an article by Jennifer C. Lay, Theresa Pauly, Peter Graf, Jeremy C. Biesanz and Christiane A. Hoppmann (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada) published in Journal of Personality Volume 87 Issue 3 (June 2019)
Abstract
Objective
Solitude is a ubiquitous experience, often confused with loneliness, yet sometimes sought out in daily life. This study aimed to identify distinct types of solitude experiences from everyday affect/thought patterns and to examine how and for whom solitude is experienced positively versus negatively.
Method
One hundred community‐dwelling adults aged 50–85 years (64% female; 56% East Asian, 36% European, 8% other/mixed heritage) and 50 students aged 18–28 years (92% female; 42% East Asian, 22% European, 36% other/mixed) each completed approximately 30 daily life assessments over 10 days on their current and desired social situation, thoughts, and affect.
Results
Multilevel latent profile analysis identified two types of everyday solitude: one characterized by negative affect and effortful thought (negative solitude experiences) and one characterized by calm and the near absence of negative affect/effortful thought (positive solitude experiences). Individual differences in social self‐efficacy and desire for solitude were associated with everyday positive solitude propensity; trait self‐rumination and self‐reflection were associated with everyday negative solitude propensity.
Conclusions
This study provides a new framework for conceptualizing everyday solitude. It identifies specific affect/thought patterns that characterize distinct solitude experience clusters, and it links these clusters with well‐established individual differences. We discuss key traits associated with thriving in solitude.
Showing posts with label solitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solitude. Show all posts
Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Friday, 29 December 2017
How 15-Minute Boredom Sessions Can Help You Manage Stress and Emotions
a post by Derek Beres for the Big Think blog

If you want to know the state of a nation, we generally look no further than online. A proper portrait, that does not yield. Look, instead, at the line in front of you, waiting for a cappuccino or to pay for groceries. Look into the cars surrounding you at a red light. Look around anywhere in the public space, except at your phone. Then you’ll get a sense of where our heads are at.
Our heads are down, perpetually angled at the screen, whenever a moment of potential boredom arises. Waiting for a meal? Barista taking too long? Or even the proper amount of time – those 30 seconds are crushingly dull. Caffeine is a secondary stimulation, a little jolt to turn your attention so that it can immediately be pulled into the innumerable waves of inattention on Instagram.
Where did boredom go? What happens when we stop allowing ourselves the habit of staring into space, letting our minds wander? Instead of a deluge of constant information, can we, as Michael Harris writes in The End of Absence, “engineer scarcity in our communications, in our interactions, and in the things we consume?”
Continue reading
If you want to know the state of a nation, we generally look no further than online. A proper portrait, that does not yield. Look, instead, at the line in front of you, waiting for a cappuccino or to pay for groceries. Look into the cars surrounding you at a red light. Look around anywhere in the public space, except at your phone. Then you’ll get a sense of where our heads are at.
Our heads are down, perpetually angled at the screen, whenever a moment of potential boredom arises. Waiting for a meal? Barista taking too long? Or even the proper amount of time – those 30 seconds are crushingly dull. Caffeine is a secondary stimulation, a little jolt to turn your attention so that it can immediately be pulled into the innumerable waves of inattention on Instagram.
Where did boredom go? What happens when we stop allowing ourselves the habit of staring into space, letting our minds wander? Instead of a deluge of constant information, can we, as Michael Harris writes in The End of Absence, “engineer scarcity in our communications, in our interactions, and in the things we consume?”
Continue reading
Monday, 19 November 2012
Dimensions of employee privacy: an empirical study
an article by Kirstie Ball and Elizabeth M. Daniel (Open University Business School, Milton Keynes, UK) and Chris Stride (University of Sheffield, UK) published in Information Technology & People Volume 25 Issue 4 (2012)
Abstract
Purpose
The study goes beyond the more frequent interest in information privacy to identify other notions of privacy within the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to explore how these additional notions of privacy relate to key demographic and employment characteristics and how data protection training, often instigated as a means of highlighting and addressing issues relating to privacy of customers’ data, is related to employees’ notions of their own workplace privacy.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was undertaken in two telephone call centres since they offered a working environment where staff are highly monitored and hence there are likely to be issues relating to employee privacy. The study is exploratory in nature and adopts a mixed method approach based on a questionnaire survey that was followed by semi-structured, qualitative face to face interviews.
Findings
The survey findings identified three distinct notions of privacy; the concern for personal information privacy (CfPIP), the concern for working environment privacy (CfWEP) and the concern for solitude privacy (CfSP). The findings were supported by the qualitative data provided by the interviews. CfWEP is found to be a gendered issue, with women showing a greater concern for the privacy of their working environment. Finally, the findings indicate that effective data protection training are associated with increased concern for their own privacy in the form of CfPIP, and that inclusion of data protection issues in performance reviews is associated their concern for CfWEP.
Originality/value
Previous studies of privacy in the workplace focus on the simplistic notion of information privacy. This study goes beyond such studies and provides empirically-based evidence of multiple dimensions of privacy operant in a single, real-world workplace setting. It also provides empirical insight to the previously unexplored issue of the association between data protection training employees’ notions of their own privacy.
Abstract
Purpose
The study goes beyond the more frequent interest in information privacy to identify other notions of privacy within the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to explore how these additional notions of privacy relate to key demographic and employment characteristics and how data protection training, often instigated as a means of highlighting and addressing issues relating to privacy of customers’ data, is related to employees’ notions of their own workplace privacy.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was undertaken in two telephone call centres since they offered a working environment where staff are highly monitored and hence there are likely to be issues relating to employee privacy. The study is exploratory in nature and adopts a mixed method approach based on a questionnaire survey that was followed by semi-structured, qualitative face to face interviews.
Findings
The survey findings identified three distinct notions of privacy; the concern for personal information privacy (CfPIP), the concern for working environment privacy (CfWEP) and the concern for solitude privacy (CfSP). The findings were supported by the qualitative data provided by the interviews. CfWEP is found to be a gendered issue, with women showing a greater concern for the privacy of their working environment. Finally, the findings indicate that effective data protection training are associated with increased concern for their own privacy in the form of CfPIP, and that inclusion of data protection issues in performance reviews is associated their concern for CfWEP.
Originality/value
Previous studies of privacy in the workplace focus on the simplistic notion of information privacy. This study goes beyond such studies and provides empirically-based evidence of multiple dimensions of privacy operant in a single, real-world workplace setting. It also provides empirical insight to the previously unexplored issue of the association between data protection training employees’ notions of their own privacy.
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