Elderly Perception of Loneliness and Ways of Resolving it

asgaralipatel: INTRODUCTION
Research work by Baum (1982) indicates a reawakening interest in examining loneliness, especially among the elderly over the last several years which is of international in scope.

One impetus for the new interest is the realization that loneliness is a serious and widespread problem for many elderly persons today (Weiss, 1973).

Even though loneliness is perceived as an important consideration in oldage, there is no clear understanding of what loneliness is, or of what may contribute to, or exacerbate its development among the elderly.

Although space constraints do not allow for a complete review of growing literature on loneliness (Hartog, Audy and Cohen, 1980) but some understanding of how loneliness is viewed is necessary to identify the basic issues involved.

Polansky (1985) has indicated that “loneliness is a nearly universal human emotion-(where) all but the most fortunate-are subject to it.” Young (1980) defines loneliness as the absence or perceived absence of satisfactory social relationships. Russell, Peplau and Cutrona (1980) consider loneliness as reflecting interpersonal social relationships.

Loneliness has been shown to consist of atleast two distinct dimensions that are referred to by Weiss (1987) as emotional isolation-seen as the absence of an attachment figure in one's life and social isolation-regarded as the absence of a place in an accepting community.

The distinction between social and emotional loneliness is clearly one of the most influential in the literature. Weiss bases his distinction on the nature of the social deficit. Peplau and Perlman (1982) examined and viewed loneliness as an affective state in which the individual is aware of being apart from others and apart form familiar support networks or systems.

Other writers have distinguished chronic from temporary loneliness, and negative vs positive forms of aloneness. Still others (e.g., Sadler & Johnson, 1980 and Ellison, 1978) have discussed such types of loneliness as self-estrangement and/ or existential loneliness.

Existential loneliness may be more tied to the lack of religion or meaning in life than to a lack of interpersonal bonds.

Even so an examination of the literature on loneliness shows that being alone and being lonely are not necessarily coincident. Many consider and treat loneliness on synonymous with aloneness. Researchers perceive loneliness as a negative construct but aloneness is viewed as both positive as well as negative constructs.

Negative aloneness is viewed as the emotional experience of being apart from others when he/she wants to be part of them and positive aloneness is viewed as a feeling to stay away from others, to be close with one's own self. In this research negative perception of loneliness is treated in synonymous with negative aloneness and positive perception of loneliness is viewed as the combination of both negative and positive aloneness.

Though loneliness has been conceived as a problem for everyone from children to elderly people (Schultz & Moore, 1984 and Natale, 1986) however, it is more distressing for elderly because their spouses might be deceased or due to the fading of occupational and social networks upon retirement.

Religious behaviours and spiritual well-being are associated with low loneliness in the elderly (Walten et al., 1991).

Purpose of the study
Review of literature on loneliness leads to the conclusion that research on loneliness particularly in Indian context is inadequate. Social psychologists and gerontologists are becoming increasingly aware that a sense of control is an important determinant of the aged individual's physical and psychological well-being (Schultz, 1976). Hence this study has been attempted to find out the perception of the elderly towards loneliness and to study the major activities involved into ward off loneliness among the elderly.

Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were formulated and tested:
1. The elderly individuals perceive loneliness as an unwanted situation.
2. Religion appears as the major activity to resolve loneliness among the elderly.

METHOD
Sample
The total number of subjects was 60. The sample comprised of 30 elderly men and 30 elderly women in age ranging from 50 to 82 years (Mean age=63 years). The subjects were selected from Coimbatore district (Manchester of South India) in Tamil Nadu. The subjects (both males and females) were contacted individually by the researcher and data was collected by face-to-face interview.

Tool

The tools used in this study by the researcher were:
1. Personal Information Schedule: An “information schedule” was designed by the investigator to procure demographic and biographical information from the sample required for the study.
2. Informal Interview Schedule: An “interview schedule” was prepared by the investigator to extract information from the respondents from eight areas, namely, birth and childhood life, relationship with significant others, health and school experience, work life, marital life, views regarding loneliness, whether prefer to be alone at times, if ‘yes' and ‘why?' And ways of resolving loneliness.

For the present research incidental sampling technique was employed. Each subject was individually contacted by the researcher and data was obtained in a face-to-face manner. Data collection was done for duration of 30 days.

Statistical Analysis
Percentage scores and chi-square tests were calculated.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 1 shows the perception of elderly towards loneliness
Perception of Elderly No. of responses Percentage of responses
Positive 15 25%
Negative 35 58.3%
Mixed 10 16.6%
X2(2) = 17.5; p<0.01