God proclaimed that “it is not good for the man to be alone” in the Book of Genesis and it is perhaps the earliest evidence on the harmful effects of loneliness and solitude.
Poor academic performance, bad interpersonal relationships, reducing self -esteem and risks of anxiety are the fall outs of children who tend to withdraw themselves socially and from the peers. Even death, fatigues, depression, pain, enhanced rates of smoking and lower cognitive are the consequences that have been associated with loneliness by other studies. Loneliness is even being thought to be declared as a public health crisis by researchers.
But what can be said about those individuals who seek to achieve solitude? These are those people who simply enjoy time alone and do not withdraw from society because they dislike social contact or they are shy.
Not all forms of social withdrawals are harmful for individuals, claims a study by a group of psychologists at SUNNY Buffalo. In fact, the study, for the first time, has been able to establish a link between a specific type of social withdrawal and enhanced creativity.
Those people who simply prefer to be in solitude has caught the fancy of psychologists in recent years. Such individuals do not look out for excessive interpersonal contact but also do not necessarily are averse to interacting with others.
“They are not antisocial,” author Julie Bowker said in a news release. “They don’t initiate interaction, but also don’t appear to turn down social invitations from peers. Therefore, they may get just enough peer interaction so that when they are alone, they are able to enjoy that solitude.”
295 students from universities were chosen for the survey by the researchers of the study who were asked to undergo a series of common evaluations about their traits, their community lives and their creativity. This was done to find out how these “unsociable” people behave in a different manner from those who are really shy or are truly anti-social. The degree of agreement of the students with multiple items including “Having close friends is not as important as many people say” and “I feel pretty worried or upset when I think or know somebody is angry at me” were used to rate the students.
A few forewarnings have been stressed by the research even though the evaluations are all normal tools in the psychological literature. These findings from the students are not representative of the broader population and cannot be generalized because these respondents were not representative of the nation as a whole. There is also the risk that the participants were not being entirely honest as is the case with self-reported data.
Despite these considerations, some worthwhile data was revealed by the students' data. Lower than average on the aspect of creativity was scored by those respondents who were shy or antisocial. But higher scores on creativity was achieved by those respondents who were “unsociable” and sought out solitude.
Unsociable people, in other words, “may be able to spend their time in solitude constructively, unlike shy and avoidant individuals who may be too distracted and/or preoccupied by their negative cognitions and distress,” the authors posit.
(Source:www.washingtonpost.com)
Poor academic performance, bad interpersonal relationships, reducing self -esteem and risks of anxiety are the fall outs of children who tend to withdraw themselves socially and from the peers. Even death, fatigues, depression, pain, enhanced rates of smoking and lower cognitive are the consequences that have been associated with loneliness by other studies. Loneliness is even being thought to be declared as a public health crisis by researchers.
But what can be said about those individuals who seek to achieve solitude? These are those people who simply enjoy time alone and do not withdraw from society because they dislike social contact or they are shy.
Not all forms of social withdrawals are harmful for individuals, claims a study by a group of psychologists at SUNNY Buffalo. In fact, the study, for the first time, has been able to establish a link between a specific type of social withdrawal and enhanced creativity.
Those people who simply prefer to be in solitude has caught the fancy of psychologists in recent years. Such individuals do not look out for excessive interpersonal contact but also do not necessarily are averse to interacting with others.
“They are not antisocial,” author Julie Bowker said in a news release. “They don’t initiate interaction, but also don’t appear to turn down social invitations from peers. Therefore, they may get just enough peer interaction so that when they are alone, they are able to enjoy that solitude.”
295 students from universities were chosen for the survey by the researchers of the study who were asked to undergo a series of common evaluations about their traits, their community lives and their creativity. This was done to find out how these “unsociable” people behave in a different manner from those who are really shy or are truly anti-social. The degree of agreement of the students with multiple items including “Having close friends is not as important as many people say” and “I feel pretty worried or upset when I think or know somebody is angry at me” were used to rate the students.
A few forewarnings have been stressed by the research even though the evaluations are all normal tools in the psychological literature. These findings from the students are not representative of the broader population and cannot be generalized because these respondents were not representative of the nation as a whole. There is also the risk that the participants were not being entirely honest as is the case with self-reported data.
Despite these considerations, some worthwhile data was revealed by the students' data. Lower than average on the aspect of creativity was scored by those respondents who were shy or antisocial. But higher scores on creativity was achieved by those respondents who were “unsociable” and sought out solitude.
Unsociable people, in other words, “may be able to spend their time in solitude constructively, unlike shy and avoidant individuals who may be too distracted and/or preoccupied by their negative cognitions and distress,” the authors posit.
(Source:www.washingtonpost.com)
Homepage
Send to a friend
Printable version
Share
