Nostalgia Essay

Function & Clinical Uses

Now we examine some of the functional uses of nostalgia as well as applying them in clinical settings. The main functions of nostalgia that will be discussed include an: increase in optimism, counteracting loneliness, and maintain physiological comfort. Starting with a paper from Zhou (2008) that looked at nostalgia being used to counteract loneliness. Over the course of four studies, they hypothesized that induced nostalgia could counteract perceived social support caused by loneliness. The reported results showed that loneliness is associated with decreased perceived social support along with a reported increase in feelings of nostalgia-itself associated with increased perceived social support. This relation shows

1492). These findings are congruent with previous studies that showed nostalgia is related to a generally pleasurable feeling. Further observations showed that nostalgia is directly correlated to heightened self-esteem, which, in turn, heightens optimism. This serves as an important finding as it alleviates some of the original concerns that these higher levels of optimism are simply due to positive mood and not truly an effect of nostalgia. By showing the step-by-step process, we see that nostalgia increase self-esteem, which causes optimism to increase.

Further studies from Zhou (2012) looked at nostalgia’s effect as a homeostatic role along with the psychological benefits mentioned above. Their results from a set of conducted studies showed that:

Thermoregulatory discomfort triggered nostalgia: nostalgia was stronger on colder (vs. warmer) days and in a cold (vs. neutral or warm) room. Nostalgia induced patients reported an increase in physical warmth, music-evoked nostalgia participants predicted the physical sensation of warmth, and recalling a nostalgic [vs. ordinary autobiographical] event made a cold room feel warmer.

While this paper served more as an all-encompassing literature review of the topic, the main ideas can be summarized as followed. First, nostalgia is most commonly induced during a negative mindset but is regarded as a positive emotion due to its increase in positive mood affects. Secondly, the limbic system, especially the hypothalamus and amygdala, are vital to the overall process as they are chiefly involved with attributing emotions to memories. Finally, due to all the positive associations correlated with nostalgia, it has potential to be used as a coping mechanism in clinical settings for patients dealing with social interactions and loneliness. For further clinical applications, research regarding induced nostalgia should become the forefront of the field. We see the positive benefits that nostalgia can have, now we must find better ways to induce that emotion in a clinical setting. Possible ways of doing may be patient exposure to potentially nostalgic stimuli such as music, movies, and television from the era they grew up along with photos and