Reciprocal Influences Between Loneliness and Self-Centeredness: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis in a Population-Based Sample of African American,Hispanic,and Caucasian Adults

Abstract

Loneliness has been posited to increase the motivation to repair or replace deficient social relationships and, seemingly paradoxically, to increase the implicit motivation for self-preservation. In the current research, we report a cross-lagged panel analysis of 10 waves of longitudinal data (N = 229) on loneliness and self-centeredness (as gauged by Feeney and Collins’s measure of chronic self-focus) in a representative sample of middle-aged and older adults. As predicted by the proposition that loneliness increases the implicit motivation for self-preservation, loneliness in the current year predicts self-centeredness in the subsequent year beyond what is explained by current-year demographic variables, self-centeredness, depressive symptomatology, and overall negative mood. Analyses also show that self-centeredness in the current year (net covariates) predicts loneliness in the subsequent year, a reciprocal relationship that could potentially contribute to the maintenance of loneliness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords

loneliness longitudinal methodology perceived social isolation population-based sample self-centeredness self-preservation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abdellaoui

Chen

H. S.

Willemsen

Ehli

E. A.

Davies

G. E.

Verweij

K. J. H.

…Cacioppo

J. T

. (2017). Feeling lonely and personality. Manuscript under review.

Bangee

Harris

R. A.

Bridges

Rotenberg

K. J.

Qualter

(2014). Loneliness and attention to social threat in young adults: Findings from an eye-tracker study. Personality and Individual Differences, 63, 16-23. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.039

Cacioppo

J. T.

Berntson

G. G.

Thisted

R. A.

(2008). Multilevel investigations: Conceptual mappings and perspectives. In Weinstein

Vaupel

J. W.

Wachter

K. W.

(Eds.), Biosocial surveys (pp. 367-380). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Cacioppo

J. T.

Cacioppo

Boomsma

(2014). Evolutionary mechanisms for loneliness. Cognition and Emotion, 28, 3-21.

Cacioppo

J. T.

Cacioppo

Capitanio

J. P.

Cole

S. W.

(2015). The neuroendocrinology of social isolation. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 733-767. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015240

Cacioppo

J. T.

Cacioppo

Cole

S. W.

Capitanio

J. P.

Goossens

Boomsma

D. I.

(2015). Loneliness across phylogeny and a call for comparative studies and animal models. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10, 202-212.

Cacioppo

J. T.

Hawkley

L. C.

(2009). Perceived social isolation and cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13, 447-454.

Capitanio

J. P.

Hawkley

L. C.

Cole

S. W.

Cacioppo

J. T.

(2014). A behavioral taxonomy of loneliness in monkeys and humans. PLoS One, 9(10), e110307. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0110307

Cacioppo

J. T.

Hawkley

L. C.

Ernst

J. M.

Burleson

Berntson

G. G.

Nouriani

Spiegel

(2006). Loneliness within a nomological net: An evolutionary perspective. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 1054-1085.

10.

Cacioppo

J. T.

Hawkley

L. C.

Thisted

R. A.

(2010). Perceived social isolation makes me sad: Five year cross-lagged analyses of loneliness and depressive symptomatology in the Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study. Psychology and Aging, 25, 453-463.

11.

Cacioppo

J. T.

Norris

C. J.

Decety

Monteleone

Nusbaum

(2009). In the eye of the beholder: Individual differences in perceived social isolation predict regional brain activation to social stimuli. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21, 83-92.

12.

Cacioppo

J. T.

Patrick

(2008). Loneliness: Human nature and the need for social connection. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

13.

Cacioppo

Balogh

Cacioppo

J. T.

(2015). Implicit attention to negative social, in contrast to nonsocial, words in the Stroop task differs between individuals high and low in loneliness: Evidence from event-related brain microstates. Cortex, 70, 213-233.

14.

Cacioppo

Bangee

Balogh

Cardenas-Iniguez

Qualter

Cacioppo

J. T.

(2016). Loneliness and implicit attention to social threat: A high performance electrical neuroimaging study. Cognitive Neuroscience, 7, 138-159.

15.

Cacioppo

J. T.

(2016). Research in social neuroscience: How perceived social isolation, ostracism, and romantic rejection affect our brain. In Riva

Eck

(Eds.), Social exclusion: Psychological approaches to understanding and reducing its impact (pp. 73-88). New York, NY: Springer.

16.

Cacioppo

Capitanio

J. P.

Cacioppo

J. T.

(2014). Toward a neurology of loneliness. Psychological Bulletin, 140, 1464-1504.

17.

Cacioppo

Grippo

A. J.

London

Goossens

Cacioppo

J. T.

(2015). Loneliness: Clinical import and interventions. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10, 238-249.

18.

Cohen

(1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

19.

Cole

S. W.

Capitanio

J. P.

Chun

Arevalo

J. M. G.

Cacioppo

J. T.

(2015). Myeloid differentiation architecture of leukocyte transcriptome dynamics in perceived social isolation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112, 15142-15147.

20.

Cortina

J. M.

Landis

R. S.

(2009). When small effect sizes tell a big story, and when large effect sizes don’t. In Lance

C. E.

Vandenberg

R. J.

(Eds.), Statistical and methodological myths and urban legends: Doctrine, verity and fable in the organizational and social sciences (pp. 287-308). New York, NY: Routledge.

21.

Curran

P. J.

(2000). A latent curve framework for the study of developmental trajectories in adolescent substance use. In Rose

J. S.

Chassin

Presson

C. C.

Sherman

S. J.

(Eds.), Multivariate applications in substance use research: New methods for new questions (pp. 1-42). New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum.

22.

Dunbar

(2011). Evolutionary basis of the social brain. In Decety

Cacioppo

J. T.

(Eds.), The Oxford handbook of social neuroscience (pp. 28-38). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

23.

Feeney

B. C.

Collins

N. L.

(2001). Predictors of caregiving in adult intimate relationships: An attachment/theoretical perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 972-994.

24.

Fitch

(1999). White oleander. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.

25.

Gao

Davis

L. K.

Hart

A. B.

Sanchez-Roige

Han

Cacioppo

J. T.

Palmer

A. A.

(2017). Genome-wide association study of loneliness demonstrates a role for common variation. Neuropsychopharmacology, 42, 811-821. doi:10.1038/npp.2016.197

26.

Gardner

W. L.

Pickett

C. L.

Jefferis

Knowles

(2005). On the outside looking in: Loneliness and social monitoring. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 1549-1560.

27.

Georgiev

A. V.

Klimczuk

A. C.

Traficonte

D. M.

Maestripieri

(2013). When violence pays: A cost-benefit analysis of aggressive behavior in animals and humans. Evolutionary Psychology, 11, 678-699.

28.

Goossens

van Roekel

Verhagen

Cacioppo

J. T.

Cacioppo

Maes

Boomsma

D. I.

(2015). The genetics of loneliness: Linking evolutionary theory to genome-wide genetics, epigenetics, and social science. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10, 213-226.

29.

Goswick

R. A.

Jones

W. H.

(1981). Loneliness, self-concept, and adjustment. The Journal of Psychology, 107, 237-240.

30.

Harai

Y. N.

(2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

31.

Ioannou

C. C.

Guttal

Couzin

I. D.

(2012). Predatory fish select for coordinated collective motion in virtual prey. Science, 337, 1212-1215.

32.

Jones

W. H.

Cavert

C. W.

Snider

R. L.

Bruce

(1985). Relational stress: An analysis of situations and events associated with loneliness. In Duck

Perlman

(Eds.), Understanding personal relationships: An interdisciplinary approach (pp. 221-242). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

33.

Jones

W. H.

Freemon

J. E.

Goswick

R. A.

(1981). The persistence of loneliness: Self and other determinants. Journal of Personality, 49, 27-48.

34.

Layden

E. A.

Cacioppo

J. T.

Cacioppo

Cappa

S. F.

Dodich

Falini

Canessa

(2017). Perceived social isolation is associated with altered functional connectivity in neural networks associated with tonic alertness and executive control. NeuroImage, 145, 58-73.

35.

Magurran

A. E.

Pitcher

T. J.

(1987). Provenance, shoal size and the sociobiology of predator-evasion behaviour in minnow shoals. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 229, 439-465.

36.

Masi

C. M.

Chen

H. Y.

Hawkley

L. C.

Cacioppo

J. T.

(2011). A meta-analysis of interventions to reduce loneliness. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15, 219-266.

37.

McNair

D. M.

Loor

Droppleman

(1992a). EdITS manual for the Profile of Mood States. San Diego, CA: Educational and Industrial Testing Service.

38.

McNair

D. M.

Loor

Droppleman

(1992b). Profile of mood states. Test Critiques, 1, 522-529.

39.

Moore

Schultz

N. R.

Jr. (1983). Loneliness at adolescence: Correlates, attributions, and coping. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 12, 95-100.

40.

Muthén

L. K.

Muthén

B. O.

(2015). Mplus user’s guide (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Author.

41.

Ong

A. D.

Uchino

B. N.

Wethington

(2015). Loneliness and health in older adults: A mini-review and synthesis. Gerontology, 62, 443-449.

42.

Ortigue

Viaud-Delmon

Michel

C. M.

Blanke

Annoni

J. M.

Pegna

. . . Landis

(2003). Pure imagery hemi-neglect of far space. Neurology, 60, 2000-2002.

43.

Perlman

Peplau

L. A.

(1981). Toward a social psychology of loneliness. In Duck

Gilmour

(Eds.), Personal relationships in disorder (pp. 31-56). London, England: Academic Press.

44.

Pickett

C. L.

Gardner

(2005). The social monitoring system: Enhanced sensitivity to social cues as an adaptive response to social exclusion. In Williams

K. D.

Forgas

J. P.

von Hippel

(Eds.), The social outcast: Ostracism, social exclusion, rejection, and bullying (pp. 213-226). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

45.

Radloff

L. S.

(1977). The CES-D Scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385-401.

46.

Russell

(1996). UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3): Reliability, validity, and factor structure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 661, 20-40.

47.

Russell

Peplau

L. A.

Cutrona

C. E.

(1980). The revised UCLA loneliness scale: Concurrent and discriminant validity evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 472-480.

48.

Sadler

W. A.

(1978). Dimensions in the problem of loneliness: A phenomenological approach in social psychology. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 9, 157-187.

49.

Scheier

M. F.

Carver

C. S.

(1985). The Self-Consciousness Scale: A revised version for use with general populations. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 15, 687-699.

50.

Silk

J. B.

(2007). Social components of fitness in primate groups. Science, 317, 1347-1351.

51.

Sommer

(1969). Personal space: The behavioral basis of design. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

52.

Weiss

R. S.

(1973). Loneliness: The experience of emotional and social isolation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

53.

Yamada

Decety

(2009). Unconscious affective processing and empathy: An investigation of subliminal priming on the detection of painful facial expressions. Pain, 143, 71-75.

54.

Young

L. J.

Lim

M. M.

Gingrich

Insel

T. R.

(2001). Cellular mechanisms of social attachment. Hormones and Behavior, 40, 133-138.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.22 MB