To explore the relation between social contact and loneliness in a college student population, 40 male and 41 female undergraduates kept daily calendars of social contacts, recorded their activities for one week, and completed inventories on feelings and social interactions. A replication study involved 64 male undergraduates. The absolute level of social contact was found to have only a moderate and inconstant relation to self-reported loneliness. Although a relation between a relative change in level of social contact and loneliness was not directly examined, subjects who had suffered a recent loss or separation differed significantly on mean scores of loneliness scales from those without a loss. The correlation between social support and loneliness suggests that it is the quality of the relationship that is important in terms of loneliness. Psychopathology was found to have a significant correlation with loneliness but a near-zero correlation with absolute level of social contact. Results suggest it is the perceived quality or relative quantity rather than the absolute level of social contact that is important in determining loneliness. (NRB)