The Psychological Function of Nostalgia: Increasing Intrinsic Self-Expression and Decreasing Extrinsic Self-Definition

Previous findings have shown the many functions of nostalgia, for example, increasing mental health, and the current research aimed to explain those findings by testing the theoretical explanation that the benefits of nostalgia come from the fact that nostalgia reminds us of our intrinsic self. Aiming to investigate the effect of nostalgia on authenticity (intrinsic self-expression) and extrinsic self-definition (concern about meeting society's standards and the expectations of others), Out of 30,000 mobile phone subscribers in Tehran and Karaj, 451 (200 men) with an average age of 40 years were sampled by the convenience method and in an experimental design were randomly assigned to two groups of nostalgia (who thought of a nostalgic memory) and no nostalgia (who thought of an ordinary memory). Intrinsic self-expression was measured by the Authenticity Inventory (Kernis and Goldman, 2006) and extrinsic self-definition by the Extrinsic Contingency Focus Scale (Williams et al., 2010). T-tests showed that the nostalgia group rated their past personality more authentic and reported less extrinsic self-definition and Conditional Process Modelling showed that nostalgia reduced extrinsic self-definition by increasing authenticity. Based on these findings, nostalgia can help in the treatment of mental disorders.