Finding pleasure in solitary activities: desire for aloneness or disinterest in social contact?

Abstract

People balance their interpersonal engagements with time spent alone but differ widely in the degree to which they engage in and enjoy solitary activities. This study examined the question of whether these differences are primarily a function of a strong desire to spend time alone (high solitropism) versus a weak desire to spend time with other people (low sociotropism). Two-hundred and four respondents completed multiple measures of solitropic and sociotropic orientations, and answered questions about their participation in and enjoyment of solitary activities. The results suggested that the frequency and enjoyment of solitary activities are more strongly related to a high desire for solitude than to low sociotropism.

Introduction

Homo sapiens is a highly gregarious species, presumably because human beings obtain many benefits from affiliating and living with others (Baumeister and Leary, 1995, Hill, 1987). Even so, most people, even those who are highly sociable, spend much of their time by themselves, either by choice or life circumstance (Larson, 1990). Although being alone is sometimes associated with feelings of loneliness and alienation (Larson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1980), research suggests that, overall, spending occasional time away from other people predicts life satisfaction and psychological well-being (Bates, 1964, Burke, 1991). Indeed, some have suggested that the ability to enjoy solitary activities is associated with mental health (Burke, 1991, Maslow, 1970).

People differ, of course, in the degree to which they enjoy solitary activities. Some individuals seek and enjoy frequent opportunities to spend time by themselves, whereas other people dislike, dread, and avoid occasions in which they are alone or must do things by themselves. Our interest in this study was in the degree to which these differences in people's participation in and enjoyment of solitary activities are mediated by the competing preferences for being with other people versus being alone. Specifically, people might gravitate toward solitary activities either because they are positively disposed to be alone or because they have little desire to interact with others (or even find social interactions aversive). Does the enjoyment of solitary activities reflect primarily a high motivation to be alone or a low motivation to affiliate with other people?

We will use the terms sociotropic orientation and solitropic orientation to refer to the preferences for spending one's time in interpersonal interaction versus solitude, respectively. A high sociotropic orientation is reflected in a desire for social contact and social interaction; a low sociotropic orientation reflects a low desire to affiliate with others but not necessarily an avoidance of social interaction. Several previously-studied dispositional variables tap into the general tendency to affiliate with other people. Most obviously, affiliation motivation (or need for affiliation) reflects a sociotropic orientation (Hill, 1987, Jackson, 1967, Munir and Jackson, 1997). Hill (1987) noted that people may desire to affiliate with others for at least four discrete reasons—to receive social attention, to obtain emotional support, because they find other people stimulating, and for social comparison—but in all cases the individual is motivated to seek contact with other people. Similarly, sociability—the “tendency to affiliate with others and to prefer being with others to remaining alone” (Cheek & Buss, 1981, p. 330)—also reflects a sociotropic orientation, as does extraversion, of which sociability is typically regarded as a component (Costa and McCrae, 1992, Eysenck, 1990). People who are high in the need for belongingness and social acceptance should likewise desire to interact with others rather than be by themselves because belongingness needs cannot be met in isolation from other people (Baumeister and Leary, 1995, Leary et al., submitted for publication).

In contrast, solitropic dispositions steer people toward solitary activities and away from contact with others. Highly solitropic individuals seek solitude at every turn and often feel that they do not get enough time by themselves. People who are low in solitropism, on the other hand, have no particular need to be away from other people or to spend time alone. Solitropism is reflected, for example, in a high need for privacy, the desire to control how much access other people have to the individual and how well they know him or her (Derlega and Chaiken, 1977, Pedersen, 1979). Some people do not want others to get to know them too well and, thus, often want to be away from other people (Berschied, 1977, Pedersen, 1979). Some individuals also appear to enjoy the feeling of being anonymous, for example as they walk the streets of a large city by themselves (Pedersen, 1979). Furthermore, people sometimes enjoy and seek out the experience of true isolation, separating themselves physically from other people, for example by walking alone in the forest or retiring to the solitude of their room or apartment. Each of these tendencies appears to reflect primarily a positive movement toward solitude, either temporarily or as a way of life.

People might enjoy and seek opportunities for solitary activities either because they are low in sociotropic orientation or are highly solitropic. For example, a person scoring low in extraversion, sociability, or affiliation motivation may simply be unmotivated to seek out frequent company (Burger, 1995), whereas a person high in a need for privacy or anonymity may be drawn to the experience of being alone (Pederson, 1988). Our interest in the present study was in whether the frequency and enjoyment of solitary activities is primarily a function of low sociotropic tendencies or high solitropic tendencies.