Across three studies, we tested the possible benefits of self-discontinuity among people engaging in addictive behaviors. Specially, we examined self-discontinuity as a motivator of readiness to change. Moreover, nostalgia (i.e., longing for the past “nonaddicted” self) was assessed as a mediator of this effect. To this end, self-discontinuity was both measured (Study 1) and manipulated (Studies 2 and 3) among a sample of problem gamblers (Studies 1 and 2) and problem drinkers (Study 3). As predicted, in Studies 1 and 2, high levels of self-discontinuity resulted in greater readiness to change to the extent that problem gamblers felt nostalgic for the preaddicted self. Study 3 extended the generalizability of the mediation model by replicating these findings with a sample of problem drinkers. Results suggest that highlighting a sense of self-discontinuity among people engaging in addictive behaviors may be an important catalyst in moving people from addiction to action.
BergI. K.MillerS. D. (1992). Working with the problem drinker: A solution-focused approach. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
2.
BerghC.KühlhornE. (1994). Social, psychological and physical consequences of pathological gambling in Sweden. Journal of Gambling Studies,
10(3), 275–285.
3.
BestD.ManningV.StrangJ. (2007). Retrospective recall of heroin initiation and the impact on peer networks. Addiction Research & Theory, 15, 397–410.
4.
BienerL.AbramsD. B. (1991). The contemplation ladder: Validation of a measure of readiness to consider smoking cessation. Health Psychology, 10, 360–365.
5.
CarrA. (1998). Michael White’s narrative therapy. Contemporary Family Therapy, 20, 485–503.
6.
ChandlerM. (1994). Self-continuity in suicidal and nonsuicidal adolescents. New Directions for Child Development, 64, 55–70.
7.
ChandlerM. J.LalondeC. E.SokolB. W.HallettD.MarciaJ. E. (2003). Personal persistence, identity development, and suicide: A study of Native and Non-native North American adolescents. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 68, 1–138.
8.
ChandlerJ.MuellerP.PaolacciG. (2014). Nonnaïveté among Amazon Mechanical Turk workers: Consequences and solutions for behavioral researchers. Behavior Research Methods, 46, 112–130.
9.
CohenJ. (1983). The cost of dichotomization. Applied Psychological Measurement, 7, 249–253.
10.
DavisF. (1979). Yearning for yesterday: A sociology of nostalgia. New York, NY: Free Press.
11.
DiClementeC. C.ProchaskaJ. O.FairhurstS.VelicerW. F.RossiJ. S.VelasquezM. (1991). The process of smoking cessation: An analysis of precontemplation, contemplation and contemplation/action. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 295–230.
12.
DunkelC. S. (2005). The relation between self-continuity and measures of identity. Identity, 5, 21–34.
13.
FerrisJ.WynneH. (2001). The Canadian problem gambling index. Ottawa, Canada: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.
14.
FongT. W. (2005). The biopsychosocial consequences of pathological gambling. Psychiatry (Edgmont), 2, 22.
15.
GrantB. F.DawsonD. A.StinsonF. S.ChouS. P.DufourM. C.PickeringR. P. (2004). The 12-month prevalence and trends in DSM-IV alcohol abuse and dependence: United States, 1991–1992 and 2001–2002. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 74, 223–234.
16.
GregoireT. K.BurkeA. C. (2004). The relationship of legal coercion to readiness to change among adults with alcohol and other drug problems. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 26, 35–41.
17.
HallW.SolowijN. (1998). Adverse effects of cannabis. The Lancet, 352, 1611–1616.
18.
HodginsD. C.DiskinK. M. (2008). Motivational interviewing in the treatment of problem and pathological gambling. In ArkowitzH.WestraH. A.MillerW. R.RollnickS. (Eds.), Motivational interviewing in the treatment of psychological problems (pp. 225–248). New York, NY: Guilford.
19.
IyerA.JettenJ. (2011). What’s left behind: Identity continuity moderates the effect of nostalgia on well-being and life choices. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 94–108.
20.
JayneM.ValentineG.GouldM. (2012). Family life and alcohol consumption: The transmission of ‘public’ and ‘private’ drinking cultures. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 19, 192–200.
21.
LampinenJ. M.OdegardT. N.LedingJ. K. (2004). Diachronic disunity. In BeikeD. R.LampinenJ. M.BehrendD. A. (Eds.), The self in memory (pp. 227–253). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
22.
LesieurH. R.CusterR. L. (1984). Pathological gambling: Roots, phases, and treatment. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 474, 146–156.
23.
MacKinnonD. P.FairchildA. J.FritzM. S. (2007). Mediation analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 593–619.
24.
MasonW.SuriS. (2012). Conducting behavioral research on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 1–23.
25.
MilliganM. J. (2003). Displacement and identity discontinuity: The role of nostalgia in establishing new identity categories. Symbolic Interaction, 26, 381–403.
26.
MillerW. R.RollnickS. (2002). Motivational interviewing: Preparing people for change (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
27.
NajdowskiC. J.UllmanS. E. (2009). Prospective effects of sexual victimization on PTSD and problem drinking. Addictive Behaviors, 34, 965–968.
28.
NuskeE.HingN. (2013). A narrative analysis of help-seeking behaviour and critical change points for recovering problem gamblers: The power of storytelling. Australian Social Work, 66, 39–55.
29.
PreacherK.HayesA. (2004). SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36, 717–731.
RollnickS.HeatherN.GoldR.HallW. (1992). Development of a short ‘readiness to change’ questionnaire for use in brief, opportunistic interventions among excessive drinkers. British Journal of Addiction, 87, 743–754.
32.
SadehN.KarniolR. (2012). The sense of self-continuity as a resource in adaptive coping with job loss. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80, 93–99.
33.
SaundersJ. B.AaslandO. G.BaborT. F.De La FuenteJ. R.GrantM. (1993). Development of the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT): WHO collaborative project on early detection of persons with harmful alcohol consumption-II. Addiction, 88, 791–804.
34.
SaniF. (Ed.) (2008). Self continuity: Individual and collective perspectives. New York, NY: Psychology Press.
35.
SedikidesC.WildschutT.GaertnerL.RoutledgeC.ArndtJ. (2008). Nostalgia as enabler of self continuity. In SaniF. (Ed.), Self continuity: Individual and collective perspectives (pp. 227–242). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
36.
ShinebourneP.SmithJ. A. (2009). Alcohol and the self: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of addiction and its impact on the sense of self and identity. Addiction Research & Theory, 17, 152–167.
37.
SpearsR. (2008). Commenting on continuity: A view from social psychology. In SaniF. (Ed.), Self continuity: Individual and collective perspectives (pp. 253–266). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
38.
UllmanS. E.FilipasH. H.TownsendS. M.StarzynskiL. L. (2006). Correlates of comorbid PTSD and drinking problems among sexual assault survivors. Addictive Behaviors, 31, 128–132.
39.
WuA. D.ZumboB. D. (2008). Understanding and using mediators and moderators. Social Indicators Research, 87, 367–392.
40.
ZimbardoP. G. (1999). Discontinuity theory: Cognitive and social searches for rationality and normality-may lead to madness. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 31, 345–486.
