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extend and deepen his or her humanity. However loneliness remains an unpleasant and distressing experience.
2.2.2 Conceptualizing loneliness
Loneliness is divided into two. These concepts differ in two major ways. It consists of the social needs and cognitive approaches. The social needs
approach emphasizes the affective aspects of loneliness. The cognitive approaches emphasize the perception and evaluation of social relations and
relational deficits. Thus proponents of the needs approach suggest a rather direct link between rational deficits and subjective reactions to these deficits.
The social need approach have suggested that people may experience loneliness without explicitly defining themselves as lonely or consciously
recognizing the nature of their distress. In contrast, cognitive theorist emphasizes the lonely person’s perceptions and
reports of rational inadequacies, and direct attention to those people who do label themselves as lonely.
The cognitive discrepancy theory, which specifies loneliness as the consequence of altered social perceptions and attributions. Specifically,
loneliness is defined as the distress that occurs when one’s social relationships are perceived as being less satisfying than what is desired.
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From a cognitive discrepancy perspective, it is clear that loneliness is not synonymous with being alone, nor does being with others guarantee
protection from feelings of loneliness, Peplau Perlman 1982. Rather, discrepancies between ideal and perceived interpersonal relationships
produce and maintain feelings of loneliness.
The researcher will investigate both these approaches, because of the fact that international students suffers from a deficit in their social needs. From a
cognitive approach, students perceive things in different ways, because of all the different perceptions, its necessary to combine the two approaches.
2.2.3 Multidimensional concept of loneliness
The concept of loneliness concerns situations experienced by the person as involving a disagreeable or unacceptable lack of the quantity or quality of
certain relationships. It is important to distinguish these subjective feelings of loneliness from objective social isolation. Objective social isolation refers to
the lack of lasting interpersonal relationships. Loneliness concerns the manner in which the person perceives, experiences, and evaluates his or her
isolation and lack of communication with other people.
According to Peplau Perlman 1982, loneliness consists of three dimensions. One, emotional characteristics of
loneliness refer to the absence
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of positive emotions such as happiness and affection, and the presence of negative emotions such as fear and uncertainty. Two, type of deprivation
refers to the nature of the missing relationships. And three, time-perspective
. This dimension can further be differentiated into
three subcomponents: 1. The extent to which loneliness is experienced as being unchangeable.
2. The extend to which loneliness is experienced as temporary. 3. The extend to which person resigns himself or herself to loneliness by
attributing the cause of loneliness to others.
2.2.4 Manifestations of loneliness
