practice are presented.

To do, to have, or to share? Valuing experiences over material possessions depends on the involvement of others.

Recent evidence indicates that spending discretionary money with the intention of acquiring life experiences-events that one lives through-makes people happier than spending money with the intention of acquiring material possessions-tangible objects that one obtains and possesses. We propose and show that experiences are more likely to be shared with others, whereas material possessions are more prone to solitary use and that this distinction may account for their differential effects on happiness. In 4 studies, we present evidence demonstrating that the inclusion of others is a key dimension of how people derive happiness from discretionary spending. These studies showed that when the social-solitary and experiential-material dimensions were considered simultaneously, social discretionary spending was favored over solitary discretionary spending, whereas experiences showed no happiness-producing advantage relative to possessions. Furthermore, whereas spending money on socially shared experiences was valued more than spending money on either experiences enacted alone or material possessions, solitary experiences were no more valued than material possessions. Together, these results extend and clarify the basic findings of prior research and add to growing evidence that the social context of experiences is critical for their effects on happiness.

A Retrospective Survey of Childhood Experiences

The present study introduces a balanced survey of a range of behavioral and emotional experiences to assess impressions of a person’s childhood. Ninety-one undergraduates and 70 of their parents rated exposure to positive and negative social and solitary experiences. The survey demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and 4-week test–retest reliability, and scores correlated with Zimbardo’s Time Perspective Inventory of temporally based beliefs and values, Batcho’s inventory of personal nostalgia, and Holbrook’s measure of historical nostalgia. Correlations with time perspective and nostalgia inventories suggest that favorable impressions of childhood are associated with benefits such as social connectedness, personal continuity, and health-promoting behaviors and adverse impressions with less adaptive impacts such as unsatisfactory relationships, discontinuity, and distress. Ratings of social experiences were correlated more closely with childhood happiness than were solitary experiences. The Childhood Survey shows promise as a tool to expand the exploration of childhood experiences beyond adverse events to encompass components that comprise a happy childhood.

Masculinities and Vulnerability

There is a developing body of research that investigates the links between masculinities and men's health experiences in the United Kingdom, but the links between social connectedness and the health experiences of men have been a neglected focus for research. Findings were drawn from a parent study that examined fathers' experiences of health and social connectedness, but findings presented in this article were unforeseen. Specifically, findings presented here indicate that African-Caribbean and white working-class fathers, in the United Kingdom, were involved in solitary ways of feeling, thinking, and acting to deal with the vulnerability associated with health concerns, the psychological experience of stress, and difficulties in personal relationships. Those solitary experiences were associated, within men's stories, with conservative and complicit forms of masculinity. Challenges and qualifications to men's solitary and conservative discourses and practices are also identified within men's stories. These challenges were linked to crisis situations, the uncertainty associated with gender, social class and racism, and the experience of fathering, in particular. The significance of gender, ethnicity, and social class for policy, practice, and future research regarding working-class fathers' experiences of vulnerability is identified.

The Non-Existent God: Transcendence, Humanity, and Ethics in the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas

This paper considers three essential gestures in Levinas’s theology, highlighting in each case how Levinas’s thinking allows him to either incorporate or sidestep some of the fiercest modern criticisms of traditional theism. First, we present Levinas’s vision of divine transcendence, outlining his ontological atheism and explaining how this obviates proving the existence of God and avoids the tangles of traditional theodicy. Second, we describe Levinas’s idea of the trace, showing how a non-existent God still leaves its mark in the face of the other person and explaining how this vision of divine immanence accords with the agendas of thinkers such as Feuerbach and Nietzsche, who criticized theology that elevated God while debasing humanity. Third, we present Levinas’s insistence on the philosophical primacy of ethics, showing how he infuses his ethical philosophy with religious themes, elevating moral philosophy to the level of ultimate concern in a way that even atheist social theorists such as Marx or Freud could appreciate. We close by briefly considering limitations of Levinas’s model, discussing problems with its practical applicability and suggesting that its scope might be too narrow: both for its failure to acknowledge potential ethical demands manifest by non-human animals and the natural world and for its inability to recognize solitary or aesthetic experiences as religiously significant. This paper was delivered during the APA Pacific 2007 Mini-Conference on Models of God.

Masculinities fathering and health: The experiences of African-Caribbean and white working class fathers

There is a developing body of research that investigates the links between masculinities and men's health experiences, but the links between masculinities and the health of fathers has been a neglected focus for research in the UK. This paper presents some of the findings drawn from a parent study which investigated African-Caribbean and white working class fathers’ experiences of fathering, health and social connectedness. Data are drawn from interviews with 13 men (6 African-Caribbean and 7 White working class) living in a city in the West Midlands area of the UK. In this paper, I analyse and discuss African-Caribbean and white working class fathers’ stories about the meaning of health, the influences upon their health, and their health practices. It was found that for the African-Caribbean fathers specifically, anticipated or perceived racist prejudice, abuse or discrimination influenced their health experiences. However, the meaning of health for both ethnic groups of fathers was as functional capacity, that is health was an asset that allowed fathers to meet the obligations of paid work and fathering. These obligations were also associated with a restricted sense of personal agency for the men interviewed, and the associated constraints were linked to transgressive consumption of alcohol, food and tobacco. In addition, fathers were also involved in solitary ways of dealing with their vulnerability, vulnerability that was associated with fathers’ health concerns, and other difficult life experiences. Fathers’ solitary experiences of vulnerability were also mediated by hegemonic forms of masculinity. Nevertheless, the experience of fathering within the lifecourse influenced men's health experiences: reflexivity and challenges to both transgressive consumption and solitary experiences were linked to fathers’ perceived obligations to children. The significance of gender, ethnicity and social class for theory and future research with working class fathers and boys is identified, and the need for gender-sensitive public health and health promotion interventions regarding the ‘work-family balance’ and working class fathers’ personal and social skills is also discussed.

From the sacred conspiracy to the unavowable community: Bataille, Blanchot and Laure's Le sacré

This article analyses the importance of the writings of Laure (pseudonym of Colette Peignot) for Georges Bataille's communitarian projects of the late 1950s and early 1940s and for Maurice Blanchot's interpretation of these projects. Through readings of theoretical essays by Bataille, his annotated edition of Laure's Le Sacre (published illegally in 1939, only months after the author's death, and distributed clandestinely to a restricted group of readers), and Blanchot's La Communaute inavouable, I argue that Laure's book functions as the literary analogue to two avant-garde communities in which Laure and Bataille were involved - Acephale and the College of Sociology - and that this same book is at the heart of the unavowable community theorized by Blanchot. Bataille's justification for publishing Laure's writings echoes the very terms he uses to describe his group projects of the late 1930s: community, communication, the sacred, sacrifice. I argue that, in publishing and distributing her book, Bataille effectively sanctifies Laure, turning her into a martyr for the community. However, in contrast to Acephale and the College of Sociology, the community founded over Laure's dead body was a virtual community: one based on the members' solitary experiences of reading. Laure becomes the figurehead of an unavowable community, as Blanchot's locution would have it.

Solitary and Interactive Fun Experiences

(1989). Solitary and Interactive Fun Experiences. World Leisure & Recreation: Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 15-17.

Religious ideas and psychiatric disorders.

The evidence presented above points to the need for considering factors other than purely religious ones in determining the role of religious ideas in psychiatric disorders. The occurrence of religious ideas as part of the content of individual delusional systems in psychiatric patients can be explained on the basis of exposure to religious ideas through the social environment. It may be also related to the prominence of religion, vis-a-vis other belief systems, in the social envirnment. When considering psychopathological explanations for intense religious experiences, one has to be conscious again of the social factors involved. When an unusual experience having religious content becomes normative in a certain group (for whatever reasons), trying to explain its appearance on the basis of individual psychodynamics or psychopathology becomes very difficult. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the social nature of a religious experience and its psychopathological nature, i.e., there is more psychopathology in individuals reporting solitary religious experiences, or individual religious ideas. Thus the solitary experience seems to be more influenced by disturbed individual dynamics, but in other cases social factors seem to be crucial. Our overall conclusion is that a psychiatric analysis of the role of religious factors in psychopathology has to be first a social-psychiatric analysis. An individual presenting psychiatric symptoms and religious ideas has to be evaluated in light of his social background, since the specific content of psychiatric symptoms seems to be determined by social background factors. Individual psychodynamics determine the appearance of symptoms, but their particular form will be the result of these background factors, one of which is religion.