When considering whether intelligent life in the universe is rare, researchers often turn to existence of Homo sapiens demonstrate their point. But this example biological evolution contingent and self-referential. It a moot point when discussing chances its occurrence anywhere outside earth.

Recent growth in the number of adults surviving to advanced ages raises questions about the quality of life associated with increased longevity. Psychosocial factors have received relatively little attention in research on quality of life among the oldest-old. This study uses nationally representative data on older US adults to examine how social relationships, feelings of loneliness, and satis...

[n this article, we discuss how, over time, both the concept and the function of bibliographic citation change and correspond to Riesman’s three types of personal character. First in the tradition-directed period, titles come beforeauthors, since the writer is seerr as merely the instrument of authority, In the inner-directed period, a transition occurs, with the author’s name coming before the...

ABSTRACT Background: The consequences of co-occurring persistent loneliness and late life depression are yet unknown. The aim of this study was to get a deeper insight into the mental health consequences of loneliness in older persons with depressive symptoms and their perspectives of emotional distress by using a mixed-methods study design. Methods: Two hundred and forty nine community-dwellin...

The goal of the present study was to examine whether lonely individuals differ from nonlonely individuals in their overt visual attention to social cues. Previous studies showed that loneliness was related to biased post-attentive processing of social cues (e.g., negative interpretation bias), but research on whether lonely and nonlonely individuals also show differences in an earlier informati...

Lonely individuals may decode social cues well but have difficulty putting such skills to use precisely when they need them--in social situations. In four studies, we examined whether lonely people choke under social pressure by asking participants to complete social sensitivity tasks framed as diagnostic of social skills or nonsocial skills. Across studies, lonely participants performed worse ...

Heart failure is a chronic syndrome that has physiological, psychological and social effects. The aim of the study was to illuminate the meanings of support as experienced by elderly women with chronic heart failure. Narrative interviews were conducted with five elderly women with chronic heart failure. A phenomenological hermeneutic method of interpretation was used. The meanings of support we...

Suppose k + 1 runners having nonzero constant speeds run laps on a unit-length circular track starting at the same time and place. A runner is said to be lonely if she is at distance at least 1/(k + 1) along the track to every other runner. The lonely runner conjecture states that every runner gets lonely. The conjecture has been proved up to six runners (k ≤ 5). A formulation of the problem is...

This study explores the practices of online social activities among children and adolescents in order to uncover the connections between preferences for online social interaction and loneliness, social support, and the mediating effect of identity experimentation online. Data were gathered from a random sample of 718 youngsters aged 9 to 19. Analyses revealed that individuals who are lonely and...