Nostalgia for a Purpose? A Comparison of Three Theoretical Frameworks in a Lifespan Sample

Abstract

Abstract Nostalgia is a common experience for most people, but the functions or motivations for nostalgia are unclear. Several theoretical arguments for the purpose of nostalgia have been offered: nostalgia may reduce anxiety or fear of mortality (i.e., Terror Management Theory), resolve developmental conflicts (i.e., ego-integrity vs. despair), or provide a touchstone to the past (i.e., self-continuity). The goal of this study was to compare these theoretical frameworks among young (YA), middle-aged (MA), and older adults’(OA) descriptions of nostalgia and explore whether content of nostalgia differs by age. We hypothesized that YA would report greater amounts of nostalgia related to self-continuity, MA would report more integrity-related nostalgia, and OA would report more Terror Management. Nostalgia recordings (N=593) were collected during a two-week daily diary study in 108 participants (ages 18-78 years; 60.2% women). Recordings were transcribed and then coded by two trained coders (Magreement=87.4%; κ=.66, p<.001) using a rubric containing three typologies of nostalgia: Terror Management, Integrity v. Despair, Self-Continuity. Only n=255 transcripts could be coded within these typologies. Supporting our hypotheses, YA reported more self-continuity (51.5%) than Integrity (39.4%) or Terror Management (9.1%), and MA reported more Integrity (42.0%), than self-continuity (39.5%) or Terror Management (18.5%). Our third hypothesis was not supported: OA reported self-continuity most frequently (47.5%), followed by Integrity (31.9%) and Terror Management (20.6%). Nostalgia may provide a vehicle for self-reflection as people compare the past to the present, and future research should examine whether emphasis on different types of nostalgia has implications for psychological outcomes like wellbeing.