The Past As a Resource for the Bereaved: Nostalgia Predicts Declines in Distress
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Cognition and Emotion ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/pcem20 The past as a resource for the bereaved: nostalgia predicts declines in distress Chelsea A. Reid, Jeffrey D. Green, Stephen D. Short, Kelcie D. Willis, Jaclyn M. Moloney, Elizabeth A. Collison, Tim Wildschut, Constantine Sedikides & Sandra Gramling To cite this article: Chelsea A. Reid, Jeffrey D. Green, Stephen D. Short, Kelcie D. Willis, Jaclyn M. Moloney, Elizabeth A. Collison, Tim Wildschut, Constantine Sedikides & Sandra Gramling (2021) The past as a resource for the bereaved: nostalgia predicts declines in distress, Cognition and Emotion, 35:2, 256-268, DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2020.1825339 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1825339 Published online: 23 Sep 2020. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 262 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=pcem20 COGNITION AND EMOTION 2021, VOL. 35, NO. 2, 256–268 https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1825339 The past as a resource for the bereaved: nostalgia predicts declines in distress Chelsea A. Reida,Jeffrey D. Greenb, Stephen D. Shorta, Kelcie D. Willisb, Jaclyn M. Moloneyc, Elizabeth A. Collisond, Tim Wildschute, Constantine Sedikides e and Sandra Gramlingb aDepartment of Psychology, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA; bDepartment of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA; cDepartment of Psychological Sciences, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA; dDivision of General, Geriatric and Hospital Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA; eSchool of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one’s past, can serve as a resource for individuals Received 18 May 2020 coping with discomforting experiences. The experience of bereavement poses Revised 14 September 2020 psychological and physical risks. In a longitudinal study, we examined whether Accepted 15 September 2020 dispositional nostalgia predicted reductions in distress associated with the death of KEYWORDS a loved one. Undergraduate students (N = 133) provided information regarding Nostalgia; grief; their loss (time elapsed since loss, expectedness) and levels of initial grief, nostalgia, bereavement; psychological and distress (hyperarousal, intrusion, avoidance) at three time points over a one- risks; physical risks; coping month period (Times 2 and 3 occurred one week and one month after the initial session, respectively). Individuals experiencing higher nostalgia reported a decrease in intrusive thoughts across time, whereas those experiencing lower nostalgia reported no change in intrusive thoughts across time. Hyperarousal (physical symptoms, negative feelings) decreased across time among individuals with higher initial grief who experienced greater nostalgia, but increased across time among those with higher initial grief who experienced lesser nostalgia. No changes occurred in avoidance. Nostalgia can palliate bereavement. The term nostalgia was coined in 1688 by Swiss Hofer (1688/1934) and his contemporaries, medical student Johannes Hofer (1688/1934) however, made an inferential error. They assumed a through the combination of two Greek words: causal path from nostalgia to loneliness or sadness nostos (a desire for home) and algos (pain). Hofer, based on mere co-occurrence. Instead, recent empiri- who focused on Swiss mercenaries, along with con- cal work has documented the reverse pathway: dis- temporary scholars considered nostalgia to be a comforting experiences evoke nostalgia, which, in brain or psychiatric disorder characterised by an turn, operates as a coping resource (Sedikides et al., array of alarming symptoms (e.g. despondency, 2015). We examined whether dispositional nostalgia bouts of weeping, fainting, anorexia, fever, cardiac pal- can palliate one of the most common and challenging pitations, suicidal ideation) and caused by longing for experiences humans endure: the death of a loved one. the Swiss homeland. The view of nostalgia as dysfunc- tional and damaging persisted for over 300 years. By Bereavement and grieving the turn of the twentieth century, nostalgia was con- sidered an unhealthy emotion marked by loneliness The death of a loved one poses a potential double or sadness, and confined to a few populations such threat to individuals: It may prompt the existential as seamen, immigrants, or boarding school students threat of mortality salience as well as the social con- (Batcho, 2013a; Sedikides et al., 2004). nection threat of an irrevocable loss of a valued CONTACT Chelsea A. Reid [email protected] © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group COGNITION AND EMOTION 257 relationship. Bereavement, the condition of having threatening experience that places individuals at risk lost a loved one, is a universal human experience for harmful health consequences. denoted by a variety of distressing psychological What contributes to distress among bereaved indi- (affective, cognitive, behavioural) and physical symp- viduals? They may engage in general and event- toms (Fagundes & Wu, 2020; Stroebe et al., 2007). specific negative appraisals that will likely culminate The bereaved may mention feeling sadness, detach- in poorer health outcomes. Bereaved individuals ment, guilt, anger, and panic or anxiety (Hogan who suffer violent losses engage in negative apprai- et al., 2001). The bereaved may also report such phys- sals specific to the loss by reporting recurrent ical symptoms as headaches, dizziness, upset imagery about their loved one’s death, such as stomach, back pain, sleep disturbances, along with reenactment, rescue (of the deceased), and remorse. cold signs (e.g. coughing, sneezing, itchy or watery Each of these forms of recurrent imagery is associated eyes; Pennebaker, 1982). Moreover, the bereaved are with elevated distress (i.e. intrusions, avoidance, more susceptible to psychiatric conditions, such as hyperarousal), depression severity, and grief intensity Major Depression Disorder, anxiety-related disorders, (Baddeley et al., 2015). Similarly, rumination, a and, especially in the cases of traumatic or sudden process of thinking pervasively about negative feel- loss, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Further, these ings and problems that coincides with maladaptive symptoms may cascade into an impaired immune cognitive styles and depressive symptoms (Nolen- functioning and a relatively higher mortality rate Hoeksem et al., 2008), may negatively impact among the bereaved (Stroebe et al., 2007). bereaved individuals. Loss-related rumination often Although bereavement is a fundamental human accompanies bereavement and predicts higher experience, individual reactions are nuanced. Bereave- levels of grief (Lafarge et al., 2019) and depression ment does not translate to one single state, time, or (Van der Houwen et al., 2010), as well as distress symp- emotion (Shear, 2017). It is a complex phenomenon toms of intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal (Taku that may take various courses (Bonanno et al., 2011). et al., 2008). Bereaved individuals who engage in In a prospective study of over 200 older adults greater general (rather than event-specific) rumination (Bonanno et al., 2002), several grief trajectories report lower positive affect and, in turn, less meaning emerged. Although 45.9% of participants demon- in life and inhibited post traumatic growth. Rumina- strated resilience following the loss, others varied in tion among these individuals also predicts more nega- the duration and intensity of grief. Only 10.7% of par- tive affect and, in turn, reduced sense of meaning in ticipants, for example, exhibited common grief, that is, life (Boyraz & Efstathiou, 2011). depressive symptoms immediately following the loss Whereas maladaptive processes such as rumina- that steadily improved over time. Other participants tion enhance distress among the bereaved, other experienced patterns of chronic grief (15.6%), forms of appraisal can be beneficial. Both sense- chronic depression (7.8%), depressed-improved making (Bogensperger & Lueger-Schuster, 2014) and (10.2%), delayed grief (3.9%), delayed-improved deliberate rumination (i.e. repetitive and purposeful (4.9%), or improved-relapsed (1.0%). Further, research- thoughts focusing on specific aspects of the difficult ers and clinicians (e.g. Simon et al., 2007) have advo- event; Lafarge et al., 2019; Taku et al., 2008) are cated a new diagnosis for experiences of grief that linked to greater posttraumatic growth. Similarly, are markedly impairing. Prolonged Grief Disorder greater reflection (i.e. more open and exploratory (also known as complicated, pathological, or traumatic thinking about the self) predicts positive affect and, grief disorder) describes a chronic and debilitating in turn, both meaning and posttraumatic growth reaction following loss characterised by “intense intru- (Boyraz & Efstathiou, 2011). Additionally, bereaved sive thoughts, pangs of severe emotion, distressing individuals undergoing a mindfulness-based treat- yearnings, feelings of excessive emptiness, avoidance ment (Thieleman et al., 2014), a cognitive narrative of tasks reminiscent of the deceased, unusual sleep treatment focused on constructing meaning disturbances, and maladaptive levels of loss of interest (Barbosa et al., 2014), and a restorative retelling treat- in personal