Abstract
Seven hundred and fifty-three observations were collected on 25 adolescents at random times during an average week. The observations consisted of self-reports completed in response to an electronic pager. The study was aimed at the question: What is the experience of time alone like for adolescents? The results suggest a complex but consistent relationship: while aloneness is generally a negative experience, those adolescents who spend a moderate amount of time alone (about 30 % of their waking time) tend to show better overall adjustment than adolescents who are either never alone or spend more than the optimal proportion of time alone. Alienation and average moods showed inverse linear or quadratic relationships with amount of time alone. These results are discussed in terms of the possible psychosocial functions of aloneness at the adolescent stage of the life cycle.
This research was funded through PHS grant No. RO1 HM 22883-02. Requests for reprints should be sent to Reed Larson, Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago, 5730 S. Woodlawn, Chicago, Illinois 60637.
Reprinted from the Journal of Personality, vol 46, no 4, pp. 677–693, Dec 1, 1978. Copyright © 1978 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
If you wish to reuse your own article (or an amended version of it) in a new publication of which you are the author, editor or co-editor, prior permission is not required (with the usual acknowledgements).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Altman, I. (1975). The environment and social behavior. Monterey: Brooks/Cole.
Aries, P. (1960). Centuries of childhood (R. Baldick, Trans.). New York: Vintage Books.
Bates, A. (1964). Privacy—a useful concept? Social Forces, 42, 429–434.
Bock, R.D. (1975). Multivariate statistical methods in behavioral research. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Chandler, M. (1975). Relativism and the problem of epistemological loneliness. Human Development, 18, 171–180.
Coleman, J. (1974). Relationships in adolescence. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Costanzo, P. (1970) Conformity development as a function of self-blame. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 14, 366–374.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., Larson, R., & Prescott, S. (1977). The ecology of adolescent activity and experience. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 6(3), 281–294.
Douvan, E., & Adelson, J. (1966). The adolescent experience. New York: Wiley.
Erikson, E. (1968). Identity, youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
Goffman, E. (1956). The nature of deference and demeanor. American Anthropologist, 58, 473–492.
Halmos, P. (1952). Solitude and privacy. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Ittelson, W. (1974). An introduction to environmental psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Maddi, S., Kobasa, S., & Hoover, M. (1976). The alienation-commitment test: reliability and validity. Unpublished Manuscript
Nisbett, R., & Valins, S. (1972). Perceiving the causes of one’s own behavior. In E.Jones (Ed.), Attribution: Perceiving the causes of behavior. Morristown: General Learning Press.
Penn, W. (1909). Fruits of solitude. In Harvard classics (Vol. 1). New York: P. F. Collier & Son.
Petrarch, F. (1924). The life of solitude (J. Zeitlein, Trans.). Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.
Prescott, S., Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Graef, R. (1976). Environmental effects on cognitive and affective states: The experimental sampling approach. Unpublished manuscript.
Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 13). New York: Academic Press.
Rousseau, J. (1971). The reveries of a solitary (J. Fletcher, Trans.). London: George Routledge and sons.
Schwartz, B. (1968). The social psychology of privacy. American Journal of Sociology, 73, 741–752.
Sherif, M., & Sherif, C. (1961). Reference groups. Chicago: Regnery.
Sullivan, H. (1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York: Norton.
Taylor, D., Berry, P., & Block, C. (1958). Does group participation when using brain-storming facilitate or inhibit creative thinking? Administrative Science Quarterly, 3, 23–49.
Tillich, P. (1956). The eiernal now. New York: Charles Schribner’s Sons.
Westin, A. (1967). Privacy and freedom. New York: Atheneum.
Wolfe, M., Laufer, R. (1974). The concept of privacy in childhood and adolescence. In D. Carson (Ed.), Man-environment interactions: Evaluations and applications (part II). Stroudsburg: Halsted Press.
Zuckerman, M., Persky, H., Link, K., & Basu, G. (1968). Experimental and subject factors determining responses to sensory deprivation, social isolation and confinement. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 73, 183–194.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Larson, R., Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). Experiential Correlates of Time Alone in Adolescence. In: Applications of Flow in Human Development and Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9094-9_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9094-9_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9093-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9094-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)