1. The Good Society: Prospects For Reason, Communication, And Well-being Warsaw, July 13 - 16, 2016
Title of the paper:
Nostalgia for Communist Times and Autobiographical Memory:
Negative Present or Positive Past?
Authors:
Maria Lewicka
Monika Prusik
Panel:
Sa3.9 8I Perception of Political Processes and their Influence on
Psychological Well-Being in Post-Communist Poland
Section: Social Inequality, Social Change, and Civic Development
Place:
Sheraton Warsaw Hotel
Room: Sofia
July 16, 2016, 09:00-10:20

2. Nostalgia for Communist Times and Autobiographical Memory: Negative Present or Positive Past?
Maria Lewicka
University of Warsaw
Faculty of Psychology
Monika Prusik
The Grzegorzewska University

3. Social Diagnosis,

4. Nostalgia a multidimenstional construct
...the desire to come back to an idealized past... (Kleiner, 1977)
Ekman & Linde (2005)
Nostalgia does not simply feed on memories, it is continuously made up by them (Belleli & Amatulli, 1997)
Nostalgia
microeconomy driven
identity driven

5. Structure of predictions
H1.1- a negative relationship between people’s present socioeconomic status & nostalgia
H1.2 – the evaluation of the posttransformation decades should be a stronger predictor than evaluation of the communist decades
H2.1 – if the period of best time coincided with the communist period, and critical years of idenity formation, it should lead to higher nostalgia
H2.2– if the period of the most recalled time coincided with the communist period, and critical years of identity formation, it should lead to higher nostalgia
H3.1-more happy years expierienced in 70s and 80s more nostalgia
H3.2- the amount of nostalgia will depend on the amount of overlap of the most often recollected period and the 80s, the greater the overlap the higher nostalgia

6. Study: N = 614; nationwide representative; 40+, CAPI
Measures
Nostalgia
General
Compound
Memory factors
Significant periods
+ Critical Period
+ PPR
+ Length of significant periods

7. Nostalgia measures Compound measure:
How would you rate your life …?
How would you rate your …?
Better before ‘89, better now… FA
I factor
68%
Work
Family life
Health
Finances
Friendships
Well-being
Free time
Prospects
Security
Hobbies
General measure – Likert’s scale 1(very bad) to 7(very good)
Compound measure – Likert’s scale 1 (definitely better before 89), 4(the same as now), 7(definitely better now) – the score was reversed > the higher the score, the higher nostalgia
F (1, 605) = 72.98, p < .001, eta² = .11
General measure:
Assessment of live before ’89 –
Assessment of live now
Compound measure:
Comparison of live areas before ’89 or now

8. Evaluation of life before 1989 and at present by age cohort, N = 614
Effect of time F (1, 599) = 54.44, p < .001, eta² = .08
Effect of age cohort F (4, 599) = 2.73, p < .029, eta² = .02
Interaction F (4, 599) = 0.44, p > .05

9. Could you specify the best/worst/most recalled of your life?
Significant periods
Three indices – years overlapping:
1. Significant period
(Best, Worst, Recalled)
2. The Polish People’s Republic (PPR)
3. Critical Period
age between
Years overlapping
Significant period
Critical Period
PPR
3x3 (3 indices consisting of amount of years overlapping three periods)
1. The Best period + PPR period + Critical Period
2. The Worst period + PPR period + Critical Period
3. The Most Recalled period + PPR period + Critical Period
Memory measures
Three indices
3x3
Could you specify the best/worst/most recalled of your life?

10. Commemograms for personally relevant life periods; N = 567; weighted data

11. Sociodemographics and significant periods

12. The Unhappy Present Hypothesis (H1.1)
nostalgia & socio-demographics
Nostalgia
Simple Measure
Compound Measure
Step 1 β
Age
-.01
.13*
Gender (1 - F; 0 - M)
-.12*
Education
-.18**
-.14*
Income
-.28***
-.35*** R²
.16
.23
The Unhappy Present Hypothesis (H1.1) – nostalgia for communism would be higher among those who did not benefit from the transformation (transformation losers)
transformation losers vs. winners
*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001
H1.1 Nostalgia for communism would be higher among those who did not benefit from the transformation

13. Happy Youth & Recollected Youth Hypothesis (H2.1 & H2.2)
nostalgia & socio-demographics & significant periods
Nostalgia
Simple Measure
Compound Measure
Step 2 β
Age
.00
.17**
Gender (1 - F; 0 - M)
-.10
-.12
Education
-.19**
-.14*
Income
-.25***
-.33***
Best x Critical x PPR
.10
.17*
Worst x Critical x PPR
-.30***
-.29***
Recollected x Critical x PPR
.08 R²
.32
.44
Happy Youth Hypothesis – nostalgia for communism can be explained by reference to the critical period of identity transformation coinciding with PPR period, and personally significant periods (best, worst)
Recollected Youth Hypothesis - nostalgia for communism can be explained by reference to the critical period of identity transformation coinciding with PPR period, and personally significant periods (this time the most recalled period)
H2.1 more years overlapping the best period & critical period & PPR and fewer years overlapping the worst period & critical period & PPR the higher nostalgia
H3.1 more recollected years overlapping the recollected period & critical period & PPR the higher nostalgia

14. Role of specific decades

15. Evaluations of specific decades based on free descriptions
H3.1 & H3.2 some of the communist decades (70s&80s) would have a more impact in predicting nostalgia

16. Role of specific decades
Best
60s
70s
80s
90s
2000s
50s
Years overlapping
Significant period
Decade
Worst
60s
70s
80s
90s
2000s
50s
Recalled
60s
70s
80s
90s
2000s
50s
3x6 (18 indices consisting of amount of years overlapping three periods + decades)
1. The Best period + 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s
2. The Worst period + 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s
3. The Most Recalled period + 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s
Memory measures
Decades
3x6
Could you specify the best/worst/most recalled of your life?

17. Unhappy present & Happy decade & Recollected decade (H1.2 & H3.1 & H3.2)
nostalgia & decades
Nostalgia
 Decade
Simple Measure
Compound Measure
Best
Worst
Recollected
1950s
.04
-.04
.08
-.02
1960s
-.07
-.05
-.00
-.01
1970s
.07
.11*
.12*
1980s
.16***
-.06
.21***
.18***
.14**
1990s
.03
.00
2000s
-.39***
.49***
-.20***
-.38***
.47*** R²
.20
.27
.23
.24
.09
Standardized coefficients of regression - nostalgia
H1.2 – the evaluation of the posttransformation decades should be a stronger predictor than evaluation of the communist decades (90s & 2000s)
H3.1-more happy years experienced in 70s and fewer in 80s more nostalgia
H3.2- the amount of nostalgia will depend on the amount of overlap of the most often recollected period and the 80s, the greater the overlap the higher nostalgia
H1.2 Evaluation of the post-transformation decades (90s & 2000s) should be
more important than evaluation of communist decades
H3.1. More happy years experienced in Gierek’s decade (70s) and fewer unhappy years in the 1980s the higher nostalgia
H3.2. More recollected years during the 80s the higher nostalgia

18. Conclusions Confirmed vs. non-confirmed
turkus – confirmed; czerwony – non-confirmed; pomaranczowy – istotne wyniki, ale z worst period
H1.1- a negative relationship between people’s present socioeconomic status & nostalgia
H1.2 – the evaluation of the posttransformation decades should be stronger a stronger predictor than evaluation of the communist decades
H2.1 – if the period of best time coincided with the communist period, and critical years of identity formation, it should lead to higher nostalgia
H2.2– if the period of the most recalled time coincided with the communist period, and critical years of identity formation, it should lead to higher nostalgia
H3.1-more happy years experienced in 70s and fewer in 80s more nostalgia
H3.2- the amount of nostalgia will depend on the amount of overlap of the most often recollected period and the 80s, the greater the overlap the higher nostalgia

19. Thank you for your attention! 
Maria Lewicka
University of Warsaw
Monika Prusik
The Grzegorzewska University
The research was supported by grant N N awarded by the
Ministry of Science and Higher Education