Pathology

Social isolation

Disease

Loneliness

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Psychotherapist

Biology

Microbiology

Psychiatry

Developmental psychology

Self-determination theory

Political science

Psychology

Economics

Microeconomics

Affect (linguistics)

Isolation (microbiology)

Solitude

Deci-

Anxiety

Autonomy

Preference

Communication

Medicine

Social psychology

Royal Society Open Science

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.

Motivation and preference in isolation: a test of their different influences on responses to self-isolation during the COVID-19 outbreak