Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Vallacher, Robin R.

Abstract

Loneliness – the feeling that manifests when one perceives one’s social needs are not being met by the quantity or especially the quality of one’s social relationships – is a common but typically short-lived and fairly harmless experience. However, recent research continues to uncover a variety of alarming health effects associated with longterm loneliness. The present study examines the psychological mechanisms underlying how persons scoring high in trait loneliness perceive their social environments. Evaluations of transient facial expression morphs are analyzed in R using dynamical systems methods. We hypothesize that, consistent with Cacioppo and Hawkley’s sociocognitive model, subjects scoring high in loneliness will exhibit hypervigilance in their evaluations of cold and neutral emotions and hypovigilance in their evaluations of warm emotions. Results partially support the socio-cognitive model but point to a relationship between loneliness and a global dampening in evaluations of emotions. Keywords: loneliness, perceived social isolation, social dynamics, emotion recognition.

Extent

107 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00004866

Format

pdf

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