ABSTRACT
Gender exerts a strong influence over the conduct of social interaction. Females and males, it is said, differ in the styles of social behavior that they characteristically exhibit. Loneliness is an affectively unpleasant state in which actual social participation falls short of desired levels. Five of the scales on the Rochester Interaction Record pertain to interaction quality: intimacy, self-disclosure, other-disclosure, pleasantness, and satisfaction. These were summed into a composite labeled meaningfulness, separately for interactions involving up to three same-sex partners or opposite-sex partners. Loneliness is an affectively unpleasant state in which actual social participation falls short of desired levels. Consistent differences exist between interactions involving partners of the same sex and those involving opposite sex partners, so that analyses of sex differences in interaction style must specify the gender of the other group participants as well as that of the subject.
