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Emotion regulation (ER) is very prevalent in our daily lives. Accordingly, it has become one of the most popular and fastest growing areas in psychology (Gross, 2014; Heiy & Cheavens, 2014). The curiosity stems from the fact that ER has been demonstrated to have a significant influence on life outcomes, such as well-being (Newman & Nezlek, 2022) and mental health (Hu et al., 2014). Going back to the basics, ER goals play a crucial role in influencing whether, when and how people regulate their emotions (Mauss & Tamir, 2014). Despite its importance, research is still far away from having a complete picture of ER goals in daily life (Tamir et al., 2019). Although several contexts in which people formulate their ER goals have been examined (e.g., motives, and individual differences) (Eldesouky & English, 2019a; Riediger et al., 2009; Tamir & Ford, 2012), other potentially relevant contextual factors have not yet been investigated. Further, most research has investigated on ER goals very general without any further differentiation between increasing, maintaining, or decreasing positive and/or negative emotions (Eldesouky & English, 2019b; English et al., 2017). Lastly, regarding the influence of ER goals on ER strategies, previous studies have only examined a very limited amount of ER strategies (Eldesouky & English, 2019b; English et al., 2017; Millgram et al., 2019), or have only focused on negative (Wilms et al., 2020) or positive ER strategies (Colombo et al., 2021). Hence, many open questions with respect to ER goals in daily life ER remain. To contribute to the literature, the aim of the present study is to investigate 1) in which emotional and social contexts people pursue their ER goals, and 2) which positive and negative ER strategies (including a repertoire of 14 strategies) people use to fulfill their ER goals.

In this study, we examine how emotional characteristics are related to emotion regulation (ER) strategy use in daily life, separately for positive and negative emotions, using intensive longitudinal data from a 60-day ESM study. For negative emotions, we examine two emotional characteristics, namely emotional intensity and emotional control. For ER strategies use, we examine six ER strategies, namely distraction, rumination, suppression, relaxation, expression, and reappraisal. For positive emotions, we examine emotional intensity as emotional characteristic (emotional control for positive emotions was not assessed). For ER strategy use, we examine two ER strategies, namely expression and savoring. Relationships will be assessed at the within-person level, considering both linear and quadratic relationships.

Research on emotion dynamics as indices of emotion functioning has become muddled by conceptual confusion, methodological heterogeneity, and seemingly conflicting results. One way to address this chaos is the study of profiles of emotion dynamics across 12 emotions and how they differ between 246 adolescents. The interpretation of these dynamic profiles was guided by auxiliary variables including age, personality, depressive symptoms, and social experiences. During 6 days, 246 adolescents (M-age = 14.20; 65% female) rated nine times daily the intensity of 12 emotions (cheerful, happy, energetic, joyful, content, relaxed, anxious, worried, irritable, insecure, down, and guilty) and their social experiences with family, friends, and classmates. Additional baseline measures included neuroticism, extraversion (Revised Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Short Form), and depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale). A three-mode principal component analysis (3MPCA Tucker3-based) model was estimated on the person-specific dynamic parameters of emotional intensity (mean), variability (standard deviation), instability (mean squared successive difference), and inertia (autocorrelation). The 3MPCA identified three emotion-mode components (positive affect, negative affect, and irritability) and three dynamic-mode components (emotional intensity, lability, and inertia). Five individual-mode components captured interactions between these modes, of which positive affect explained most variation in the data. These emotion dynamic profiles correlated differently with social experiences. Additional 3MPCA model structures based on imputed data (correcting missing autocorrelations) and affect scale composites (low- and high-arousal positive and negative affect) showed strong resemblance. The identified emotion dynamic profiles capture meaningful interpersonal differences in adolescents' emotional experiences and change. Future work should focus on irritability and positive affect as these were uniquely informative in adolescents' emotional experiences.

Dispositional optimism is a relatively stable tendency to expect positive outcomes in life (Carver et al., 2010; Carver & Scheier, 2014; Scheier & Carver, 1985). There is ample evidence that optimists lead happier and healthier lives than pessimists (Forgeard & Seligman, 2012). Optimists report higher levels of psychological and physical wellbeing (Alarcon et al., 2013; Daukantaite & Bergman, 2005), better mental health (Kennes et al., 2021; Purol & Chopik, 2021; Schueller & Seligman, 2008), better social relations (Brissette et al., 2002), are more successful in academic careers and working life (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1992; Forgeard & Seligman, 2012), and are better capable of dealing with stressful situations (Gómez Molinero et al., 2018; Segovia et al., 2012). The link between optimism and better functioning in life has been attributed to the more adaptive coping strategies optimists use. Meta-analytic evidence suggests that optimists use more active problem-focused coping and emotion regulation strategies, less avoidance coping, and are more flexible in adjusting their coping strategies to meet contextual demands (Nes & Segerstrom, 2006). Their more adaptive coping strategies may give optimists useful skills to explore the world and successfully cope with different contextual demands. Nes and Segerstrom only investigated strategies to regulate negative emotions and this aligns with the current research focus. Research so far has focused less on the regulation of positive emotions and only few studies investigated whether optimism is associated with specific strategies to regulate positive emotions. These studies suggest that optimists more frequently savour their positive emotions (Bryant, 2003) and use positive emotions as a buffer to negative experiences (Sytine et al., 2019). The present study will focus on optimism in daily life. Ecological momentary assessments provide the opportunity to study how optimism relates to emotion-regulation strategies in everyday life situations.

To sample situations that are psychologically arousing in daily life, we implemented an experience sampling strategy in which 82 Dutch young adults ( Mage = 20.73) were triggered based on random time intervals and based on physiological skin conductance scores across a period of 5 days. When triggered, participants had to fill in short surveys on affect, situational characteristics and event characteristics on their smartphone. We found theoretically expected relationships between the skin conductance signal on the one hand and self–reported arousal and positive energy (e.g. energetic and enthusiastic) on the other hand, although effect sizes were small. Unexpectedly, none of the negative affective scales (i.e. irritation, anxiety, and negative valence) were predicted by skin conductance levels. Despite the (partial) validity of the signal, a simple algorithm that triggered the survey based on relative increases of skin conductance levels produced counterintuitive results due to a dependence between level and slope. Additional exploratory analyses highlighted other skin conductance signal characteristics (i.e. autocorrelation, number of peaks, and change points) that might be worth examining when designing future algorithms to sample arousing moments. Overall, our experiences highlight not only the promise but also the complexity of real–time measurement of physiological processes in daily life. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology

Contains fulltext : 209850.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) During adolescence, interpersonal stressors such as peer rejection pose challenges to emotion regulation. Yet, very little is known about how these transactional processes unfold in adolescents' daily lives. This study investigated adolescents' (a) emotional reactivity to daily perceptions of peer rejection, which concerns concurrent changes in negative and positive emotions, and (b) emotional recovery from daily perceptions of peer rejection, which concerns subsequent changes in negative and positive emotions. Because depressive symptoms can compromise effectiveness of emotion regulation, it was investigated as a moderator for emotional reactivity and recovery to daily perceptions of peer rejection. The sample consisted of 303 adolescents (59% girls; Mage = 14.20, SD = 0.54; range 13-16 years) who reported depressive symptoms at baseline and completed ecological momentary assessments of emotions and perceived peer rejection at nine random time-points per day for six consecutive days. Results from multi-level modeling analyses showed that perceived peer rejection was related to emotional reactivity (i.e., higher levels of negative emotions and lower levels of positive emotions). This effect was stronger for those with higher depressive symptoms. For emotional recovery, perceived peer rejection had lasting effects on adolescents' negative emotions, but was not related to positive emotions. Depressive symptoms did not moderate effects of perceived peer rejection on emotional recovery. This study provides a more nuanced understanding of how depressive symptoms amplify the emotional impact of perceived peer rejection in adolescents' day-to-day lives. 13 p.

Contains fulltext : 241668.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Background: Anhedonia is a common symptom of several disorders, but cost-effective treatments that focus on anhedonia specifically have been lacking. Therefore, personalized lifestyle advice has recently been investigated as a suitable means of enhancing pleasure and positive affect (PA) in young adults with anhedonia. This intervention provided individuals with a personalized lifestyle advice which was based on observed individual patterns of lifestyle behaviors and experienced pleasure in daily life. The present study extends this previous work by examining a potential mechanism of treatment success, affective reactivity. Methods: We explored changes in affective reactivity to events in daily life from pre- to post-intervention in a subclinical sample of young adults with anhedonia (N = 69). Using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), participants answered questions on their activities, their pleasure levels, PA and negative affect (NA) before and after the intervention. Results: Multilevel analysis revealed that participants did not experience an altered affective reactivity to positive events after the intervention. The affective reactivity to negative events depended on the level of improvement in mean-PA after the lifestyle advice intervention. Limitations The present study used a subclinical sample with the majority of participants being female which limited the generalizability of the findings. Conclusion: This study suggests that an altered affective reactivity to negative events is an underlying mechanism of the effectiveness of a personalized lifestyle advice. 8 p.

The use of ambulatory assessment (AA) and related methods (experience sampling, ecological momentary assessment) has greatly increased within the field of adolescent psychology. In this guide, we describe important practices for conducting AA studies in adolescent samples. To better understand how researchers have been implementing AA study designs, we present a review of 23 AA studies that were conducted in adolescent samples from 2017. Results suggest that there is heterogeneity in how AA studies in youth are conducted and reported. Based on these insights, we provide recommendations with regard to participant recruitment, sampling scheme, item selection, power analysis, and software choice. Further, we provide a checklist for reporting on AA studies in adolescent samples that can be used as a guideline for future studies.

In 2004, the Bangor Gambling Task (BGT) was put forward as a simplified of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) - one of the primary experimental paradigms used to assess emotion-based decision making under uncertainty. We aimed to investigate the suitability of the BGT as a longer-term re-assessment tool of the IGT. Method: Using a N = 176 focused subsample of the large ongoing prospective cohort study Tracking Adolescents’ Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS), we investigated three suitability criteria with regard to: 1) incremental learning patterns within each task, 2) correlation between the net-scores of tasks, and 3) within-level change in emotion-based decision-making by social stress as predicted by evolutionary theories. One out of three suitability criteria were met, that is, we found similar incremental learning patterns in gambling performance as reported in 2004, but no correlation between net scores of both tasks, nor a decrease in approach-related gambling choices in individuals exposed to social adversity versus controls. Although the BGT may be a useful tool for clinical neuropsychologists, it may be less suited to test changes in adolescents’ decision making performance in combination with the IGT over a larger time frame.

Anhedonia is a major public health concern and has proven particularly difficult to counteract. It has been hypothesized that anhedonia can be deterred by engagement in rewarding social and physical events. The aims of the present study were to examine (1) the effects of personalized lifestyle advice based on observed individual patterns of lifestyle factors and experienced pleasure in anhedonic young adults; and (2) whether a tandem skydive can enhance the motivation to carry out the recommended lifestyle changes. Participants (N = 69; Mage = 21.5, SD = 2.0; 79.7% female) were selected through an online screening survey among young adults. Inclusion criteria were persistent anhedonia and willingness to perform a tandem skydive. Participants filled out questionnaires on their smartphones for 2 consecutive months (3 times per day). After the first month, they were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) no intervention, (2) lifestyle advice, and (3) lifestyle advice and tandem skydive. The momentary questionnaire data were analyzed using interrupted time series analyses (ITSA) in a multilevel model and monthly pleasure and depression questionnaires by repeated measures ANOVA. No group differences were found in monthly depression and pleasure scores, but the momentary data showed higher positive affect (PA) and pleasure ratings in the month following the intervention in the two intervention groups than in the control group. The tandem skydive did not have any effects above the effects of the lifestyle advice. Our results indicate that providing personalized lifestyle advice to anhedonic young adults can be an effective way to increase PA and pleasure.

Anhedonia is a major public health concern and has proven particularly difficult to counteract. It has been hypothesized that anhedonia can be deterred by engagement in rewarding social and physical events. The aims of the present study were to examine (1) the effects of personalized lifestyle advice based on observed individual patterns of lifestyle factors and experienced pleasure in anhedonic young adults; and (2) whether a tandem skydive can enhance the motivation to carry out the recommended lifestyle changes. Participants (N = 69; Mage = 21.5, SD = 2.0; 79.7% female) were selected through an online screening survey among young adults. Inclusion criteria were persistent anhedonia and willingness to perform a tandem skydive. Participants filled out questionnaires on their smartphones for 2 consecutive months (3 times per day). After the first month, they were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) no intervention, (2) lifestyle advice, and (3) lifestyle advice and tandem skydive. The momentary questionnaire data were analyzed using interrupted time series analyses (ITSA) in a multilevel model and monthly pleasure and depression questionnaires by repeated measures ANOVA. No group differences were found in monthly depression and pleasure scores, but the momentary data showed higher positive affect (PA) and pleasure ratings in the month following the intervention in the two intervention groups than in the control group. The tandem skydive did not have any effects above the effects of the lifestyle advice. Our results indicate that providing personalized lifestyle advice to anhedonic young adults can be an effective way to increase PA and pleasure. ispartof: Behavior Therapy vol:48 issue:1 pages:76-96 ispartof: location:England status: published

Previous studies focused mostly on predicting the adjustment of adolescents based on distinct coping strategies. However, people generally do not use only one coping strategy, but rather select from a repertoire of coping strategies. This study aimed to identify these repertoires by categorizing adolescents by the coping strategies they use and by examining whether these typologies moderate the well-established relationship between negative affect and interpersonal relationships (e.g., close, acquaintances, alone). The experience sampling method (ESM) was used to assess negative affect and the interpersonal relationships of 280 adolescents (Mage= 14.19, SDage= .54; 59% girls) at nine randomly chosen times on six consecutive days. Coping strategies were measured with a questionnaire prior to ESM. Latent profile analysis revealed two profiles: passive copers and active copers. Furthermore, all participants reported less negative affect when they were with people with whom they had close interpersonal relationships (family and friends) than when they were with acquaintances (class or teammates) or alone. No moderation of coping typologies was revealed. The results underscore the importance of close interpersonal relationships to buffer against negative affect during adolescence and support the notion that the relationship between negative affect and close interpersonal relationships is strong, as it is not moderated by the method used to deal with negative events.

© 2019, © 2019 Leonie V. D. E. Vogelsmeier, Jeroen K. Vermunt, Eeske van Roekel and Kim De Roover, Published with license by Taylor & Francis. When time-intensive longitudinal data are used to study daily-life dynamics of psychological constructs (e.g., well-being) within persons over time (e.g., by means of experience sampling methodology), the measurement model (MM)—indicating which constructs are measured by which items—can be affected by time- or situation-specific artifacts (e.g., response styles and altered item interpretation). If not captured, these changes might lead to invalid inferences about the constructs. Existing methodology can only test for a priori hypotheses on MM changes, which are often absent or incomplete. Therefore, we present the exploratory method “latent Markov factor analysis” (LMFA), wherein a latent Markov chain captures MM changes by clustering observations per subject into a few states. Specifically, each state gathers validly comparable observations, and state-specific factor analyses reveal what the MMs look like. LMFA performs well in recovering parameters under a wide range of simulated conditions, and its empirical value is illustrated with an example. ispartof: STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING-A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL vol:26 issue:4 pages:557-575 status: published

Background. Interventions for anhedonia (loss of pleasure) often focus on re-engagement in pleasurable activities (i.e., behavioral activation). Using the Experience Sampling Method, we aimed to examine how anhedonic individuals changed their lifestyle behavior (i.e., physical activity, time outside, worrying, and social activity) after a personalized lifestyle advice session, and how these changes in behavior where associated with improvement. Methods. Participants were 69 young adults (aged 18-24 years) with persistent anhedonia, who filled out 3 assessments per day about lifestyle behaviors and affect for 3 months. After an observation month, participants received personalized lifestyle advice, based on observed associations between lifestyle behaviors and pleasure. Results. Results showed that, without taking into account whether participants followed up on the advice, there was not one specific type of advice more effective than others. When examining behavior changes, we found that changes in social interaction, physical activity, and worrying were associated with improvement in PA and pleasure. Further exploration of the reciprocal associations between these behaviors and PA and pleasure showed that physical activity and worrying were reciprocally associated with PA or pleasure, indicating a positive feedback loop. Limitations. As we included a non-clinical sample, our findings are not generalizable to clinical populations. We only used self-reports, whereas more objective measures may be better for some of our measures (e.g., accelerometers for physical activity). Conclusions. Physical activity and worrying play an important role in the path to improvement in individuals with anhedonia. Results indicate that momentary assessments are an effective tool to detect mechanisms of change in interventions.

Contains fulltext : 155906.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) A socio-cognitive model of loneliness states that lonely people are characterized by two characteristics, hypersensitivity to social threat and hyposensitivity to social reward. However, these characteristics have not yet been examined in the daily lives of young adults. Therefore, the main aim of the present study was to examine these two characteristics in young adults and whether relationship status, living situation, and type of company moderated the relationship between sensitivity to threat and reward and feelings of loneliness. The Experience Sampling Method was used, and data were collected among 219 first-year college students (M age=19.60, 91% female). Participants filled out questionnaires on their smartphone at five random time points per day, on 11 consecutive days. Multilevel analyses showed support for hypersensitivity to social threat, in that students high in loneliness were more negatively affected by negative perceptions of company. Results for hyposensitivity to social reward were in the opposite direction; students high in loneliness were more positively affected by positive perceptions of company than students low in loneliness. These relations were not moderated by relationship status or living situation. Our findings may indicate that loneliness serves as a motivational state that increases susceptibility to the environment in order to restore social relationships. 12 p.

Contains fulltext : 158700.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Although loss of pleasure (i.e., anhedonia) is one of the two core symptoms of depression, very little research has examined the relation between depressive symptoms and the experience of pleasure in daily life. This exploratory study in two population-based adolescent samples aimed to examine how depressive symptoms and anhedonia specifically were related to (1) the proportion and intensity of positive events, (2) mean and variability of positive affect (PA), (3) reactivity to positive events, and (4) reactivity to PA (i.e., whether PA elicits positive events). We used Experience Sampling to measure positive events and PA several times a day during 6 to 14 days in early (N = 284) and late (N = 74) adolescents. Results showed that depressive symptoms were related to a lower proportion and intensity of positive events, lower mean PA, and higher variability in PA regardless of sex and stage of adolescence. No clear evidence was found for differential reactivity to positive events or to PA. Anhedonia was not associated with most daily life experiences of pleasure. Our findings, though preliminary, suggest that although adolescents with many depressive symptoms experience less positive events and lower PA, they are able to enjoy pleasurable events to the same extent as individuals with fewer depressive symptoms. 11 p.

Contains fulltext : 140277.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Most people have experienced loneliness and have been able to overcome it to reconnect with other people. In the current review, we provide a life-span perspective on one component of the evolutionary theory of lonelinessa component we refer to as the reaffiliation motive (RAM). The RAM represents the motivation to reconnect with others that is triggered by perceived social isolation. Loneliness is often a transient experience because the RAM leads to reconnection, but sometimes this motivation can fail, leading to prolonged loneliness. We review evidence of how aspects of the RAM change across development and how these aspects can fail for different reasons across the life span. We conclude with a discussion of age-appropriate interventions that may help to alleviate prolonged loneliness. 15 p.

An important element of understanding the genotype-phenotype link in psychiatric disorders lies in identifying the psychological mechanisms through which genetic variation impacts mental health. Here we examined whether emotional inertia, the tendency for a person's emotions to carry over from 1 moment to the next and a prospective predictor of the development of depression, is associated with a known genetic risk factor for emotional dysregulation, a polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR). Two hundred thirty-six adolescents recorded their positive and negative emotions in daily life 9 times a day for 6 consecutive days using smartphones, completed a depression questionnaire, and were genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism. Carriers of the short 5-HTTLPR were characterized by higher inertia for negative emotions, even after controlling for depressive symptoms. These findings suggest a possible psychological pathway how the serotonin transporter gene contributes to risk for depression. (PsycINFO Database Record ispartof: Emotion vol:18 issue:2 pages:229-236 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Day-to-day experiences are accompanied by feelings of Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA). Implicitly, without conscious processing, individuals learn about the reward and punishment value of each context and activity. These associative learning processes, in turn, affect the probability that individuals will re-engage in such activities or seek out that context. So far, implicit learning processes are almost exclusively investigated in controlled laboratory settings and not in daily life. Here we aimed to replicate the first study that investigated implicit learning processes in real life, by means of the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). That is, using an experience-sampling study with 90 time points (three measurements over 30 days), we prospectively measured time spent in social company and amount of physical activity as well as PA and NA in the daily lives of 18-24-year-old young adults (n = 69 with anhedonia, n = 69 without anhedonia). Multilevel analyses showed a punishment learning effect with regard to time spent in company of friends, but not a reward learning effect. Neither reward nor punishment learning effects were found with regard to physical activity. Our study shows promising results for future research on implicit learning processes in daily life, with the proviso of careful consideration of the timescale used. Short-term retrospective ESM design with beeps approximately six hours apart may suffer from mismatch noise that hampers accurate detection of associative learning effects over time. ispartof: PLoS One vol:12 issue:10 pages:0-0 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Background Anhedonia is generally defined as the inability to feel pleasure in response to experiences that are usually enjoyable. Anhedonia is one of the two core symptoms of depression and is a major public health concern. Anhedonia has proven particularly difficult to counteract and predicts poor treatment response generally. It has often been hypothesized that anhedonia can be deterred by a healthy lifestyle. However, it is quite unlikely that a one-size-fits-all approach will be effective for everyone. In this study the effects of personalized lifestyle advice based on observed individual patterns of lifestyle behaviors and experienced pleasure will be examined. Further, we will explore whether a tandem skydive following the personalized lifestyle advice positively influences anhedonic young adults’ abilities to carry out the recommended lifestyle changes, and whether this ultimately improves their self-reported pleasure. Methods Our study design is an exploratory intervention study, preceded by a cross-sectional survey as a screening instrument. For the survey, 2000 young adults (18–24 years old) will be selected from the general population. Based on survey outcomes, 72 individuals (36 males and 36 females) with persistent anhedonia (i.e., more than two months) and 60 individuals (30 males and 30 females) without anhedonia (non-anhedonic control group) will be selected for the intervention study. The non-anhedonic control group will fill out momentary assessments of pleasure and lifestyle behaviors three times a day, for one month. The anhedonic individuals will fill out momentary assessments for three consecutive months. After the first month, the anhedonic individuals will be randomly assigned to (1) no intervention, (2) lifestyle advice only, (3) lifestyle advice plus tandem skydive. The personalized lifestyle advice is based on patterns observed in the first month. Discussion The present study is the first to examine the effects of a personalized lifestyle advice and tandem skydive on pleasure in anhedonic young adults. Results of the present study may improve treatment for anhedonia, if the interventions are found to be effective. Trial registration Dutch Trial Register, NTR5498, registered September 22, 2015 (retrospectively registered). Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12888-016-0880-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

SPIRIT checklist. (DOC 120Â kb)

Adolescence is characterized by increased social stress due to changes in interpersonal relationships, but little is known about daily experiences of social stress. The aim of the present study was to examine daily life predictors of increases in social stress, how these increases affected adolescents' mood, and whether loneliness moderated these relations. The Experience Sampling Method was used to measure positive and negative affect and increases in social stress in 278 early adolescents from the Netherlands. Results showed that adolescents were most likely to experience increases in social stress when they were with classmates, during week days, and in the morning. Lonely adolescents showed higher increases in social stress and responded more negatively to increases in social stress, compared to non-lonely adolescents. (C) 2015 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item does not contain fulltext As a complex trait, loneliness is likely to be influenced by the interplay of numerous genetic and environmental factors. Studies in behavioral genetics indicate that loneliness has a sizable degree of heritability. Candidate-gene and gene-expression studies have pointed to several genes related to neurotransmitters and the immune system. The notion that these genes are related to loneliness is compatible with the basic tenets of the evolutionary theory of loneliness. Research on gene-environment interactions indicates that social-environmental factors (e.g., low social support) may have a more pronounced effect and lead to higher levels of loneliness if individuals carry the sensitive variant of these candidate genes. Currently, there is no extant research on loneliness based on genome-wide association studies, gene-environment-interaction studies, or studies in epigenetics. Such studies would allow researchers to identify networks of genes that contribute to loneliness. The contribution of genetics to loneliness research will become stronger when genome-wide genetics and epigenetics are integrated and used along with well-established methods in psychology to analyze the complex process of gene-environment interplay. 14 p.