The need to belong

This was a very interesting subject that the book covered. Many times I feel like I am unable to escape people, whether it be classes, eating, etc. Being a pretty introverted person it becomes uncomfortable at times, especially when I have a lot of work to do (always ha). Usually on the weekends my roommate leaves and I have the room to myself. It is very nice for a while, I'm able to relax, work on homework, practice my instruments, think about how great psychology is (bonus points?), but by the end of Saturday when I realize I've been in my room the whole day and I haven't spoken to anyone, I start to feel restless. Fortunately, my life is not a psychological experiment, and I am easily able to go out of my room and talk to people on my floor's lounge area. Overal, it maybe overwhelming to be by people 24/7, but when it comes down to it, the need to belong, the need to communicate with others overrules.

There was actually a TV show where they isolated people like this. It was called Solitary 2.0. I'm not sure what the long-lasting results of the confinement were, but definitely interesting to see what people started doing...

I agree with this post, and the comment above. During the weekend when I'm going through the academic year, I don't feel quite restless, but during the summer when I have NO school I become bored, and sometimes even sad even though I thought my "alone" time was beneficial to me. Even when I fill the void of being alone during school breaks with friends, I STILL feel the need to go to school and work where I'm surrounded by tons of people!

I find this topic really interesting. I agree completely with the first comment above. Everyone needs their little alone time to relax and get things done, but after awhile it gets boring and you get restless. I think that people need to interact with other people, even if it is for a short time, everyone needs some kind interaction with another person.

This is an interesting discussion. I can relate to this because of my experience last summer. For the first half of the summer I could only get 10 hours of work per week. Not only was I bored by this, but I also couldn't afford to go do anything when my friends were available. I would have days where I would wake up whenever I wanted and just start watching television by myself; I felt so worthless at this point in my life.

I can relate to you with the sense of needing to belong by declaring a major. Before I had declared my major, when ever someone would ask me what my major was and I would say that I didn't know, I for some reason felt defeated a little bit. But now that I have declared my major, when someone asks me I am proud to say my major and tell them that I have decided, now that I belong to a group/major.

I agree with your topic about feeling the need to belong. Even I have noticed that when I am at home and trying to get homework done, I need to take frequent “breaks” and go talk to my mom or somebody so that I can complain about the pressure or stress I feel. I have noticed that I can’t focus on whatever I am doing unless and until I can get a mental break and interaction with someone else.

It would be interesting to see a study done on people who are put in jail in solitary confinement for a long period of time and then released. Would they be more likely to commit a crime again even though they had just come from jail?

I feel the same way you do when it comes to feeling like you belong. Sometimes at school for two or three days in a row I have so many huge assignments that I do not have time to socialize. I just keep to myself and focus on my work. The next day when I'm finished with everything, I feel really out of it. I feel like I'm out of place in my social circle because I haven't been in full contact with my friends for awhile. When I don't have this sense of belonging, I definitely notice myself living a negative lifestyle consumed with thoughts that my friends forgot about me, which actually is never true.

I never really thought much about the sense of belongiing until you bring it up here. It seems to me now that this feature is kind of essential to human beings.I remember in one of our psychology classes this semester a professor mentioned that even babies exhibit the need to be attached to others. That's mostly why these babies develop some emotions super early that can help them establish sort of connection to others before they start speaking. What was also mentioned in the class is the evoluionary hypothesis that explains the phenomenon; human babies are born as altricial ones, so they need to be taken good care of in order to survive. Therefore, I believe that feeling a sense of belonging for huamns might be the outcome of evolution too. We rely on resources created by others to lead a decent modern life.Of course, we are in turn obliged to create some resources for others as well. Moreover, we feel to belong to a group not only to obtain various resources we need but also to gain mental support from the group we want to be part of.