Perceived social isolation, can be defined as the connection “between an individual's social needs and the provisions the social environment offers or is perceived to offer,” or in simpler terms the extent to which an individual feels that they are connected to their environment and how lonely they feel as a result of the strength of that connection (Novotney). This is based not on how many people that surround you (quantity of relationships) but rather on the strength of the bonds you share with them (quality of relationships). You can be easily surrounded by 10 people, but if you feel as if you don’t fit into their dynamic, you will have a higher perceived social isolation. This term is referred to more simply as loneliness, but the best way to put it would be mental isolation.

On the other hand, physical isolation works a little bit differently. This quite literally refers to the number of people you have around you. The more people you are immediately surrounded by, the less physically and socially isolated you are (Hawkley). The natural assumption that many make is that the lower your social isolation is, the higher your loneliness will become. However, these two are not actually directly correlated. Again, since loneliness is based on how connected the individual feels to the peers in their environment, it is entirely possible to not be socially isolated, yet also be extremely lonely. This means that in order to fix loneliness, we have to look deeper than just providing another human presence. Instead, there need to be considerations given to an individual’s mental state, how they enjoy interacting with others, and how these preferences are compatible with those of others. Only once such considerations are made is there an opportunity to try to treat loneliness and create intervention plans to stunt it.