Name: Morgan Lathey

2022-2023

Annotated Source List

Borawski, D., Sojda, M., Rychlewska, K., & Wajs, T. (2022). Attached but lonely: Emotional intelligence

as a mediator and moderator between attachment styles and loneliness. International Journal of

Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(22), 14831.

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192214831

This journal article discusses how the results of a questionnaire indicated that EI could be

used as a protective factor against loneliness, especially for individuals with insecure attachment

styles. The questionnaire was given to test the subjects’ EI, attachment style, and level of

loneliness. What they found is that individuals with both avoidant and anxious attachment styles

were associated with a lower EI. The results suggest that individuals with a higher EI are not

immune to loneliness, but have a reduced risk. He explains loneliness as a perceived, subjective

sense of social isolation, as opposed to the physical, objective sense of connection, and it derives

from the neglect or inconsistent response to a child’s emotional needs. The author concludes that

loneliness could be a result of an experience in adolescence caused by the unavailability or

inconsistency of an attachment figure. Depending on the attachment style a person develops due to

emotional needs not being met and/or being inconsistent, there is a decrease in emotional and

social skills. Results say that avoidant and anxious attachment styles are more likely to have low

social and emotional skills.

 This source is credible because below their research they put a list of references, and

because the author works at Jan Kochanowski University and has a PhD. This source is helpful in

looking at how loneliness could be potentially caused by an insecure attachment style. This also

poses the question whether or not attachment is genetic, or environmental, and warrants further

research about nurture vs nature and the impact of adolescence in developing attachment styles.

Deaton, E. (n.d.). Intellectual loneliness: Despite high IQ or EQ you still feel alone. The Roots of

Loneliness Project. https://www.rootsofloneliness.com/intellectual-loneliness

This article by The Roots of Loneliness starts with a personal story of the author, Emily

Deaton. She starts off with writing about her own experiences and her own loneliness in her

adolescents and young adulthood. When she would sit with a group of her friends, they would talk

about their favorite show or lament about different things like love or drama, and while everyone

else was engaged in the conversation, Deaton felt alone. Despite caring for her friends, she found

topics she describes as “mindless” not entertaining or satisfying, and she felt selfish for feeling

that way. After some reflection, she tried to tell herself that it’s important to listen to your friends

and that sometimes, what they talk about is boring, but then she realized this intellectual and

emotional “disconnect” between her and others. She explains that even though being intelligent

comes with good things, it can also make life lonelier and harder. Because she was emotionally

smart, and able to understand others emotions and by being mature for her age, she often

befriended adults over her peers and she felt misunderstood by them and that because of her EQ,

it leads her to have issues with boundaries and she feels like she has to offer a lot of emotional

support even when it’s not warranted. She concludes the article with two ways to feel less lonely.

The first one was to foster deeper connections by going to places and meeting others that think

similarly to you and share your interests. The second way is to have empathy and understand that

everyone is different and not perfect, and understand their own view of the world.
 This is credible because it was medically reviewed by Christine Hartman, who has an M.A

in clinical psychology and a Ph.D from the University of Colorado. This article is also on The

Roots Of Loneliness Project, a website that explores loneliness and the different types. This is

useful because it gives a personal story about their own experiences with loneliness. This source

also raises the suggestion that there is no root cause for loneliness in everyone, but there are

different main types.

HealthyPlace.com staff writer (2022, March 16). Loneliness and fear of rejection. HealthyPlace.

https://www.healthyplace.com/relationships/loneliness/loneliness-and-fear-of-rejection

This article discusses the relationship between loneliness and fear of rejection. They

suggest that many of the reasons one may feel uncomfortable in a social situation is because of the

fear of others not liking them. The fear of rejection could be caused by one’s perception of the

person’s importance. The more important one believes someone to be, one believes that their own

abilities or skill are not good enough. This makes one doubt their abilities and ultimately refuse to

confront the person of importance. For example, if a person perceives a teacher or a friend as

someone of importance, they are less likely to explain their feelings, even if it is not negative or

positive, out of fear of the other person “rejecting them.” Fear of rejection could also be due to the

fear of being alone and not being cared for, which could make the person feel vulnerable. This

anxiety ultimately causes them to decide to avoid the potential situation. Fear of being alone could

be caused by a fear of being unable to create one’s own happiness. This is caused by a high

dependency on others and the belief that they will only be happy in the presence of others. Fear of

rejection could also be caused by self-image issues and the dependency of other people’s views of

them. If one defines themself’s “core” as their identity, when it is threatened, (if they perceive it as

a threat or if they know it is a threat) it creates a lot of anxiety. The article also adds that if one

defines themselves as someone who must be loved, that person gives control to others. In other
 words, when someone rejects another person, whether or not it’s criticism, direct rejection, social,

emotional, romantic, or others, that directly reflects off of the person's identity, especially if they

hold a high regard for what others think of them, and if they hold a high expectation of themselves

that everyone must like them. This argues that people are afraid of rejection because it directly

reflects their own selves. Everyone is unique, but when someone poses a threat to that, it causes

one to feel anxiety.

This is credible because the author, Dr. Tom Stevens is a licensed psychologist that is a

professor at California State University. This article also comes from a website made by

psychologists that prioritizes mental health awareness and help. This is useful because Fear of

rejection is one of the main examples people use to explain why they feel lonely. Taking a second

to look into social isolation, some of that can be described as either being excluded, being

physically far away from others, or being rejected by others. This in turn, creates rejection and

loneliness as an interesting relationship.

Joppich, S. (2022, June 23). A history of loneliness: How we invented the terror

of isolation. https://stephanjoppich.com/history-of-loneliness/

This blog by Stephan Joppich goes through the history of loneliness and how it has affected

humans. He starts off by stating that loneliness is an “inherent” human feeling that derived from a

survival instinct that helped humans understand the importance of companionship. And since

human brains have changed very little over the years, others feel the same loneliness just like long

ago. He suggests that in order to solve the ever growing loneliness problem, one must understand

and discover the history of loneliness. He divided the paragraphs in 700 “pages” that showed how

loneliness evolved throughout history. Pages 0-670 and 670-699 explained how it started off as a

survival instinct, but there was no evidence of any other information. However, on page 699, there

are varieties of poems and stories covering the sadness and the sorrow of loneliness. He suggests
 that there are two main reasons for this sudden outburst. The first was the industrial revolution in

Europe that made families leave their homes to work in factories; while their families got smaller,

the cities became bigger which made them feel alienated. The next was romanticism; this

emphasis was on emotion and individualism and stressing the importance of a soulmate. But they

also romanticized loneliness as a way to connect with nature and the world around humans. At the

bottom of the blog, it is titled “The Terror Of Modern Loneliness.” He explains that instead of

loneliness being a survival instinct, it was now a “deadly epidemic” that raised the mortality risk

by 26%. He suggests that the reason there is an increase in loneliness across the world is because

of the end of tribes, or communities that made others a part of something. But over the recent

years, the community has been “dying.” He also suggests that the other reason is the “toxic”

stories of loneliness. People hear others say how loneliness is negative and that it is “pure horror,”

therefore, people start to avoid any feeling of loneliness at all costs and try to get rid of it from

their lives. In the end of the blog, he suggests that a good way to remove feelings of loneliness is to

reframe it as something more. Instead of thinking of loneliness as “loneliness,” others should

reframe it as “oneliness” and a way to connect with their minds. He also explains that religion

frames loneliness as a way to connect with God and to realize that one is never truly alone.

This could be credible because Stephan's blog is filled with books and writings about

loneliness, minimalism, and philosophy. He used to be an engineer until he started studying

philosophy. This is useful because this gives a lot of information on the history and the need of

loneliness. This also raises the idea of whether or not loneliness is a truly negative emotion or if

framed in one’s mind correctly, could help others have a better connection with themselves. This

also raises the idea of how the media could have affected the rate of loneliness by expressing it as a

black-and-white negative emotion.

Lieberz, J. (2022). Behavioral and neural dissociation of social anxiety and

 loneliness. The Journal of Neuroscience.

This journal article aims to answer if and to what extent is social avoidance in Social anxiety (SA)

evident in loneliness. Researchers in this journal explain that this is significant because loneliness causes

serious health problems that affect many people. There is an idea suggested that a way to reduce

loneliness could be by cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is also used to reduce social anxiety; however,

before one believes this to be the answer, it is necessary to have a better understanding of the neurological

and behavioral factors of loneliness. The study took 42 people (21 females) with high loneliness (HL) and

40 people (20 females) with low loneliness (LL). During an MRI, the patients participated in a “social

gambling” task in order to see how people respond to social situations and feedback. They found that

although patients with HL had an increase in SA, the response pattern was different from SA. Social

anxiety and loneliness are similar in terms of social withdrawal, however, it is different because social

anxiety is built on a fear of social interactions, distinct from loneliness, which is not based on anxiety or

fear. They also found that loneliness is related to a “biased” emotional reaction to negative events instead

of social avoidance. While this is similar to SA, in which many individuals with SA have an emotional

reaction to social events, individuals with HL’s reactions and avoidance are not built on anxiety.

This is credible because at the end of the journal, there is a list of references. Additionally, they

also related back to previous studies conducted. This is useful because it helps in answering the question

if social anxiety and loneliness are related and if loneliness is due to an underlying anxiety causing an

avoidance to a social situation.

Lyyra, N., Thorsteinsson, E. B., Eriksson, C., Madsen, K. R., Tolvanen, A., Löfstedt, P., & Välimaa, R.

(2021). The association between loneliness, mental well-being, and self-esteem among adolescents

in four nordic countries. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,

18(14), 7405. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147405

 The author describes an experiment that was done in four Nordic countries, Denmark,

Sweden, Iceland, and Finland. Scientists studied 5,883 15-year-olds in order to find the link

between loneliness, self esteem, and well-being. The author characterizes loneliness as a lack of

compatibility between desired and actual personal relationships. The author also quotes another

scholar, Rosenberg, where she explains self-esteem as, “the individual’s set of thoughts and

feelings about his or her own worth and importance…”(para, 4).” They also characterize

well-being as when someone realizes their own abilities and are able to go through a stressful life

and be able to stay involved in their community. They decided to study the link between all three

of these counties studying the teens by using a structural equation model. What they found was

that 14% of children in the four Nordic countries reported feeling lonely for a prolonged period of

time. They also found that the percentage of loneliness was higher in Finland (19.2%), and Iceland

(17.1%), while Denmark (7.7%) and Sweden (11.9%) were lower. They also discovered that

65.8% felt close with others, and 62.2% felt optimistic. They also noticed that the level of

loneliness in girls was higher than in boys. At the end of their study, they concluded that while

many children appear to be doing well in self-related well-being and self-esteem, about 40% do

not agree with self-positive statements and experience well-being frequently, and about 15% felt

frequent loneliness. They also expressed the need to further look into factors that can help and

improve mental health, and also study the differences between the countries that could have caused

this.

This is credible because they gave quotes from the scientists doing the experiment, and

they also showed the statistical evidence to further prove their experiment. Under the journal, there

was also a large list of resources. This can be useful because it raised two questions; why did

Finland and Iceland have higher rates of loneliness, and why were there higher levels of loneliness
 in girls than boys? This can help further figure out the characteristics that make a person more

likely to be lonely.

Pagan, R. (2020). Gender and age differences in loneliness: Evidence for people without and with

disabilities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(24), 9176.

https://doi.org/10.3390/Ijerph17249176

This source was mostly about how young women were affected by loneliness. On average,

1 in four people suffer from loneliness. In England, they found that the age group more likely to

experience loneliness was ages 16-24. A study also found that while women had typically larger

social circles, they had a higher rate of loneliness than men in all age groups; but they also argued

that men may be less inclined to admit loneliness due to societal pressure and stereotypes. They

attribute this as perhaps being due to the things children are taught around the time of puberty.

When everything starts to change, their adult figures write their negative feelings as being

“moody” especially towards girls. They suggest that the reason why many individuals in their 20s

experienced loneliness was because of the dramatic life changes they go through. Around one’s

20s is the time when they go to college or they move out of their caregivers’ homes and make a life

for themselves. But moving away from a place one used to find comfort and safety in is a difficult

change that leads them to feel alone and vulnerable. They concluded by suggesting that, “To

combat loneliness I’d say acknowledge that teenagers’ feelings matter and don’t write them off as

hormones (Kimberly, n.d).”

This is credible because it reflects on different studies and cites them. This could be helpful

in finding the different rates of loneliness and how gender may have an impact on that. This also

seems to create the idea that a big component to this difference in the rate of loneliness between
 men and women could be due to societal pressure and by the invalidation by one’s peers when

going through major life changes.

Peplau, L., & Perlman, D. (1979). Blueprint for a social psychological theory of loneliness. In M. Cook

(Ed.), Love and attraction: An international conference (p. 101). Pergamon Press.

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr&id=rfRFBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA101&dq=social

+psychology+and+loneliness&ots=8wbOm7Nm2w&sig=oZUQCMUZIihnlSAEkFjf-PAP_L8&sa

fe=active&surl=1#v=onepage&q=social%20psychology%20and%20loneliness&f=false

This Google Book is called Love and Attraction, which is a collection of papers that was shown at

an international conference on the topic of Love and Attraction. This specific chapter, “The Blueprint For

a Social Psychological Theory Of Loneliness” is mostly what loneliness is and what it is, what could

cause it, etc. The chapter starts with explaining that loneliness is a “social deficiency” that happens when

one’s relationships are not as satisfying as they are desired; and loneliness is relatively newer despite

articles and studies on it. They also suggest that a person’s level of desire for a relationship is dependent

on how much they had it in the past. For example, if a person used to have a very close and high

emotional relationship with someone, where they do everything together, that person may desire to have

an emotional relationship similar to what they had in the past. In this chapter, the author describes five

aspects of loneliness that must be noted. First, when a person’s social contact is of a lower “quality,” that

difference in quality is perceived as negative. Second, when it is noticed and noted, they will label it as

loneliness. Three, in order to look at loneliness, one’s relationships should be considered and understood.

Fourth, the authors of this chapter are looking at common loneliness and not loneliness resulting from

mental disorders. And finally, the author believes there are several forms of loneliness that have not been

considered or even discovered. The author begins to explain that loneliness is divided into three

categories, affective, cognitive (motivational), and behavioral (Peplau, Manifestations of Loneliness). It is

also linked to depression, anxiety, boredom, restlessness, dissatisfaction, and marginality (in between
being an insider and an outsider). Loneliness is also seen as confusing because of its paradoxical nature.

For example, some believe loneliness can make people more motivated while others believe it to be the

opposite. Loneliness creates an “oversensitivity” to certain cues and makes a person more likely to

misinterpret and “exaggerate” other people’s intentions towards them. In one of the sections labeled

“Antecedents,” the author explains that in order to find the origins of loneliness, it is important to

“distinguish” events that may have caused loneliness from characteristics that only “predispose” others to

become lonely. They can find this often from changes in one’s desired and obtained relationships. After

that, then characteristics that predispose the person to loneliness will be taken into account. A common

characteristic and cause of loneliness can be a change in one’s relationships. This can be from the ending

of an emotional relationship and changes it involves. For example, dating break ups, falling outs with

friends, or divorce as well as separation from friends and family are all heavily associated with loneliness.

Even events such as promotion or retirement can make one feel loneliness. Another thing that helps create

loneliness is the decrease in the “satisfaction” in one’s relationships. Additionally, a higher expectation

about one’s own relationships can create loneliness. The Author quotes Gordon (1976) that said

“expectations change with our age and developmental stage (Peplau, 1979).” The expectations for these

relationships also change depending on the situation. For example, events that cause stress and anxiety

could change the “desire to be with others,” and that “Even holidays and seasonal changes are important

(Wenz, 1977; Gilgar, note 4).” When one’s expectations for social relationships are not achieved, it can

create a heavy sense of loneliness, especially when comparing one’s level of social contact to peers.

Another characteristic and/or cause of loneliness could be personal factors. The author explains that when

looking into loneliness, it is important to consider how these characteristics relate to loneliness. Firstly,

depending on the characteristic, it can grow or limit a person’s “social desirability,” and opportunities to

make such relationships. Secondly, characteristics that influence a behavior of a person can influence how

successful they are in a social interaction. And finally, some of one’s personality traits could establish how
they react to changes and cues in social situations/relations, and how much the person succeeds in

alleviating loneliness. People who are lonely also have a low level of social “risk-taking” which the author

believes could correlate with shyness, not being assertive, and self-consciousness. Since these people have

scored lower on self-actualization, self-regard, and inner directness, low self-esteem also somewhat

correlates with loneliness. They also point out that since physically attractive people are generally liked

better and have more opportunities to socialize, that must mean that physically attractive individuals are

less likely to be lonely. Additionally, others who are the “different” ones in their groups, like they have a

different ethnicity, age, religion, or interests are more likely to be lonely.

This source is credible because the source has many references and is also a chapter of a book that

was shown at an international conference. There was also an editor for the chapters and book. This is

useful because it directly talks about some of the factors that predispose someone to loneliness. This also

raises the question whether or not loneliness has different types and different factors leading to different

types of loneliness, and how one could find an overlap in one shared characteristic through all types of

loneliness and lonely individuals.

Psych2Go. (2020, June 7). 9 reasons why you feel lonely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d94ElWbeV4U

The main speaker of this YouTube video, Chloe Avenasa discusses nine reasons why

someone may feel lonely in a YouTube video from the channel, Psych2go. This channel

characterizes loneliness as one of the most “universal emotions” everyone feels. Some reasons

why individuals feel lonely according to them is not knowing how to connect with others, being

afraid, or going through a major change. One of the reasons could be struggling with

codependency, which could be from the person projecting their self-worth and their identity onto

someone they care about; this causes the lonely individual to feel disconnected from themself.

Another reason is losing touch with oneself, which is what can also happen additionally when an
 individual projects themself onto someone. This suggests that many might feel lonely not because

they lost connection with others, but they lost connection with themselves and cannot connect with

who they are. Another reason could be feeling misunderstood, struggling with self worth, spending

time with the wrong people. People may spend time with the wrong people because they are afraid

of being alone, so they continue to hang out with others knowing they might be bad for them; this

leaves the person feeling trapped, drained, and misunderstood. The last reason could be that the

individual is suffering from depression.

This is credible because Psych2go is a channel devoted to spreading awareness to mental

health as well as making psychology more accessible and available. In their description, there are

also lists of sources from where they got their information. This source is useful because it lists

information on some of the reasons people feel lonely. This also gives insight on the mind and the

thought process on why many feel the way they do. This also poses the question whether or not

there are any factors on the characteristics of a person and how they are more likely to feel lonely.

Set, Z. (2019). Potential regulatory elements between attachment styles and psychopathology: Rejection

sensitivity and self-esteem. Archives of Neuropsychiatry. https://doi.org/10.29399/npa.23451

This scholarly journal studied the correlations between attachment styles, self-esteem,

rejection sensitivity, and psychopathology. This study was on 340 university students where they

figured out their attachment pattern and then looked at the levels of anxiety and depression. They

explain that attachment is a natural reaction to “internal and external stimulation,” which is

triggered by an anxious experience or anxiety. For a child’s development, it is important for them

to use their caregivers as a shield when in situations they need them. When they don’t obtain that

attachment from the caregivers or are inconsistently met, they would develop an insecure

attachment. These attachments influence how the child perceives themselves and others around

them, and how they interact with others and how others interact with them. This makes attachment
important because it is involved in their future development of expectations, relationships,

perceptions, and the assessment of themselves and others. Individuals with anxious attachment

styles and avoidant attachment styles see themselves as positive and others as negative. But while

Anxious attachment is characterized as high levels of anxiety, fear of rejection, and a strong need

for close emotional connections, Avoidant attachment is almost the exact opposite as they keep

their distance. The author describes a meta-analysis study, in which children with insecure

attachments were found to have “two-fold” internalization problems, and children with avoidant

attachment had the highest levels of it. Internalization is the action of “absorbing an idea, opinion,

or belief (Cambridge Dictionary)” that helps in developing the self and character. This shows that

individuals with insecure attachment styles either over-internalize social interactions, or have a

harder time doing so. Children with these insecure attachment styles were also found with a lower

level of rejection sensitivity than individuals with a secure attachment, meaning they were not as

able to deal with rejection. If the child’s needs were not met consistently or rejected, they would

not feel trusting towards others, however, individuals who were rejected or experienced abuse

and/or neglect develop a sensitivity to rejection and not react well with criticisms. Another study

also found that people who had rejection sensitivity were more likely to develop depression; and in

another study, other scientists found a relationship between anxiety and rejection sensitivity.

Childhood attachment also influences one’s self-esteem, which is a “positive or negative

assessment in one’s own self .” People with high self-esteem are able to rely and trust themselves

and have a higher advantage in meeting their goals and are able to take criticism; however,

individuals with low self-esteem have a higher sensitivity to rejection or “disapproval” and tend to

avoid anything that may lead them to such. Self-esteem can be caused by a negative relationship

with the caregiver which increases the child’s vulnerability and sensitivity to rejection and

decreases trust. The author concluded that individuals with insecure attachment styles are
 negatively affected by self-esteem and positively related to sensitivity to rejection and that

rejection sensitivity and self-esteem play a role in attachment styles and psychopathology.

This is credible because it has resources at the bottom of the journal. It also ties back to

previous research and studies conducted. This is useful because it aids in finding the relationships

between self-esteem, and rejection sensitivity, and how they correlate with attachment styles to

create a sense of belonging or loneliness. With this information, one can figure out how

self-esteem can affect loneliness.

Staloch, L. (2023, June 16). Brain imaging study shows that lonely individuals "process the world

idiosyncratically." Psypost.

https://www.psypost.org/2023/06/brain-imaging-study-shows-that-lonely-individuals-process-the-

world-idiosyncratically-165846

In the article, they talk about how Psychological Science investigated the links between

loneliness, social interaction, and activity in the brain. Based on an MRI done, they found that

individuals who were more lonely, processed the world differently. This article characterizes

loneliness as subjective, and when individuals feel isolated, they are more likely to feel lonely. It

also explains that when others understand each other, one is more likely to engage in social

behaviors such as being helpful. The article explains how Elisa Baek and her team studied the

connections between a naturalistic movie watching activity with loneliness through inter-subject

correlations (ISC). This was to watch how the brain reacted to social information. They used

people 18 to 21 years old and MRI scanned them as they watched a video of two people

interacting socially. Results showed that people who had high levels of loneliness were associated

with higher activation in the insula, which is responsible for sensing the self, and feeling pain, and

the amygdala, which is responsible for the fight or flight response. The author suggests that this
 could mean that loneliness is associated with higher sensitivity to negative social cues, and has

trouble processing social information. The person who did the experiment concludes that lonely

people process the world differently or “idiosyncratically,” and that is why they feel lonely and

isolated.

This source is credible because the article is on a website that is all about psychology. The

author also has a master degree in psychology and Educational administration, and she teaches

advanced psychology. This source is helpful because this suggests that people who have higher

levels of loneliness have lower social skills which can be used to figure out the leading cause of

loneliness.

The Attachment Project. (2023, June 14). Can attachment styles predict loneliness? The role of emotional

needs. The Attachment Project. https://www.attachmentproject.com/blog

attachment-styles-emotional-needs-and-loneliness/

This blog by The Attachment Project focuses on how attachment could potentially

“predict” loneliness. They start by describing that while there are many types of loneliness, the

difference between social and emotional loneliness is that social loneliness is when an individual is

isolated from others physically while emotional loneliness is the sense of being isolated even when

others are around. They begin to suggest that loneliness could be due to an insecure attachment

style that originated from childhood. Insecure attachment styles are a direct result of a deep

memory or experience that changed a person’s perspective on their relationships with others. For

the most part, these insecure attachments are caused by how their caregivers fulfilled and dealt

with common childhood needs. There are three insecure attachments, Avoidant attachment,

Anxious attachment, and Disorganized attachment, but in this blog, they only talk about avoidant

and anxious attachment. Individuals with avoidant attachment styles are characterized as actively
 avoiding and not participating in strong emotional attachments with others, which is theorized as a

coping mechanism from a fear of “emotional intimacy.” This could be a direct result of their

caregivers not responding to the child’s emotional needs. Individuals with anxious attachment

actively look for emotional relationships in order to avoid social loneliness. These individuals

become very dependent on their partner, friend, etc; and heavily rely on validation, contact, and

reassurance. When the relationship ends, they feel more empty and alone, which leaves them with

emotional loneliness. Insecure attachment and loneliness are thought to go hand-in-hand because

by the way the person with insecure attachment perceives a relationship, if it does not fulfill their

emotional needs, they will become lonely. This is supposed to show that parent-child relationships

can influence person-peer relationships.

This blog is credible because it has references at the bottom of the blog page, and comes

from a website aimed to uncover attachment. This is useful because it adds to Borawski’s evidence

in how attachment may influence loneliness. This also raises the questions of what type of

attachment styles are there, and what factors caused them. After considering that, then it would be

useful to figure out how much attachment styles overlap with loneliness.

Uguru, H. (n.d.). Tackling the loneliness epidemic in teenage girls and young women. The Maya Centre.

https://www.mayacentre.org.uk/tackling-loneliness-epidemic-teenage-girls-young-women/

The Maya Centre is a charity in the UK that provides free mental health services for

women with low incomes. This was written around the time of Mental Health Awareness Week

and this mostly talks about the growing loneliness in young girls and women. They describe

loneliness as a subjective feeling that is a gap between the want for social contact and the actual

social contact. People around the ages 16-24 are more likely to be lonely. Although the prevalence
 of loneliness seems to be rising, it is not “exponentially” growing as many people believe, and it

could be because of the different decisions Gen-z is making with each other than the other

generations. They believe that one of the leading causes of this loneliness could be a big change in

environment like moving out or divorce which could lead someone to feel misunderstood. The

article starts to touch on how women could feel more lonely. A study conducted concluded that

even though women have larger social circles, they feel more lonely. However, there is also an

argument that men are less inclined to admit loneliness and isolation.

This is credible because at the bottom of the article, embedded resources that cover what

the article talks about. This is useful because it gives insights to the growing levels of loneliness as

well as the gender differences and the amount of loneliness.

Your feelings of loneliness could be in your genes. (2022, October 4).

https://www.xcode.life/genes-and-personality/is-loneliness-genetic/#:~:text=Though%20its%20ca

uses%20are%20varied,of%20the%20variance%20in%20loneliness

This blog suggests that feelings of loneliness could have a genetic component to it.

Loneliness is a feeling/emotion that everyone feels; additionally for some, loneliness can be

consistent and act more like a state of mind than only an emotion. They also explain that loneliness

is “twice as harmful as obesity and is comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being an

alcoholic (Xcode, para 2).” They go on to suggest that 40-50% of loneliness is influenced by

genetics. A GWAS study considered the health information of about 10,760 people aged 50 and/or

older. Then they asked participants questions like “Do you often feel like you lack companionship?

Do you often feel left out? Do you often feel isolated from others?”. The result was that people

who had a tendency to feel more lonely consistently over a lifetime had a heritability of 14-27%.

In addition, there is also research that suggests it shares genetic components with depression, heart
 problems, and obesity. Researchers also suggest that loneliness was a hereditary trait that helped

humans to increase one’s survival that triggers the fight or flight response.

This blog is credible because it is an organization that uses DNA sent to them and gives

more information to the person about their DNA. They also post articles about the DNA

information they find. They also have resources at the bottom of their articles. This is useful

because it gathers information straight from the DNA sent to them. It also helps in suggesting that

loneliness could perhaps be genetic, and the characteristic that makes someone more likely to be

lonely is not mainly just experiences, but in their DNA.

M, Bergman. (2023, December 4). Social media and loneliness [Video]. Social Media Victims Law

Center. https://socialmediavictims.org/mental-health/loneliness/

This video transcript discusses the consequences of social media, and if it is influencing

loneliness. The transcript starts with explaining positive aspects of social media. Social media

plays a big role in “uniting the world in ways never before possible.” This is because social media

enables others to talk to people from a variety of different places, backgrounds, etc; so one would

think social media plays a part in decreasing loneliness. But researchers argue that social media

might be increasing loneliness. A teen using social media may have “hundreds” of friends whom

they have spoken to online before, but they probably haven’t met with them without the use of

their devices. While doing this, it can create a disconnect between the person and the actual world.

Social media makes it easier to “substitute” meeting others in person for devices, but this causes

higher risks of mental health issues especially in loneliness and depression according to a study by

JAMA Psychiatry. Additionally, if a teen’s experience with social media is negative, it creates a

sense of isolation and shame. The transcript says, “A 10% increase in negative experiences on

social media corresponds with a 13% rise in loneliness (Bergman, 2023).” and because of a teen’s
age range, their lack of “maturity” and the skills to cope with that loneliness can come with bad

consequences. An example of this is because of the teen’s developmental range, which is the

struggle between identity, place in society, and their self-esteem; social media has the potential and

power to either harm or “boost” a teen’s self-esteem, and this can also cause depression and low

self-image. And depression causes decreased “productivity” which will decrease their performance

in home, work, and school. Lack of face contact also influences the decrease in teens’ development

of empathy, and deep connections. The video suggests that while the consequences and use of

social media is rising, there are also ways to either prevent or subside the effects of social media

with loneliness. Social media seems to work like an addiction, so in order to “treat” social media

issues, one must treat it using similar coping mechanisms used for addiction. In order to prevent

these consequences, encouraging teens to spend more time with family and friends may be

desired, or finding websites that have a time-lock for social media websites

This is credible because the author relates back to past studies and sources and also has

embedded links. This is useful because it gives insight to how social media affects its users. While

it is positive in creating safe spaces for others, it can also create hostile and bad places for teens in

addition to its role in the disconnect between connections in the real world and in a device. This in

turn shows the negative aspects that come with giving a teen a harmful device, and how it will

impact their loneliness. While social media did not invent loneliness or vice versa, social media

still plays a very important role in influencing it. Social media is also most likely the common

denominator in this sudden rise in loneliness over the past few years.
 Application to Research

Turner, H. (2021).