The Experimental Study On The Effect Of Different Types Of Nostalgia On Self-esteem In Undergraduates

Nostalgia is commom in life. Many studies show that the property of nostalgia has a role in improving self-esteem. In recent years, researchers find that the authenticity, individualityand property of nostalgia can together affect the level of self-esteem. Futhermore, the life satisfaction can adjust the role of different properties of nostalgia in self-awareness. Thus, this study will examine the effect of positive/negative nostalgia, real/virtual nostalgia and personal/collective postalgia on self-esteem and the moderating effect of life satisfaction on the relationship between different types of nostalgia and self-esteem.Using the self-made induced material of nostalgia, this study measures the explicit self-esteem and implicit self-esteem by pretest-posttest research method. In these experiments, participants were asked to complete the task of nostalgia, and researchers measured their life satisfaction, the level of nostalgia and self-esteem. The findings are as follows:(1) Different properties, authenticity and individuality of nostalgia show significantly differenct effect on self-esteem.Specifically, the positive nostalgia can improve the explicit and implicit self-esteem, whereas negative nostalgia does't affect the self-esteem. The positive and real nostalgia improve the level of explicit and implicit self-esteem, while the virtual nostalgia does't affect the sef-esteem. The collective nostalgia can improve the explicit and implicit self-esteem, and the positive-and personal nostalgia improve the level of implicit self-esteem.(2) The life satisfaction adjusts the effect of positive postalgia and negative postalgia on explicit self-esteem. And, The life satisfaction adjusts the effect of personal nostalgia and collective postalgia on self-esteem.