18
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      The past makes the present meaningful: nostalgia as an existential resource.

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPubMed
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          The present research tested the proposition that nostalgia serves an existential function by bolstering a sense of meaning in life. Study 1 found that nostalgia was positively associated with a sense of meaning in life. Study 2 experimentally demonstrated that nostalgia increases a sense of meaning in life. In both studies, the link between nostalgia and increased meaning in life was mediated by feelings of social connectedness. Study 3 evidenced that threatened meaning increases nostalgia. Study 4 illustrated that nostalgia, in turn, reduces defensiveness following a meaning threat. Finally, Studies 5 and 6 showed that nostalgia disrupts the link between meaning deficits and compromised psychological well-being. Collectively, these findings indicate that the provision of existential meaning is a pivotal function of nostalgia.

          Related collections

          Author and article information

          Journal
          J Pers Soc Psychol
          Journal of personality and social psychology
          1939-1315
          0022-3514
          Sep 2011
          : 101
          : 3
          Affiliations
          [1 ] Department of Psychology, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5075, USA. Clay.Routledge@ndsu.edu
          Article
          2011-15473-001
          10.1037/a0024292
          21787094
          424da41e-2a4d-4ada-a407-dc6dba6860ff
          PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.
          History

          Comments

          Comment on this article