A journey remembered: nostalgia's impact on the perception of the self in time via self-continuity

• Main Author: Choo, Shuen Ming
• Other Authors: Wan Ching
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Social Sciences; Nostalgia; Self-continuity; Time perspective; Conceptual metaphor theory; Temporal cognition; Transience
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177856
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

How does nostalgia affect one's perspective of time? Does it lead to an appreciation of the journey and how far one has come, or does it engender a heightened sense of transience and longing, as we see time as irreversibly flowing past? Nostalgia is a bittersweet and sentimental longing for one’s irretrievable past, typically of self-relevant, personally significant memories. Research finds mounting evidence of nostalgia’s existential benefits on optimism, social connectedness, meaning in life, and authenticity. Presently less understood however, are the mechanisms and pathways that link nostalgia to these beneficial outcomes. Current theory and research point to the importance of narrative construction and self-continuity – the subjective sense of connection between one’s past and present selves across time. This suggests a link between nostalgia and the role of temporal cognition of the self in relation to time. Informed by conceptual metaphor theory, this present study investigates the relationship between nostalgia-evoked self-continuity and temporal cognitions of the self in relation to time as represented in the time-moving and ego-moving time perspective metaphors. 146 participants randomized to nostalgic or ordinary memory recall conditions provided responses to the “next Wednesday’s meeting” time perspective question. It was hypothesized that nostalgia-evoked self-continuity would evoke an ego-moving perspective, as a potential antecedent of nostalgia’s downstream existential benefits. Interestingly however, no effects of nostalgia on time perspective were found. Alternative explanations and potential limitations of the “Wednesday’s meeting” question are discussed.