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Loneliness Over Time: The Crucial Role of Social Anxiety This article studied the mental health symptoms of paranoia and social anxiety and their contribution to loneliness. Loneliness is said to be an emotional state that is characterized by subjective perceptions of social isolation and can be seen as a marker that one’s relationships may be inadequate or failing to meet expectations (Heinrich and Gullone, 2006). The research from population-based studies notes a higher prevalence rate of loneliness in those patients diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (Meltzer et al., 2013). The aim of this research was to test the hypothesis that loneliness at an earlier time will result in higher levels of social anxiety, paranoia, …show more content…
Furthermore, a large majority of these individuals were women and over half of the participants admitted to having taken psychotropic medication at one point in time. The testing period was 18-24 weeks with participants completing the study up to three times within that period of time. The participants completed several online assessments in order for the data to be collected; the first of those was the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale. This assessment is able to measure the feelings of social isolation, loneliness, and dissatisfaction based on an individual’s social interactions. The next assessment that was used was the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale- Straightforward items. This questionnaire is able to determine the participant’s anxiety-related reactions to different social interactions. The Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scale was …show more content…
These results can be generalized and state that the conditions of social anxiety, paranoia, and depression all have a direct correlation to the loneliness of the patient. That being said, a large amount of human contact would result in a lack of loneliness and could possibly be used the treat the aforementioned conditions and have positive results due to the strong correlation between the two. The main criticism I have with this experiment is the use of online surveying to collect data. Although I realize that due to the large sample size, online testing was the most practical way to conduct the experiment, I do believe that an experiment conducted in person would have resulted in more accurate findings. However, I do not think there is an ethical way to truly test the hypothesis and therefore, the researchers did the next best option. In order to truly test the hypothesis, I believe the participants would have to be exposed to a large amount of human contact at first, and over time start to draw back the amount of contact received per day. Simultaneously, data should be recorded as to how the participant’s mood, social anxiety, paranoia, and depression changed as a result of diminished human contact over time. That procedure would be extremely unethical and thus, another method of
Loneliness Over Time: The Crucial Role of Social Anxiety This article studied the mental health symptoms of paranoia and social anxiety and their contribution to loneliness. Loneliness is said to be an emotional state that is characterized by subjective perceptions of social isolation and can be seen as a marker that one’s relationships may be inadequate or failing to meet expectations (Heinrich and Gullone, 2006). The research from population-based studies notes a higher prevalence rate of loneliness in those patients diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (Meltzer et al., 2013). The aim of this research was to test the hypothesis that loneliness at an earlier time will result in higher levels of social anxiety, paranoia, …show more content…
Furthermore, a large majority of these individuals were women and over half of the participants admitted to having taken psychotropic medication at one point in time. The testing period was 18-24 weeks with participants completing the study up to three times within that period of time. The participants completed several online assessments in order for the data to be collected; the first of those was the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale. This assessment is able to measure the feelings of social isolation, loneliness, and dissatisfaction based on an individual’s social interactions. The next assessment that was used was the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale- Straightforward items. This questionnaire is able to determine the participant’s anxiety-related reactions to different social interactions. The Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scale was …show more content…
These results can be generalized and state that the conditions of social anxiety, paranoia, and depression all have a direct correlation to the loneliness of the patient. That being said, a large amount of human contact would result in a lack of loneliness and could possibly be used the treat the aforementioned conditions and have positive results due to the strong correlation between the two. The main criticism I have with this experiment is the use of online surveying to collect data. Although I realize that due to the large sample size, online testing was the most practical way to conduct the experiment, I do believe that an experiment conducted in person would have resulted in more accurate findings. However, I do not think there is an ethical way to truly test the hypothesis and therefore, the researchers did the next best option. In order to truly test the hypothesis, I believe the participants would have to be exposed to a large amount of human contact at first, and over time start to draw back the amount of contact received per day. Simultaneously, data should be recorded as to how the participant’s mood, social anxiety, paranoia, and depression changed as a result of diminished human contact over time. That procedure would be extremely unethical and thus, another method of