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- The best way to think about nostalgia is it’s this psychological defense mechanism—when life is uncertain and unstable, we look to the certainty and comfort of the past, and that makes us feel better,’” notes Routledge, whose book, Past Forward: How Nostalgia Can Help You Live a More Meaningful Life, will be published in December.
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Sep 29, 2023 · The best way to think about nostalgia is it’s this psychological defense mechanism—when life is uncertain and unstable, we look to the certainty and comfort of the past, and that makes us...
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Jun 3, 2020 · In other words, when people bring to mind memories that make them nostalgic, they are revisiting personally meaningful life events shared with loved ones. A growing body of research positions nostalgia as a psychological resource with self-regulatory implications.
- Taylor A FioRito, Clay Routledge
- 2020
- A Complex Emotion
- Self-Reflection
- Autobiographical Memory
- Emotion Regulation
- Reward
- Four Components Work Together to Produce Nostalgia.
- Applications
Even without doing any formal research on the subject, most of us would characterize nostalgia as a multifaceted emotion involving many different components (as evidenced, for example, by the common use of the oxymoron “bittersweet” to describe it). Starting with the multifaceted nature of nostalgia as a premise, the writers of the article identify...
With the self being “the central and defining character of nostalgia,” self-reflection is obviously an integral part of the nostalgic experience. We are, after all, the leading actors in the memories that we classify as nostalgic, so some reflection on the type of role we play in those memories is necessary for determining how important or meaningf...
Autobiographical memory, which involves the processing of our past self through mental time travel, provides the content of our nostalgic experiences. Since our reflection on past experiences can be negative as well as positive, including rumination and counterfactual thinking (a “what if” approach to some remembered experience we wish had turned o...
In addition to its generally positive content, nostalgia also differs from general autobiographical memory in its distinctively complex emotional character. While a predominantly positive emotional experience, nostalgia has a distinctive “affective signature” in that it is ambivalent, involving “the co-occurrence of positive and negative affect” (h...
Satisfying stimuli are known to activate reward-related brain regions, and the predominantly positive emotions associated with nostalgia certainly qualify it as a satisfying stimulus. Numerous studies have also shown nostalgia to be related to motivationand reward seeking. It is likely, then, that nostalgia involves brain regions associated with re...
To determine how closely the brain regions associated with the four components they identified match those involved in nostalgia, the writers of the article reviewed six neuroscientific studies that directly addressed the neural bases of nostalgia and several other studies that did not address nostalgia directly but were highly relevant to it. Thei...
The writers’ observation that the components comprising nostalgia and the brain systems with which they are associated are “interdependent and coordinated” may help to explain the numerous psychological benefits which psychologists have identified as being offered by nostalgia. Furthermore, the understanding of how nostalgia influences neural activ...
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Feb 1, 2023 · Nostalgia (a sentimental longing for one's past) is a highly social emotion. We provide an evidence-based argument that nostalgia's sociality is one of its most defining and impactful characteristics. First, we review evidence that has established the highly social content of nostalgic reflection.
Feb 1, 2023 · Research demonstrates that nostalgizing can promote well-being, but nostalgic reflection is not often discussed among other cognitive and behavioral strategies used to enhance long-term well-being (i.e., Positive Psychology Interventions [PPIs]).
What psychological purpose does nostalgia serve? Is it good or bad? Are we more nostalgic today in our hectic, connected world? Is there such a thing as the “good ‘ol days”? Here to help explain is Krystine Batcho, PhD, professor of psychology at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York.
Jun 6, 2017 · Nonetheless, from a treatment perspective, reports suggest that personal nostalgia can be used therapeutically to help individuals move beyond trauma in the aftermath of violence, exile or loss...
