Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How Social Identity Influences Social And Emotional Loneliness, Curtis N. Peterson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Social identity theory (SIT) is a robust theory that explains in-group versus out-group behaviors. Two qualities of one's social identity include emotional connection and social connection with others, which someone who is experiencing loneliness tends to lack in their current situation. This dissertation explored whether when one's social identity becomes salient it results in a lower evaluation of one's current state of loneliness. An experiment was conducted in which college student participants, who were 18 years of age or older and currently enrolled in college courses, were randomly assigned to a social identity saliency group (college student) or 1 of …