Abstract
There are negative and positive studies about the effect of loneliness on personal relationships and character building. These differences aren’t only on the theoretical sides but on the practical views of loneliness: whether loneliness as a personality or as an experience. When considering loneliness as an experience, the coping behaviors to loneliness are included in “loneliness” and it is thought to have positive effects on later social behaviors and psychological traits. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate the effect that loneliness experiences had on present affiliation motive and social skills. The variables that referred the past loneliness experience were the strength of loneliness and the coping behaviors to loneliness. The questionnaire survey was conducted on fifty-nine female university students. The hierarchical regression analysis revealed: (a) the more active problem centered coping behaviors they had done in the past loneliness experiences, the higher affiliation motive they had, (b) the more passive problem centered coping behaviors they had done, the higher social sensitivity they had.
