The Implications of Likeability to the Social and Health Conditions of Target Persons - Lab Report Example

Lonely or Older, so Less Liked? Age and Loneliness Impact Being Liked Corey Timpson, Nick Lazzareschi, and Xin Yin of California, Los Angeles Abstract Being liked by others can have negative impacts through social exclusion and poor health decisions and conditions of target persons. This study determined if age and loneliness affected the likeability of target persons. The participants were 18 undergraduate students of a psychology course who were enrolled at the University of California. This was an experiment with a 2 (Loneliness: lonely or non-lonely) X 2 (Age: 25-year-old and 45-year-old) design. The independent variables were loneliness and the age of the target person. The dependent variable was the rating of likeableness based on a Likert scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being not likeable at all and 7 being extremely likeable. This study hypothesized that lonely people were less liked and that older people were less liked than younger people. The findings supported the hypotheses by showing that the older target person is less liked than the younger, and the lonely target person is less liked than the non-lonely, but when loneliness and age are combined, the older lonely one is the least liked and the younger non-lonely is the most liked. This paper discussed the implications of likeability to the social and health conditions of target persons. Keywords: age, loneliness, likeability, social exclusion, health decisions, health conditions, undergraduate students Introduction The goal of being liked by other people, especially by one’s peers, may seem like a superficial life objective, but likeability can be essential to social acceptance, which is important for many people’s development of self-esteem and identity for young and older adults alike (Birkeland, Breivik, & Wold, 2014). Having low likeability scores can have negative social and health effects, depending on the mental health and personality of individuals, among other possible moderating and risk factors (Martin-Storey et al., 2011). Some possible harmful effects are negative self-images and social exclusion (Lau & Gruen, 1992). Being perceived as lonely by others, in particular, may contribute to the development of aversive psychological conditions, such as poor self-evaluations (Lau & Gruen, 1992). Lau and Gruen (1992) surveyed 96 students (equal proportion of men and women) to determine their impressions of eight descriptions of non-lonely and lonely people. They wanted to know if an evaluation of loneliness affected perceptions of psychological dimensions, specifically, social adjustment, sociability, achievement, and interpersonal attraction, and if the target person’s and rater’s sex affected these evaluations. Their findings showed that being seen as lonely resulted to lower scores in social adjustment, sociability, achievement, and interpersonal attraction (Lau & Gruen, 1992). The sex of the target person and perceiver also affected the intensity of negative evaluations, where lonely male people were stigmatized more than lonely females, and female raters were more critical of lonely people than male counterparts (Lau & Gruen, 1992). Apart from the negative evaluation of lonely people, age can also result to negative rater evaluation, which can have poor social and psychological effects on the target people. Corner, Brittain, and Bond (2006) conducted case studies on four older adults and reviewed literature on ageism, which refers to stereotyping people based on their age. Their case studies showed that younger people had unfavorable perceptions of older adults, which can impact the latter’s self-evaluation of their physical and mental abilities. Furthermore, with such perceptions, likeability for older people may decrease. Martin-Storey et al. (2011) collected data from an existing longitudinal research to determine if there are associations between aggression, social withdrawal and likeability in childhood, on the one hand, and drug and alcohol abuse and dependence in adulthood, on the other hand. Their sampling included 676 participants. Their findings showed that older adults, especially women, who felt that they were less liked during childhood, had more substance abuse problems than other adults who did not have low self-perceived likeability (Martin-Storey et al., 2011, p. 1272). In this case, childhood likeability affected self-perceived likeability that increased their risks for vulnerability to substance abuse. This study shows that age can moderate likeability effects, because, as the target people grew older, likeability during childhood had salient effects on their development of their self-image. This research is different from Martin-Storey et al.’s (2011) study because the former asserts that age may be an independent variable of likeability. Lau and Gruen (1992) focused on sex and loneliness to measure likeability, while this paper extends this study by adding age as one of its independent factors. Corner et al. (2006) studied the social and health effects of ageism, while Martin-Storey et al. (2011) determined that low levels of likeability may lead to substance abuse problems. However, these two studies did not study how age per se can affect a rater’s likeability for target people. This study aims to find out if age and evaluation of loneliness can affect the likeability of target people, in order to understand if age and loneliness may be at-risk factors for social exclusion, poor health decisions, and negative health conditions. This study used four descriptions to determine likeability. These descriptions included the following: one non-lonely 25-year-old male, one lonely 25-year-old male, one non-lonely 45-year-old male, and one lonely 45-year-old male. This study chose the male sex for all descriptions to avoid the effect of different sexes on the evaluation of likeability. This study used a survey research design to find out the relationship between age and loneliness, on the one hand, and likeability, on the other hand. It is hypothesized that the lonely target person will be rated as less liked than the non-lonely target persons regardless of age. It is also hypothesized that the 45-year-old target person will be rated as less liked than the 25-year-old target person, whether he is “lonely” or “non-lonely.” Furthermore, it is hypothesized that an interaction will occur between being “lonely” and age difference. It is hypothesized that the 45-year-old lonely target person will be rated as less liked than the 25-year-old lonely person. It is also hypothesized that the 25-year-old non-lonely person will be rated as the most liked of the group. Method Participants The subjects were 18 undergraduate students of a psychology course who were enrolled at the University of California (11 females, 7 males, age range: 19 to 36 years old). The students were required to participate in this study as part of the course requirement. All 18 students participated in all conditions of this study. Design This study was an experiment with a 2 (Lonelines: lonely or non-lonely) X 2 (Age: 25-year-old or 45-year-old) design. One of the independent variables was loneliness. The first level of this variable was a description of one target person who was classified as “lonely” and the second level was a description of one target person classified as “non-lonely.” The other independent variable was the age of the target person. The first level of this variable was one 25-year-old target person and the second level of this variable was a 45-year-old target person both with stable careers. The dependent variable was the rating of likeableness based on a Likert scale of 1 to 7, 1 being not likeable at all and 7 being extremely likeable. The scores were based on an interval scale. Materials The first part of the questionnaire asked for general individual characteristics of participants, including sex, age, and course in the university. Loneliness and age of the target persons were determined through the descriptions. As for the Likert scale, the researchers made it to fit the needs of this study. It consists of 20 questions. Ten of them test likability and ten of them test other variables, such as social ability, and random questions, to control for confounding variables. The inclusion of other variables improved the validity of the questionnaire in measuring likeability by decreasing subject bias. Having a low rating of 1 to 2 means that the target person was least liked. Having a middle-scale score of 3 to 4 rating suggested neutral feelings towards the target person. A rating of 5 to 6 indicates that the target person was strongly liked. A 7 rating was interpreted that the target person was very strongly liked. The researchers, in addition, provided 1 sheet of questionnaire for every subject, wherein there were 4 descriptions on each sheet. The 4 forms of the sheets had letter labels (A.B.C.D), and the 4 descriptions were the same in several aspects. Four descriptions were used that included two lonely and two non-lonely persons. An attempt was made to make sure that the descriptions were not biased in suggesting that likeability was being measured because this could lead to more conscious preconception toward the dependent variable. The descriptions were also made to fit the realistic lifestyles of a twenty-five-year-old and a forty-five-year-old male. Their professions were made to be as gender-neutral as possible to also avoid potential gender bias through occupation. Bank clerks or personnel and consultants may be male or female. The exact industries were no longer mentioned in these descriptions to control for the confounding effects of specific gender-dominated professions on likeability. The name Alex was retained for the 25-year-old descriptions, whether he was lonely or not, to avoid possible biases due to changes in names where some names may be more likeable than others. The same was done for the lonely and non-lonely 45-year-old who had the same name Mar. Moreover, there was an effort to make the descriptions have almost the same length to also avoid its effect on the perceptions of the participants. As for the descriptions, the lonely 25-year-old Alex has a stable job as a bank clerk, but he does not enjoy interacting with his family and co-workers. His loneliness is visible from the way he chooses to be alone. He does not only prefer being alone, but he also appears saddened by his social conditions. It also seems that his social circles do not like him, but it is made clear that other variables were present to reduce subject bias, such as noting that he enjoys time alone to some extent. The lonely 45-year-old Mar has a stable job too. He appears lonely based on the description of him not wanting to spend time with his family and not having many friends at work or his neighborhood. His social circles do not seem to want his company, but the description notes that it is more possible that it is due to his preference for loneliness than other factors. The description avoided focusing on likeability by emphasizing on the social aspects of the target person’s life. The non-lonely 25-year-old Alex has positive social experiences and relationships. The positive feelings of his family were added too, as well as respect for him, to ensure that subject bias for likeability did not increase. The description focused more on his social activities and perceptions of satisfaction with his social relations. The non-lonely 45-year-old Mar has vibrant social relations likewise. His age was apparent through his plans for retirement soon. Likeability bias was decreased by mentioning only that his wife and children respect and love him. It was not described how and if other people liked him. Finally, for all descriptions, the word “like” was not used. The description for a lonely 25-year-old was as follows: Alex works as a bank clerk. He lives near his family, but he doesn’t visit them, even during the holidays. He thinks that they never support anything he does. At work, his officemates see him as quiet and reserved. He doesn’t interact with them. He looks serious and gloomy to his family and officemates too because he rarely smiles or laughs. Alex doesn’t go out with his work colleagues, when they ask him to come with them to party or for out-of-town trips. He thinks that he would not enjoy time with them because they don’t understand his interests either. He thinks that he is better off on his own that interacting with other people. He stays mostly at home during nights and weekends to read science fiction books and comics. Sometimes, he watches science fiction movies alone. At night, he often wonders why everyone else has close relationships but not him. The lonely 45-year-old Mar has a stable career, but he does not have close family and other interpersonal relations. This was the description for him: Mar works as a consultant and is married with two kids. His wife has an active business career and is rarely home. His kids are also busy with school and in spending time with their own friends. They don’t seem to desire spending time with their father. His wife also doesn’t enjoy talking with him because they don’t seem to have anything in common after years of marriage. Mar feels isolated from his family. He doesn’t prefer going home and prefers working until midnight at his office. He thinks that no one gives him enough importance and appreciation at work and at home. Mar doesn’t have close friends at the office or at the neighborhood too. When at home during weekends, he prefers going to a nearby lake to fish. He doesn’t have any companions when he goes out. He feels incomplete when he sees other people who are happy when they are with their family and friends. The description for a non-lonely 25-year-old was as follows. The same name Alex was used but he has better interpersonal relations and experiences than the lonely Alex. The description is below: Alex works at the bank. He lives at an apartment near his family. He visits them every weekend because he cherishes spending time with his parents and younger brothers and sisters. He feels happy when around them. They often have barbecue nights and have other family members and friends come over to dine with them. They can talk and spend time for hours and Alex would not find this experience boring. His family adores him because he cares for them deeply and he doesn’t find self-disclosure hard when around them. He often tells them stories about his work and his plans in the future. He is quite a comedian to his family and friends. They see Alex as independent and trustworthy too. Alex also enjoys going out with his hometown friends. They watch a movie or camp out twice a month. Alex doesn’t have a girlfriend yet, but he’s courting a colleague at his workplace. The description for a non-lonely 45-year-old retains the same name Mar. He has a happier social life compared to the lonely Mar. See his description below: Mar is married with two kids and is employed as a consultant. His wife works at an office and has a busy workplace career. Mar makes sure that, despite being busy, they spend time as a family during Sundays. Usually, their family goes out to watch the movies, but sometimes, they go to the beach or camp in the mountains. Twice a year, they go abroad for a week and spend time knowing and appreciating the cultures of the places they visit. His wife and children show him respect and love. Mar feels happy whenever he spends time with them, so he plans to retire in five years. He plans to have a home-based business to have more time with his wife and children. Mar also has bowling friends. They play bowling every Saturdays. He enjoys group activities and his officemates consider him as outgoing and sporty. Mar thinks that he has an active and happy social life. Procedure The participants answered the questionnaires at the same time and place. The researchers began the study by shuffling the descriptions to improve randomness and by providing the Likert scale questionnaire and descriptions upside down. They gave the instructions while handing out these instruments. They told the participants to form impressions from the given descriptions. Afterwards, the researchers told the participants to begin and the latter turned over the two papers and started reading the descriptions. They answered the Likert scale afterwards. After they finished, the researchers collected the questionnaires and recorded the scores. References Birkeland, M., Breivik, K., & Wold, B. (2014). Peer acceptance protects global self-esteem from negative effects of low closeness to parents during adolescence and early adulthood. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 43(1), 70-80. Corner, L., Brittain, K., & Bond, J. (2006). Social aspects of ageing. Womens Health Medicine, 3(2),78-80. Lau, S., & Gruen, G.E. (1992). The social stigma of loneliness: Effect of target persons and perceivers sex. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18(2), 182-189. Martin-Storey, A., Serbin, L.A., Stack, D.M., Ledingham, J.E., & Schwartzman, A.E. (2011). Self and peer perceptions of childhood aggression, social withdrawal and likeability predict adult substance abuse and dependence in men and women: A 30-year prospective longitudinal study. Addictive Behaviors, 36(12), 1267-1274. Read More