Experiencing emotions of nostalgia will increase lonely people’ sense of which means in life, in accordance with new analysis revealed within the journal Emotion.
“I was interested in this topic because of research that loneliness is being experienced chronically at very high levels and research that loneliness is a significant risk factor for poor mental and physical health,” mentioned examine writer Andrew A. Abeyta, an assistant professor of psychology at Rutgers University-Camden.
“The interesting thing about loneliness it that overcoming it is not just about social interaction, it is also about overcoming negative thoughts and action tendencies. One of these negative thoughts we thought that likely reinforces loneliness is the thought that ‘My life has no purpose/meaning,’ especially since social roles/relationships are a robust source of meaning in life. We have found separately that nostalgia combats loneliness and promotes meaning in life, and this research was about putting the pieces together.”
To verify earlier findings, the researchers first performed a correlational examine with 210 undergraduate college students. The members accomplished assessments of loneliness and which means in life, in addition to reported how nostalgic they at the moment felt about 20 points of the previous.
Abeyta and his colleagues discovered that loneliness was negatively associated to which means in life, whereas nostalgia was positively associated to which means in life. Importantly, additionally they discovered proof that the unfavourable relationship between loneliness and which means was weaker amongst these feeling higher nostalgia, suggesting that nostalgia may help buffer in opposition to the impression of loneliness.
To higher perceive whether or not the noticed relationship was causal in nature, the researchers performed a second examine with 229 undergraduate college students during which they experimentally induced nostalgia amongst some members. The members had been randomly assigned to both write a few nostalgic autobiographical reminiscence or an extraordinary autobiographical reminiscence (the management situation).
The researchers discovered causal proof for his or her speculation. Among members excessive in loneliness, these within the nostalgia situation tended to report higher which means in life in comparison with these within the management situation.
“The average person should take away that nostalgic reflection can support meaning even in times, like when feeling lonely, when life feels aimless/hopeless,” Abeyta instructed PsyPost. “However, we don’t wish to suggest that nostalgia is a standalone solution. Rather we think nostalgia’s true power resides in inspiring more lasting meaning making efforts. In other words, nostalgia provides the spark of meaning or reminder or meaning that hopefully encourages lonely people to go out and create more lasting sources of meaning.”
But the examine, like all analysis, contains some caveats. “The major caveat I think that need to be addressed is how lasting the effect is,” Abeyta mentioned. “We measured meaning in life only once after the nostalgia induction task and so we are not sure how lasting the boost to meaning is.”
The examine, “Nostalgia Restores Meaning in Life for Lonely People“, was authored by Andrew A. Abeyta and Jacob Juhl.
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