A Gift From The Past:Nostalgia As A Promoter On Relationship Satisfaction In Unmarried People

With the deepening of nostalgia research,the role of nostalgia for individual mental health and interpersonal communication has been gradually highlighted,and the research focus is gradually turning from the benefits of nostalgia to individual development to its promotion of interpersonal relationship.Studies have shown that nostalgia has play an important role in improving social connection,promoting interpersonal communication and facilitate friendship development.But few studies have investigated the role of nostalgia on enhancing the relationship satisfaction,and did not consider the distinguish between nostalgia in love relationships and general nostalgia.On the basis of predecessors' research,this study proposed that nostalgia in dating relationship is different from general nostalgia,and then proves this hypothesis through empirical researches.Then explore the influence of nostalgia on the relationship satisfaction and the mediation role of attachment avoidance.First of all,through interviews and questionnaires,the author found that nostalgia in dating relationships is different from "contemplative" individual nostalgia,and need to investigate from two dimensions,that are nostalgia types and nostalgia contexts.Then,through two empirical studies,we explored the relationship satisfaction promote effects of nostalgia types in the different contexts,and then formed a 3(nostalgia types:non-nostalgic/personal experience nostalgia/common experience nostalgia)× 2(nostalgia contexts:single person/couple)between-subject pre-post design.In addition,the author also examines the role of trait nostalgia,and attachment avoidance as a mediator.The main conclusions are:1.nostalgia in dating relationship is different from general nostalgia in the nostalgic content and contexts,so researchers need to investigated from two dimensions:nostalgia types and nostalgia contexts.2.Three kinds of nostalgia types have different effects on the relationship satisfaction,in which the common experience nostalgia has the strongest effect,followed by personal experience nostalgia,control group(non-nostalgia)has no effects on the relationship satisfaction.3.The effect on relationship satisfaction between two nostalgia contexts are different,and the effect of couple context is higher than that of single person context4.Trait nostalgia can predict the baseline of dating relationship satisfaction and nostalgia state triggered by researcher;but there is no significant effect on the improvement of relationship satisfaction..5.Attachment avoidance mediates the effect of nostalgia on dating relationship satisfaction.The above conclusions show that nostalgia is an effective way to maintain and enhance dating relationship satisfaction,and the change of attachment avoidance plays an important role in it.In the future,researchers may consider the use of nostalgia as a means of intervention in couple therapy.These findings may provide some theoretical and application significance for the researches on nostalgia and intimate relationship.