Nostalgia fulfills pivotal functions for individuals, but lacks an empirically-derived and comprehensive definition. We examined lay conceptions of nostalgia using a prototype approach. In Study 1, participants generated open-ended features of nostalgia, which were coded into categories. In Study 2, participants rated the centrality of these categories, which were subsequently classified as central (e.g., memories, relationships, happiness) or peripheral (e.g., daydreaming, regret, loneliness). Central (compared to peripheral) features were more often recalled and falsely recognized (Study 3), were classified more quickly (Study 4), were judged to reflect more nostalgia in a vignette (Study 5), better characterized participants' own nostalgic (vs. ordinary) experiences (Study 6), and prompted higher levels of actual nostalgia and its intrapersonal benefits when used to trigger a personal memory, regardless of age (Study 7). These findings highlight that lay people view nostalgia as a selfrelevant and social blended emotional and cognitive state, featuring a mixture of happiness and loss. The findings also aid understanding of nostalgia's functions and identify new methods for future research.Keywords: nostalgia, prototype, emotions, memory, self Nostalgia 3 Nostalgia is part of the fabric of everyday life. After centuries of scientific neglect, the construct has recently been the focus of burgeoning empirical and theoretical developments. According to Boym (2001), nostalgia is experienced by almost everyone.Indeed, 79% of undergraduates report experiencing nostalgia at least once a week (Wildschut, Sedikides, Arndt, & Routledge, 2006), as do over half of adults in every five-year age cohort from age 18 to 90 (Hepper, Wildschut, Sedikides, Routledge, & Arndt, 2011). Moreover, recent research suggests that nostalgia serves vital psychological functions .Despite emerging evidence for the functional relevance of nostalgia, the mechanisms by which it operates are poorly understood. A major reason for this is that there exists no coherent definition of nostalgia; in fact, its nature has long been the subject of debate. The purpose of the present research is to resolve this debate by uncovering conclusively what "nostalgia" means to people. In particular, we propose that lay persons' views of nostalgia have a prototype structure characterized by a core set of central features. In examining this proposal, we aim to clarify what contemporary scholars have been studying and to provide new directions and methods for studying nostalgia further. Historical Conceptions of NostalgiaThe term "nostalgia" derives from the Greek words nostos, meaning return to one's native land, and algos, meaning pain or suffering: literally, suffering caused by longing to return home. However, the idea existed long before the word. In probably its first exploration in classical literature, the theme of nostalgia runs strongly through Homer's Odyssey, in which the hero Odysseus nurtures memories of Ithaca and his family throughout his lon...

Self-report studies often call for assessment of socially desirable responding. Many researchers use the Marlowe-Crowne Scale for its brief versions; however, this scale is outdated, and contemporary models of social desirability emphasize its multi-dimensional nature. The 40-item Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) incorporates Self-Deceptive Enhancement (honest but overly positive responding) and Impression Management (bias toward pleasing others). However, its length limits its practicality. This article introduces the BIDR-16. In four studies, we shorten the BIDR from 40 items to 16 items, while retaining its two-factor structure, reliability, and validity. This short form will be invaluable to researchers wanting to assess social desirability when time is limited.

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Nostalgia is a frequently-experienced complex emotion, understood by laypersons in the United Kingdom and United States of America to (1) refer prototypically to fond, selfrelevant, social memories and (2) be more pleasant (e.g., happy, warm) than unpleasant (e.g., sad, regretful). This research examined whether people across cultures conceive of nostalgia in the same way. Students in 18 countries across 5 continents (N = 1704) rated the prototypicality of 35 features of nostalgia. The samples showed high levels of agreement on the rank-order of features. In all countries, participants rated previously-identified central (vs. peripheral) features as more prototypical of nostalgia, and showed greater inter-individual agreement regarding central (vs. peripheral) features. Cluster analyses revealed subtle variation among groups of countries with respect to the strength of these pancultural patterns.All except African countries manifested the same factor structure of nostalgia features. In Japan, a woman drives past her childhood school and exclaims how natsukashii it is. In Ethiopia, a musician sings a Tizita ballad reliving memories of a lost lover. In the USA, a man smiles nostalgically as he listens to an old record that reminds him of his carefree teenage years. And in ancient Greece, the mythical hero Odysseus is galvanized by memories of his family as he struggles to make his way home from war (Homer, trans. 1921). To what extent are these four characters experiencing the same emotion? Is nostalgia universal?Growing evidence indicates that nostalgia is a self-relevant emotion associated with fond memories (Hepper, Ritchie, Sedikides, & Wildschut, 2012; and that it serves psychological functions (Routledge, Wildschut, Sedikides, & Juhl, 2013;. If nostalgia qualifies as an emotion and an adaptive psychological resource, it may be pancultural. The present article begins to address this issue by examining the equivalence of prototypical conceptions of nostalgia across a range of cultures. The Universality of EmotionThe universality of emotion concepts has long attracted scholarly attention. Darwin (1872/1965) proposed that emotions evolved as adaptive responses to social living, and thus some emotions should be universal. In contrast, Harré (1986) argued that emotions are primarily cultural constructions and thus should vary according to the meanings and practices of different cultural settings. Although the issues are textured, two major lines of research have supported the universality view. The first line of research has identified universally recognized facial expressions, focusing on a core set of "basic" emotions (e.g., anger, joy, sadness; Ekman, 1992;Ekman & Friesen, 1971;Russell, 1991a). The second line of research has examined conceptions of emotion words (Fontaine, Scherer, Roesch, & Ellsworth, 2007; Kuppens, Ceulemans, Timmerman, Diener, & Kim-Prieto, 2006; Páez & Vegara, 1995). This lexical literature has established that, across cultures, emotion (and specific emotions) is a fuzzy c...

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