In the Mindset for Change: Self-Reported Quit Attempts are a Product of Discontinuity-Induced Nostalgia and Incremental Beliefs

Abstract

Despite the low rate of behavior change among those engaged in addictive behaviors, some people can and do initiate change. We propose that attempting to self-regulate addictive behavior is a function of motivation and the belief that behavior is malleable. Specifically, feeling self-discontinuous (i.e., feeling that addiction has fundamentally changed the self) should motivate change by inducing nostalgia for the pre-addicted self. Importantly, we expected that discontinuity- induced nostalgia would only be associated with an attempted change among those who believe that behavior is malleable (i.e., incremental theorists). To test this moderated-mediation model, we recruited a community sample of disordered gamblers (N = 243) to assess self-reported change attempts over time. During the initial session, participants completed measures of self-discontinuity, nostalgia, and implicit theories of behavior. Three months later, participants (N = 120) reported whether they attempted to change their gambling behavior, as well as the method and extent to which they sustained this change. As expected, discontinuity-induced nostalgia was positively associated with an increased likelihood of self-reporting a change attempt, but only when behavior was believed to be malleable, rather than fixed. As very few disordered gamblers take action, these findings suggest novel psychological processes to promote positive behavior change.

Longing for the Past and Longing for the Future: A Phenomenological Assessment of the Relation Between Temporal Focus and Readiness to Change Among People Living With Addiction

“…In line with gamblers' experiential narratives, prior research has established the motivating properties of discontinuity-induced nostalgia (Kim and Wohl, 2015;Salmon et al, 2018;Wohl et al, 2018). Specifically, nostalgic reverie for the pre-addicted self heightens the extent to which people are ready for change (Kim and Wohl, 2015), in addition to increasing the likelihood that people will make an attempt to quit or cut down on an addictive behavior (i.e., gambling and drinking) over time (Salmon et al, 2018;Wohl et al, 2018). Therefore, a past focus that elicits nostalgia may have the greatest behavior change utility among gamblers who have a positive past they desire to reclaim.…”

“…They also contrasted their favorable past against the hardships they currently face as a result of their gambling, and reported a longing to return to their past before gambling. The clustering of these constituents suggests that gamblers with a positive past may experience nostalgia as a result of the discontinuity that their problematic gambling behavior caused ( Kim and Wohl, 2015 ; Sedikides et al, 2015 ; Salmon et al, 2018 ; Wohl et al, 2018 ). A second way that gamblers wrote about their past was of a life that was already quite difficult before gambling became problematic.…”

“…Thus, focusing people on a point in their personal past when they were free of addiction may prove beneficial. That said, Salmon et al (2018) observed that the power of nostalgizing for the pre-addicted self was restricted to people who believed that change was possible (i.e., they had incremental beliefs about the malleability of human behavior; see Dweck, 2008). As such, just as there are limits and boundaries to the motivating properties of a future focus (e.g., when the future is vague), there are likely contexts in which a past focus fails to effectively motivate change.…”

Missing the Past Eating Disorder: Exploring the Dark Side of Nostalgia during Eating Disorder Recovery

“…A perceived self-discontinuity is the belief that one's present self is fundamentally different from one's past self (Lampinen et al, 2004;Sani, 2008). Unhealthy behaviours, such as addictive behaviours, may generate a sense of selfdiscontinuity (Kim & Wohl, 2015;Salmon et al, 2018). The reason is that these unhealthy behaviours typically alter people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviours over time from who they were before the problem began (Bergh & Kühlhorn, 1994;Lesieur & Custer, 1984).…”

“…Because nostalgia creates a strong sense of connection with one's past and an associated desire to return or reclaim that past self (Kim & Wohl, 2015;Salmon et al, 2018;, people in recovery from an eating disorder who feel discontinuity-induced nostalgia should feel closer to the life they lived with an eating disorder. Consequently, they may believe that they are not advanced in their recovery process.…”