Is reminiscence adaptive? Relations among social activity level, reminiscence, and morale

Although it is widely believed that reminiscence is adaptive during later life, research on the psychological benefits of reviewing the past has yielded inconsistent findings. In the present study, forty women between the ages of sixty-four and eighty-eight whose reminiscences had been elicited through a structured interview provided information regarding both their morale and level of social activity. The pattern of interrelations among measures of reminiscence, morale, and activity level do not support prevailing views of the adaptive significance of reminiscence. Specifically, reminiscence was not found to be positively related to morale or negatively related to activity level, nor was it found to mediate between activity level and morale. In general, the findings indicate that recalling the past is a correlate of, rather than a substitute for, social activity.