Personal Nostalgia, World View, Memory, and Emotionality

Batcho's 1995 Nostalgia Inventory was completed by 210 respondents, 88 males and 122 females, ranging in age from 5 to 79 years old. Subjects scoring high on the Nostalgia Inventory rated the past more favorably than did subjects scoring low on the inventory but did not differ in ratings of the present or future. High-scoring individuals rated themselves more emotional, with stronger memories, need for achievement, and preference for activities with other people, but not as less happy, risk or thrill seeking, religious, logical, easily bored, or expecting to succeed. In a second study, 113 undergraduates, 32 men and 81 women, completed measures of nostalgia, memory, and personality. High-scoring subjects showed no advantage in free recall over low-scoring subjects but recalled more people-oriented autobiographical memories. Individuals scoring high on nostalgia were no more optimistic, pessimistic, or negatively emotional but scored higher on a measure of emotional intensity. Personal nostalgia was distinguished from social-historical nostalgia and world view. Results were discussed with respect to major theoretical approaches.