The aim of this study is to understand people’s experiences and emotions during time spent alone at home as a function of both motivation and preference for solitude. People who prefer to be alone (Burger, 1995) have been shown to be vulnerable to poor ill-being, although there are mixed findings concerning their ill-being in solitude. Further, it might be expected that higher preference for solitude would mean that individuals tolerate it better and therefore report less ill-being. A separate literature suggests that having autonomous motivation for spending time alone - seeing time alone as beneficial and valuable - moderated the effect of time alone on loneliness (Nguyen, Ryan, & Deci, 2018; Study 4). A study also showed that for first-year university students who don’t feel belonging to their school, having autonomous motivation for spending time alone buffer the negative link between low belonging and well-being (Nguyen, Werner, & Soenens, 2019). Further, endorsing self-determined reasons for spending time alone correlates negatively with ill-being outcomes like depression, loneliness, and anxiety (Thomas & Azmitia, 2019). Although preference and motivation for solitude show different patterns of influence on ill-being, those who prefer solitude may generally report more autonomous motivation for it as well, since autonomy reflects finding the value in solitude (Nguyen, Ryan, & Deci, 2018; Nguyen, Werner, & Soenens, 2019; Thomas & Azmitia, 2019). However, self-isolation offers a time when preference and autonomy would show more distinct relations. People who generally prefer social situations may now find the value in time spent alone, and it may be either their preference, or their motivation, driving the effects on ill-being. We plan to conduct a timely study when many people in places like the US and UK are likely to go into self-isolation now or in the next few days. Particularly, we will target those living alone, individuals who may be more prone to loneliness and psychological isolation.
This multi-wave study examined the extent that both preference and motivation for time alone shapes ill-being during self-isolation. Individuals in the USA and the UK are self-isolating in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Different motivations may drive their self-isolation: some might see value in it (understood as the identified form of autonomous motivation), while others might feel forced into it by authorities or close others (family, friends, neighbourhoods, doctors; the external form of controlled motivation). People who typically prefer company will find themselves spending more time alone, and may experience ill-being uniformly, or as a function of their identified or external motivations for self-isolation. Self-isolation, therefore, offers a unique opportunity to distinguish two constructs coming from disparate literatures. This project examined preference and motivation (identified and external) for solitude, and tested their independent and interacting contributions to ill-being (loneliness, depression and anxiety during the time spent alone) across two weeks. Confirmatory hypotheses regarding preference and motivation were not supported by the data. A statistically significant effect of controlled motivation on change in ill-being was observed one week later, and preference predicted ill-being across two weeks. However, effect sizes for both were below our minimum threshold of interest.