School of Psychology, University of Southampton, UK.
Emotion. 2012 Feb;12(1):102-19. doi: 10.1037/a0025167. Epub 2011 Aug 22.
Nostalgia fulfills pivotal functions for individuals, but lacks an empirically derived and comprehensive definition. We examined lay conceptions of nostalgia using a prototype approach. In Study 1, participants generated open-ended features of nostalgia, which were coded into categories. In Study 2, participants rated the centrality of these categories, which were subsequently classified as central (e.g., memories, relationships, happiness) or peripheral (e.g., daydreaming, regret, loneliness). Central (as compared with peripheral) features were more often recalled and falsely recognized (Study 3), were classified more quickly (Study 4), were judged to reflect more nostalgia in a vignette (Study 5), better characterized participants' own nostalgic (vs. ordinary) experiences (Study 6), and prompted higher levels of actual nostalgia and its intrapersonal benefits when used to trigger a personal memory, regardless of age (Study 7). These findings highlight that lay people view nostalgia as a self-relevant and social blended emotional and cognitive state, featuring a mixture of happiness and loss. The findings also aid understanding of nostalgia's functions and identify new methods for future research.
怀旧对个人有重要作用，但缺乏实证定义。本研究采用原型法探讨了怀旧的概念。在研究 1 中，参与者对怀旧的开放式特征进行编码，分类。在研究 2 中，参与者对这些特征的中心性进行评定，将其分为中心特征（如回忆、人际关系、快乐）和边缘特征（如幻想、后悔、孤独）。与边缘特征相比，中心特征（如回忆、错误再认）更频繁，分类更快（研究 4），在情境故事中被认为更能反映怀旧（研究 5），更好地描述参与者自己的怀旧（与普通）体验（研究 6），并在触发个人记忆时引发更高水平的实际怀旧及其内在益处，与年龄无关（研究 7）。这些发现强调了人们将怀旧视为一种与自我相关的、混合了情感和认知的社会体验，既有快乐也有失落。这些发现也有助于理解怀旧的功能，并为未来的研究提供了新的方法。
