The Comfort Film: Psychology and Media Theory Perspectives on Nostalgia and Film

This thesis explored the relationship between nostalgia, film, and coping mechanisms, using both media theory and psychological lenses. Nostalgia, a concept with roots in both media theory and psychology, is best defined as homesickness for a time rather than a place. Nostalgia, when combined with film, leads to the concept of “comfort watches”, a scarcely researched topic. In this thesis, media theory regarding nostalgia was used to inform textual analyses of the aesthetics of nostalgia in Wes Anderson films and cultural analyses of nostalgic guilty pleasure films such as Twilight. From a psychological standpoint, research suggests that nostalgia and media usage are commonly used coping mechanisms, yet there has been little to no research combining the two. The psychological study included in this thesis will be conducted online in the United States using 87 participants aged 18-30 to determine if there is a correlational relationship between stress and the use of comfort films as coping mechanisms. The participants will fill out a series of questionnaires measuring type/era of comfort film, stress, nostalgia proneness, media usage, and use of adaptive coping strategies. The study predicts that the more stressed the individual is, the more likely they are to select a film they watched at an earlier age. Comfort film usage is also predicted to be associated with overall media usage, nostalgia proneness, and other adaptive coping strategies.