Interpersonal problems of people who describe themselves as lonely.

Major interpersonal problems (e.g., "I find it hard to trust other people") that were identified in an earlier study were grouped in the present study into semantic categories. These problems can be related to other forms of complaint, such as the form "I am (adjective)." The complaint "I am lonely," for example, seems to summarize specific interpersonal difficulties in socializing. The UCLA Loneliness Scale was used to identify 25 lonely and 45 not-lonely students who described their major interpersonal problems by performing a Q sort with a standardized set of problems. Results show that lonely people consistently reported problems of inhibited sociability. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)