Brennan P L, Steinberg L D
Int J Aging Hum Dev. 1983;18(2):99-110. doi: 10.2190/vtxd-5fgl-6qpv-tddw.
Although it is widely believed that reminiscence is adaptive during later life, research on the psychological benefits of reviewing the past has yielded inconsistent findings. In the present study, forty women between the ages of sixty-four and eighty-eight whose reminiscences had been elicited through a structured interview provided information regarding both their morale and level of social activity. The pattern of interrelations among measures of reminiscence, morale, and activity level do not support prevailing views of the adaptive significance of reminiscence. Specifically, reminiscence was not found to be positively related to morale or negatively related to activity level, nor was it found to mediate between activity level and morale. In general, the findings indicate that recalling the past is a correlate of, rather than a substitute for, social activity.
尽管人们普遍认为回忆在晚年具有适应性，但关于回顾过去的心理益处的研究结果并不一致。在本研究中，通过结构化访谈引发回忆的40名年龄在64岁至88岁之间的女性提供了有关她们的士气和社交活动水平的信息。回忆、士气和活动水平测量之间的相互关系模式并不支持关于回忆适应性意义的主流观点。具体而言，未发现回忆与士气呈正相关或与活动水平呈负相关，也未发现它在活动水平和士气之间起中介作用。总体而言，研究结果表明，回忆过去是社交活动的一个相关因素，而非替代品。
