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The dark side of home: Assessing possession ‘clutter’ on subjective well-being
Abstract
This research investigates a “dark side of home,” created when the experiential quality of home is compromised by ‘clutter,’ defined as an overabundance of possessions that collectively create chaotic and disorderly living spaces. Based on relationships among constructs largely developed by phenomenologists, we conceptualize psychological home as a reflection of one’s need to identify self with a physical environment. Clutter was proposed as an antagonist to the normally positive benefits and consequences of home for subjective well-being. An online survey was conducted with a population of U.S. and Canadian adults. A structural equation model was used to test hypotheses. Findings reveal that place attachment and self-extension tendencies toward possessions positively contribute to psychological home. Clutter had a negative impact on psychological home and subjective well-being. These findings contribute to a broader understanding of how meanings of home are both cultivated and undermined by individuals’ place-making efforts.
Supplementary resource (1)
... Clutter impacts the utility and livability of one's home, and one's psychological well-being [2]). Past research examined clutter's effects on decision-making, life satisfaction, and well-being, uncovering more indecision, reduced life satisfaction, and worse overall well-being because of clutter [2][3][4][5]. Several studies discussed the impacts of clutter on specific measurements of well-being, showing positive relationships between clutter and lower quality of life, stress, binge eating, and increased work-related tension [6][7][8][9]). ...
... Several studies discussed the impacts of clutter on specific measurements of well-being, showing positive relationships between clutter and lower quality of life, stress, binge eating, and increased work-related tension [6][7][8][9]). Negative impacts of clutter appear to affect people across the lifespan, reducing subjective well-being in university students, adults, and older adults [5,10,11]. Together, these studies suggest the greater the amount of home (or, even office) clutter, the lower one's reported life satisfaction, productivity, and quality of life. ...
... The spaces we call "ours", such as bedrooms, are often seen as extensions of one's self-identity [35]. Imposing decluttering or disposal of personal possessions may feel threatening, especially if the individual has strong attachments to their items [5]. The experience of reactance in decluttering projects may go beyond causing negative emotions, as forceful or persistent messaging may complicate decision-making processes and hinder decluttering altogether. ...
During the 2019–2020 global pandemic, mandated time at home suggested engagement in personal projects, such as home decluttering. Clutter (an overabundance of possessions) may impede one’s quality of life by interfering with space livability and social connections and prompting negative affect and financial problems. The present study explored action–state orientation, psychological reactance, and decisional procrastination with 227 American adults (M age = 49.9 years old). A latent class analysis tested for differences in cognition across groups. Results supported that persons who struggle with clutter reflect clusters or “classes” given their self-reported cognitive processes, with hesitant and indecisive participants experiencing greater negative impacts of clutter than action-oriented and decisive participants. Our findings suggested improving the decision-making and goal-directed capacities of those struggling with clutter may be effective as preventive and/or interventive strategies. Future research might consider when hesitation to initiate challenging tasks and indecision emerge in the decluttering timeline and how those who are prone to these cognitions may be supported in managing their personal possessions.
... Vand der Klis and Karsten [1] identify three frameworks to understand the concept of home, namely the physical dwelling itself, activities surrounding the dwelling, and particular social settings that are familiar to the person around their dwelling area. Literature from a variety of fields indicated that the concept of home frequently was associated with feelings of safety and security within the individuals that partake within the concept [2] however when the experience of home is burdened by over-abundance of clutter, this feeling may result in a lower sense of well-being [3]. Such associations highlight the importance of the home concept as a construct worth studying for community psychologists who are predominantly interested in how living environments impacts the well-being of individuals and communities [4]. ...
... Psychological home has been consistently associated with life satisfaction in both Italy [9] and America [2,3,10]. For instance, using data gathered in Italy, psychological home predicted resilience in both migrant and non-migrant populations [5]. ...
... They also found that psychological home was negatively correlated with psychological distress, state-trait anxiety and negative [7]. While most of the studies present evidence of the positive effects of psychological home, Roster and colleagues [3] noted the dark side of psychological home when the dwelling is burdened by physical clutter and reduce the life satisfaction benefits that are provided by psychological home. ...
Psychological home is an understudied concept within community psychology, especially focused on migrants. Previous literature on psychological home found a positive relationship with well-being and resilience in general populations and migrants. Studying psychological home in migrants may provide important tools to buffer various stresses associated with migration. The present study explored the relationship between psychological home and demographic factors, including dwelling type and situation between migrants (n = 132) and Italian citizens’ population (n = 76). Results offer theoretical reasons explaining the differences in the meaning of home between migrant and non-immigrant populations.
... This promise corresponds with a contemporary mindset in which exhaustion and overload due to consumerism and over-consumption are widespread in the mainstream of society. Studies also confirm the negative effects of overconsumption and clutter on well-being (Roster et al., 2016;Swanson and Ferrari, 2022) while showing clearly positive effects of decluttering on well-being (Hook et al., 2021). However, the political, economic, and cultural framework conditions that cause or contribute to the accumulation of clutter and the corresponding exhaustion are hardly even considered within decluttering guides (which in turn comes along with the positive observed effect of simplified content that reaches a larger target group). ...
... What one wants to own is how one wants to live life" (Biana, 2020, p. 83). Regardless of the question of how much decluttering can actually contribute to successful self-care and well-being (Roster et al., 2016;Swanson and Ferrari, 2022), there are numerous critical assessments of the concept from a socio-economic perspective. Casey and Littler (2021), for instance, see the interpretation of decluttering, contributing to women continuing and willingly taking on the greater share of housework. ...
... This also has the advantage that positive effects of decluttering can be directly observed and experienced in the present and can possibly motivate to own fewer things in the future (e.g., direct relief from having to take care of fewer things, more clarity and order). A potential perceived increase in overall well-being (Roster et al., 2016;Swanson and Ferrari, 2022) might also have a positive influence on owning fewer things in the future. Following studies on the relationship between perceived self-efficacy and sustainable consumption (Hanss and Böhm, 2010), it can also be argued that the experience of successfully decluttering in one's own household can have positive effects on future sufficient consumption activities. ...
Popular literature and guidebooks on minimalism and decluttering have brought the idea of “less is more” into the mainstream. Although decluttering constitutes a central household chore in consumer societies, it is rarely communicated as work within the current popular minimalism discourse, but rather as an expression of self-care. Whether and to what extent this “lifestyle minimalism” can contribute to sustainable consumption has – with a few exceptions – not yet been studied in detail. In this article, decluttering is first conceptualized in between housework and self-care. Based on this work, potentials and limits for the promotion of sustainable consumption are outlined. Finally, initial insights from an ongoing citizen science project on decluttering in Germany are presented. The qualitative results from two workshops and two reflection exercises show that the main motivation for participants is the dissatisfaction with their multitude of possessions and the desire for fewer material possessions in the future. The decision to declutter can be understood as a window of opportunity in which individuals are willing to reflect on and realign their possessions and desires for goods. Thus, we argue that decluttering can be a relevant starting point for changing consumption behavior toward (more) sustainable consumption. At the same time, it remains unclear whether and to what extent the participants' willingness to change regarding possessions and consumption actually leads to more sustainable consumption behavior after decluttering. It is even conceivable that the newly gained space will stimulate additional consumption. Decluttering would then rather function as a catalyst for further consumption (and would have no or rather a negative contribution to sustainability goals). Further research is needed to shed light on this.
... Previous research found one phenomenon that impacts an individual's sense of 22 home and subjective well-being tends to be high levels of clutter, "an overabundance of 23 possessions that create chaotic and disorderly living spaces" (Roster et al.; para. 2) [1].. 24 Roster and colleagues [1] found support for a theoretical model of psychological home 25 and latent variables, including clutter and subjective well-being. In addition, previous 26 literature found a significant relationship between clutter, sense of psychological home, 27 subjective well-being with a variety of different samples, such as women of color, persons 28 who are indecisive, and high anxiety [1,2,3,4,5,6]. ...
... Previous research found one phenomenon that impacts an individual's sense of 22 home and subjective well-being tends to be high levels of clutter, "an overabundance of 23 possessions that create chaotic and disorderly living spaces" (Roster et al.; para. 2) [1].. 24 Roster and colleagues [1] found support for a theoretical model of psychological home 25 and latent variables, including clutter and subjective well-being. In addition, previous 26 literature found a significant relationship between clutter, sense of psychological home, 27 subjective well-being with a variety of different samples, such as women of color, persons 28 who are indecisive, and high anxiety [1,2,3,4,5,6]. ...
... 2) [1].. 24 Roster and colleagues [1] found support for a theoretical model of psychological home 25 and latent variables, including clutter and subjective well-being. In addition, previous 26 literature found a significant relationship between clutter, sense of psychological home, 27 subjective well-being with a variety of different samples, such as women of color, persons 28 who are indecisive, and high anxiety [1,2,3,4,5,6]. However, to date, no previous 29 research compared older adults' (≥ 65 years old) and younger adults' (≤ 64 years old) 30 experiences with clutter, sense of psychological home, and subjective well-being. ...
Previous research found mixed results for clutter’s impact on individuals’ sense of home and subjective well-being in a variety of samples. In this retrospective cross-sectional study, archival data were utilized to examine the relationship between clutter, psychological home, and subjective well-being across two age categories, specifically older adults aged ≥65 (n = 225), and younger adults aged ≤64 (n = 225). Three moderation analyses used age categories as a moderator exploring the relationship between (a) clutter predicting psychological home, (b) psychological home predicting subjective well-being, and (c) clutter predicting subjective well-being. Results found that age categories significantly moderated the relationship between clutter and psychological home but did not moderate the other variable relationships.
... The marketing and environmental psychology literature has long explored the role of physical places and spaces in customers' experience as well as consumers' relational, and often emotional, bonds with commercial settings and with people (e.g., service personnel, family members) in these settings (Debenedetti et al., 2014;Hernandez, Hidalgo, & Ruiz, 2014;Roster, Ferrari, & Jurkat, 2016;Tartaglia, 2013). As such, marketers know a lot about how environmental cues in physical consumption settings (e.g., ambient conditions, furniture, and décor) influence consumers' purchase desire (Johnstone & Todd, 2012). ...
... The term "psychological home" reflects a broader understanding of home as a vital source of meaning, belonging, and identity. The notion of psychological home indicates a sense of belonging in which self-identity is tied to a place (Roster et al., 2016). The psychological home literature identifies several emotional (e.g., security), cognitive (e. g., beliefs about home), and behavioral benefits of home for individuals (e.g., construction and personalization of an individual's surroundings) (Moore, 2000;Roster et al., 2016). ...
... The notion of psychological home indicates a sense of belonging in which self-identity is tied to a place (Roster et al., 2016). The psychological home literature identifies several emotional (e.g., security), cognitive (e. g., beliefs about home), and behavioral benefits of home for individuals (e.g., construction and personalization of an individual's surroundings) (Moore, 2000;Roster et al., 2016). ...
Given the increasing academic interest in in-home consumption and the fragmented, multidisciplinary scholarly knowledge in this area, this study provides a first systematic effort to review and organize the literature on in-home service consumption. Using a hybrid systematic review, combining bibliometric and framework-based literature reviews, we identify four major thematic clusters (i.e., the meaning of home, home as a consumption hub, home healthcare services, and serving the elderly), critically analyze, and discuss. We draw on AADO (Actor-Antecedents-Decisions-Outcomes) and TCM (Theories-Contexts-Methods) frameworks to synthesize our findings into an integrative framework of in-home service consumption, namely InHoServ. InHoServ provides a comprehensive understanding of the main actors involved in-home service consumption and delineates their changing role. Finally, we provide a future research agenda highlighting four fruitful areas for researchers (i.e., theorizing in-home service consumption, the changing role of service providers, technology and service consumption at home, the dark side of in-home consumption).
... Much of the research into the impact of clutter on quality of life and mental health feature in the clinical literature, and there is scarce scholarly work on the association between clutter and wellbeing in non-clinical populations. The limited research on clutter in non-clinical populations suggests that it while it has less dire impact on wellbeing and functioning compared to clinical populations, strong associations were found between clutter and low mood, weariness (Saxbe & Repetti, 2010), shame, guilt (Löfgren, 2017) and low life satisfaction (Roster, Ferrari, & Jurkat, 2016). However, much of this body of work focuses exclusively on clutter's detrimental effect on varied aspects of wellbeing, and offers little insight on the wellbeing outcomes associated with clutter management and with living with less clutter. ...
... People who score highly on the psychological home scale invest in their homes and create a stronger sense of home as an extension of their self-identity. These actions have been found to positively correlate with wellbeing and positive psychological functioning (Cicognani, 2011;Roster et al., 2016;Sigmon et al., 2002). ...
... Definitions of clutter are judgemental and often scornful. Roster et al. (2016) defined clutter as an "overabundance of material possessions that collectively create disorderly and chaotic home environments" (p. 32) -an objective definition that does not encompass individual, subjective experiences in distinguishing between desired possessions and clutter. ...
Research on clutter in non-clinical populations is scarce. Existing research typically examines clutter’s negative effect on quality of life. Assertions from self-help books and lifestyle media that living with less clutter has beneficial health and psychological outcomes have received limited scientific attention. This study aimed to address a significant gap in the literature by exploring the associations between home self-extension variables (subjective clutter, objective clutter, home self-expression and declutter habit) and wellbeing (measured through the PERMA model).
A general population sample of 1,111 adults (mostly women) participated in this cross-sectional correlational study. Correlation and regression results revealed that home self-extension variables, particularly subjective clutter and psychological home, account for substantial variance of wellbeing. The subjective-objective nature of clutter is discussed and a refined definition of clutter embracing its subjective nature is proposed. We conclude that home self-extension, and clutter in particular, are significant predictors of wellbeing.
... Conversely, experiences within the home can also make one's place of residence become a source of stress, dissatisfaction, or even danger (Manzo, 2005). High levels of clutter, for example, are associated with both lower levels of attachment and lower well-being (Roster, 2016). Feminist perspectives on the concept of home (e.g., Ehrenreich & English, 1978) highlight the fact that gender stereotypes and inequalities in the division of domestic labor can ultimately create living spaces that are themselves stressful. ...
... The home in particular tends to be associated with positive memories, a sense of belonging, and physical and psychological comfort, relative to other important places (Scannell & Gifford, 2017b). Moreover, existing research has demonstrated a reliable, positive association between measures of subjective wellbeing and place attachment, both at large geographic scales (e.g., Afshar et al., 2017;Rollero & De Piccoli, 2010) and at the level of the home (Evans et al., 2002;Junot et al., 2018;Roster et al., 2016;Wiles et al., 2017). ...
... This sample size was chosen to allow for the detection of anticipated small to medium fixed effects (f 2 = .05), based on previous studies assessing home attachment and subjective wellbeing (e.g., Junot et al., 2018;Roster et al., 2016). Eleven participants were dropped from the dataset for failing attention-checks, leaving a total sample of 289 people. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant consequences for Americans’ daily lives. Many people are spending more time in their homes due to work from home arrangements, stay at home orders, and closures of businesses and public gathering spaces. In this study, we explored how one’s attachment to their home may help to buffer their mental health during this stressful time. Data were collected from a three-wave, longitudinal sampling (n = 289) surveyed at baseline, two, and four weeks after. We found a clear relationship between an individual’s attachment to home and positive mental health. Across all three waves, home attachment was negatively associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, participants’ home attachment at baseline was predictive of subsequent mental health two weeks after, which suggests that one’s relationship to their home was particularly important during the initial onset of the national response to the outbreak. Predictors of home attachment included conscientiousness, agreeableness, and restorative ambience. Over the course of the study, kinship ambience also emerged as a predictor of home attachment. In the midst of increased mental health concerns and limited resources due to COVID-19, the home may buffer some individuals from depressive and anxiety-related symptoms by functioning as a source of refuge, security, and stability.
... Furthermore, clutter is a ubiquitous part of consumers' everyday experience and is not necessarily in and of itself indicative of an underlying mental disorder. Epidemiology studies aside, common themes emerging from studies conducted with people with excessive clutter in their homes indicate that these individuals have either currently or in the past experienced significant stress in their life (Tolin, Meunier, Frost, & Steketee, 2010), are indecisive (Burgess, Frost, Marani, & Gabrielson, 2018;Ferrari, Roster, & Crum, 2018), and feel less "at home" in their environments and experience diminished levels of well-being as a result of the clutter (Roster, Ferrari, & Jurkat, 2016). ...
... Similarly, Laurence (2013) found that the calming effect of personal objects helped to mitigate environmental stress and emotional exhaustion in office settings with low levels of experienced privacy. Marking personal spaces with objects that reflect self-identity is a primary means for creating a sense of "psychological home," but collectively, an overabundance of personal objects has been shown to decrease an individual's sense of well-being in home environments (Roster et al., 2016). When considered individually, objects with highly self-reflective properties are rarely seen as troublesome, even among individuals with hoarding disorder who often harbor strong personal attachments to many possessions (Frost et al., 1995). ...
... This pattern of emotional responses can create a sequence of stressfatigue-avoidance-delay reactions that enable clutter to escalate because it reinforces maladaptive behaviors workers create to avoid situations associated with uncertainty, fear of doing the wrong thing, or tackling tasks they find unpleasant. In studies involving clutter in home environments, one of the most common emotions associated with clutter is that of feeling "overwhelmed" (Roster et al., 2016). As clutter escalates, it becomes even more difficult to find time to organize workspaces; workers' physical, functional, and psychological comfort with their environment decreases (Vischer, 2005); and the potential for these disorganized elements of the workspace environment to interfere with the attainment of work objectives increases (Vischer, 2007). ...
Despite popular articles and books, researchers have failed to examine how office clutter emerges and potential mediators underlying clutter in personal workspaces. We hypothesized that workers whose jobs require them to deal with a heavy volume of work at a rapid pace would be more likely to experience job strain (i.e., emotional exhaustion), which, in turn, depletes their energy and makes workers more likely to delay decisions. Decisional procrastination (indecision) was expected to increase office clutter, which itself is a physical stressor. Data from an Internet survey with 290 U.S. office workers recruited through Prolific Academic supported the hypotheses. This study is the first to examine clutter as a physical stressor in the workplace. A greater understanding of the factors that promote office clutter might help organizations and workers address sources of workspace conditions and personal habits that impede productivity and well-being.
... Clutter is defined as the over-accumulation of material items that create a chaotic and disorderly space (Roster, Ferrari, & Jurkat, 2016), and may include possessions that are either commonly used or unused. Clutter, however, is not to be confused with hoarding, a psychological disorder recognized by the DSM-5 and ICD-10. ...
... The present study was an initial step toward understanding the impact of office clutter among adults employed in different settings. Roster et al. (2016) found that clutter was a result of indecision (decisional procrastination: see Ferrari, 2010), such that a person developed clutter because they did not decide which items to keep or remove. These scholars hypothesized that an over-accumulation of items may actually impede an individual's well-being and their connection with their home environment because of the stress and negative stigma associated with clutter. ...
... Office clutter. All participants completed the 11-item, unidimensional Office Clutter Impact scale, adapted from the Clutter Quality of Life Scale (Roster, Ferrari, & Jurkat, 2016) examining the negative impact of workplace clutter on the individual's workability of space, emotional well-being, and social aspect of work. Initial reliability conducted by Roster et al. on the Clutter Quality of Life Scale showed a Cronbach's alpha of .88 ...
Clutter in the home negatively influences a person's well-being, but this tendency has not been investigated in workplace settings. The present study addressed whether office clutter impacted workplace well-being (job satisfaction, job tension, employee engagement, burnout, and occupational stress) using a crowd-sourced sample of U.S. adults (n = 290; 177 male, 113 female) employed full-time in office and/or home settings. It was hypothesized that office clutter would negatively impact job satisfaction and employee engagement, positively impact emotional exhaustion and occupational stress, and job-related tension would moderate the relationship between office clutter and job satisfaction. Multiple hierarchical linear regressions and a moderated hierarchical regression analyzed the data and tested the hypotheses. Results showed that office clutter did predict emotional exhaustion and stress.
... Clutter is defined as the over-accumulation of material items that create a chaotic and disorderly space (Roster, Ferrari, & Jurkat, 2016), and may include possessions that are either commonly used or unused. Clutter, however, is not to be confused with hoarding, a psychological disorder recognized by the DSM-5 and ICD-10. ...
... The present study was an initial step toward understanding the impact of office clutter among adults employed in different settings. Roster et al. (2016) found that clutter was a result of indecision (decisional procrastination: see Ferrari, 2010), such that a person developed clutter because they did not decide which items to keep or remove. These scholars hypothesized that an over-accumulation of items may actually impede an individual's well-being and their connection with their home environment because of the stress and negative stigma associated with clutter. ...
... Office clutter. All participants completed the 11-item, unidimensional Office Clutter Impact scale, adapted from the Clutter Quality of Life Scale (Roster, Ferrari, & Jurkat, 2016) examining the negative impact of workplace clutter on the individual's workability of space, emotional well-being, and social aspect of work. Initial reliability conducted by Roster et al. on the Clutter Quality of Life Scale showed a Cronbach's alpha of .88 ...
Clutter in the home negatively influences a person's well-being, but this tendency has not been investigated in workplace settings. The present study addressed whether office clutter impacted workplace well-being (job satisfaction, job tension, employee engagement, burnout, and occupational stress) using a crowd-sourced sample of U.S. adults (n = 290; 177 male, 113 female) employed full-time in office and/or home settings. It was hypothesized that office clutter impact would negatively influence job satisfaction and employee engagement, positively relate to emotional exhaustion and occupational stress, and job-related tension would moderate the relationship between office clutter and job satisfaction. Multiple hierarchical linear regressions and a moderated hierarchical regression analyzed the data and tested the hypotheses. Results showed that office clutter impact did predict emotional exhaustion and stress.
... Moreover, the place identity and well-being link has been proven to decrease sharply following disasters [10], indicating that residents lose much of their affective people-place bond, and their sense of well-being is reduced following a disaster. Disrupted place attachment does not only negatively influence residents' sense of well-being [15] and resilience [16], but it can also have numerous negative biopsychosocial impacts (e.g., stress-related illnesses, difficulty in learning, asthma, and PTSD [7,17]). Furthermore, after the disruption from large-scale disasters, the loss of place attachment can have a long-term impact and can involve a difficult process of reestablishment [13]. ...
... Fullilove suggested that disasters (i.e., wars, colonization, famines, and disasters of natural origin) and displacement may not only damage place dependence but can also destroy the symbolic meaning of place in people's minds [40]. Following disasters, deaths of loved ones, and the loss of houses threatens the people-place affective connection [15,41]. Furthermore, the decline in place attachment can result in evacuees being unwilling to return after a natural disaster, such as after the Matupi volcanic eruption in Papua New Guinea [14,42]. ...
... According to the framework of place attachment designed by Scannell and Gifford [5], the sense of safety and physical and social characteristics (such as natural environment, and architecture) are among the most important contributing factors to place attachment. After disasters or forced relocation, people might find the drastically altered environment and unsafe living conditions hard to adapt to, which in turn lead to the disruption of affective bonds with the place [15]. Moreover, after a natural disaster, people suffer not only because of their losses (e. g., loss of friends and family, financial losses, and loss of connection to place) but also because they feel unsafe [14]. ...
Disasters of natural origin cause the destruction of residential settings, and can create severe disruptions to place attachment, which is a less understood process. To address this research gap, this study explores how place attachment is influenced by changes in cognition, affect, and behavior caused by a large-scale earthquake and the successive secondary disasters. From 629 valid questionnaires completed by residents of two hard-hit areas in the Wenchuan earthquake in China, this study examines the impact of perceived risk, negative emotions, and coping on the disruption of place attachment. The results of the study demonstrated that residents in the more severely affected area perceived higher risks and had more negative emotions, but also their place dependence was more severely damaged. The results of the structural equation modeling demonstrated that perceived risk negatively affected place dependence while coping helped to restore residents’ place dependence and place identity. Surprisingly, negative emotions were not found to disrupt people’s place attachment; rather, they helped to reestablish place dependence indirectly via the mediator of coping. This study provides theoretical guidance on recovering residents’ place attachment in areas affected by large-scale disasters.
... Sigmon, Whitcomb, & Snyder (2002) defined psychological home as a sense of belonging in which selfidentity is tied to a place. Therefore, an individual's interaction with their physical space might reflect their self-identity, leading them to create a psychological home that they will benefit from on multiple levels (Roster, Ferrari, & Jurkat, 2016). Furthermore, psychological home reflects an underlying motive that is driven by an individual's psychological need to identify a sense of self with a physical location (Sigmon et al., 2002). ...
... Taking that into consideration, there is an underlying psychological process happening when one uses the word "home." Psychological home considers the cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects of an individual (Roster et al., 2016). Sigmon et al. (2002) claimed that the cognitive components of psychological home include attributions about self in relation to the environment, the meaning and beliefs about home, and one's self theory in relation to home (cf., . ...
... Currently, only two published studies specifically explored psychological home in relation to subjective well-being and place attachment, namely: Cicognani (2011) and Roster et al. (2016). These two studies suggested individuals who have higher levels of psychological home reported higher levels of subjective wellbeing and lower negative affect. ...
We examined psychological home, place attachment, clutter, and life satisfaction with adult women of color (n = 99; M age = 50.33 years old) drawn from a larger national sample of women who self-identified with clutter tendencies. We assessed resource (i.e., annual household income, homeownership status, and relationship status) and contextual (i.e., type of dwelling, number of people in household, and years in residence) variables, plus measures of psychological home, place attachment, and clutter, as predictors of life satisfaction among women of color. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that psychological home was a significant predictor of life satisfaction over and above resource and contextual variables. Place attachment and clutter did not moderate the relationship between home and life satisfaction. However, clutter mediated the relationship between home and life satisfaction. Implications for women of color, study limitations, and future directions are discussed.
... Furthermore, clutter is a ubiquitous part of consumers' everyday experience and is not necessarily in and of itself indicative of an underlying mental disorder. Epidemiology studies aside, common themes emerging from studies conducted with people with excessive clutter in their homes indicate that these individuals have either currently or in the past experienced significant stress in their life (Tolin, Meunier, Frost, & Steketee, 2010), are indecisive (Burgess, Frost, Marani, & Gabrielson, 2018;Ferrari, Roster, & Crum, 2018), and feel less "at home" in their environments and experience diminished levels of well-being as a result of the clutter (Roster, Ferrari, & Jurkat, 2016). ...
... Similarly, Laurence (2013) found that the calming effect of personal objects helped to mitigate environmental stress and emotional exhaustion in office settings with low levels of experienced privacy. Marking personal spaces with objects that reflect self-identity is a primary means for creating a sense of "psychological home," but collectively, an overabundance of personal objects has been shown to decrease an individual's sense of well-being in home environments (Roster et al., 2016). When considered individually, objects with highly self-reflective properties are rarely seen as troublesome, even among individuals with hoarding disorder who often harbor strong personal attachments to many possessions (Frost et al., 1995). ...
... This pattern of emotional responses can create a sequence of stressfatigue-avoidance-delay reactions that enable clutter to escalate because it reinforces maladaptive behaviors workers create to avoid situations associated with uncertainty, fear of doing the wrong thing, or tackling tasks they find unpleasant. In studies involving clutter in home environments, one of the most common emotions associated with clutter is that of feeling "overwhelmed" (Roster et al., 2016). As clutter escalates, it becomes even more difficult to find time to organize workspaces; workers' physical, functional, and psychological comfort with their environment decreases (Vischer, 2005); and the potential for these disorganized elements of the workspace environment to interfere with the attainment of work objectives increases (Vischer, 2007). ...
Despite popular articles and books, researchers have failed to examine how office clutter emerges and potential mediators underlying clutter in personal workspaces. We hypothesized that workers whose jobs require them to deal with a heavy volume of work at a rapid pace would be more likely to experience job strain (i.e., emotional exhaustion), which, in turn, depletes their energy and makes workers more likely to delay decisions. Decisional procrastination (indecision) was expected to increase office clutter, which itself is a physical stressor. Data from an Internet survey with 290 U.S. office workers recruited through Prolific Academic supported the hypotheses. This study is the first to examine clutter as a physical stressor in the workplace. A greater understanding of the factors that promote office clutter might help organizations and workers address sources of workspace conditions and personal habits that impede productivity and well-being.
... Our inferences demonstrated that moderate stimulation could help generate positive affective arousal, but a high or low level of stimulation that may be related to design elements could make sustaining cognitive processes difficult and influence affective appraisals by creating arousal, as also stated in the literature (Bornioli et al., 2018;Evans, 2003;Evans & McCoy, 1998;Imamoglu, 2000). Besides, clutter, untidiness, and disorganisation were negative elements associated with overstimulation (Evans & McCoy, 1998;Kellert et al., 2010;Roster et al., 2016;Saxbe & Repetti, 2010). Those elements could be damaging in stress recovery since they generated negatively valenced high arousal. ...
... Based on our inferences, the tenancy was a restrictive factor since it is negatively influential in maintaining physical control and spatial arrangements. Previous research indicated that insufficient physical and spatial quality of home could affect subjective well-being and place attachment, which is also directly related to perceived restoration (Deem, 1986;Donohoe, 2011;Manzo, 2003;Roster et al., 2016). Besides, individuals, particularly those living in poverty, may not have many options for restorative housing, which could expose them to significant stressors (Hartig, 2012). ...
Although research on restorative environments suggest that natural settings have therapeutic effects in moderating stress and promoting positive experiences, there is a limited body of literature inquiring about the therapeutic potential of interior environments. The aim of the current study was to understand the restorative potential of home environments regarding theoretical background on restorative environments and architectural dimensions influencing well-being through the experiences of women. We interviewed 11 adult women using the photo-elicitation technique to investigate the perceived restorativeness of their home environments. Thematic analysis of qualitative data indicated that the design attributes of spaces play a significant role in promoting the restoration process. In addition to design attributes, we found family interaction, socialising, and engaging in activities could also be influential. Furthermore, the exploratory nature of the research highlighted the significance of individual meanings and personal factors in shaping the perceived restorativeness of home environments. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed to encourage future research in related fields that explore the relationship between residential settings and well-being.
... The office de-clutter was assessed using the office clutter quality of life scale earlier used by Roster et al. (2016). The sample statements used to determine the responses included the phrases "I get to use spaces in my office the way I would like to," "I find things easily when I need them", and "I do not neglect taking care of things that need to be done". ...
... The supervisors who intend to minimize office clutter provide training to the employees. This time management training enables them to make decisions promptly, minimizing the indecision problem, as highlighted by Roster et al. (2016), and perform the work as per schedules. This prevents employees from office clutter, and they better achieve their performance goals (Zhao and Detlor 2021). ...
The study aims to test the impact of social support from supervisors and self-efficacy on employee performance through office de-clutter (a mediator) in banks. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the supporting factors (social support and self-efficacy) to de-clutter for maintaining employee performance is a novel contribution to the literature and is supported by the social exchange theory—SET. The employee’s performance can be maintained with lower levels of office clutter (de-clutter). The office clutter can be managed through the availability of managerial social support and employee self-efficacy. The impact of supervisor support and self-efficacy on employee performance is examined through the lens of the social exchange theory. A cross-sectional and quantitative study was conducted with 202 primary responses from bank employees. The responses were recorded using closed-ended questionnaires. A response rate of 73.9% was achieved. Reliability and validity were assessed using Cronbach’s alpha scores and AVE, respectively. PLS-SEM was used as a data analysis and hypotheses testing technique. The results revealed that supervisors’ social support and self-efficacy significantly and positively affect employee performance. Moreover, supervisors’ social support and self-efficacy helped in office de-clutter, further ensuring better performance.
... Self-extension refers to the subjective feeling that a person considers an object as part of the self (Belk, 1988;Ferraro et al., 2011). Self-extension theory suggests that if an object plays a role in the construction of a person's self-identity, that person can see that object, such as property (Roster et al., 2016), as being part of the self, thus achieving self-extension (Park and Kaye, 2019). According to self-extension theory, we believe that users may realize self-extension in using smartwatches. ...
... The scale of self-expansion included three items following suggestions of De Kerviler and Rodriguez (2019) and Lee et al. (2019). Self-extension was assessed using four items adapted from Roster et al. (2016). User loyalty was measured using three items based on studies of Wolter et al. (2017) and Ramaseshan et al. (2017). ...
People are increasingly using smartwatches in their daily lives. Scholars have focused on the drivers of the initial and continued use of smartwatches, while few studies have dealt with the outcomes of smartwatch use. Therefore, this study explores the impact of smartwatch use on user experience (self-expansion and self-extension) and user reciprocity (user loyalty and user influence) based on service-dominant logic. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 343 smartwatch users in China. Structural equation modeling and the bootstrapping method were applied to test the theoretical hypotheses. The results show that smartwatch use positively affects self-expansion and self-extension, both self-expansion and self-extension positively affect user loyalty and user influence, and smartwatch use affects user loyalty and user influence through self-expansion and self-extension. This research deepens our understanding of the outcomes of smartwatch use, and provides insights for smartwatch manufacturers to create more value from user reciprocity.
... (Sigmon et al. 2002) developed a unidimensional scale that assesses the level of a psychological home expressed in an individual's environment and the benefits or liabilities derived from the relationship with a physical space. The same authors suggest that psychological home contains cognitive, affective, and behavioral components and that these elements enable a person to feel a sense of safety, protection, and well-being (Roster et al. 2016). Klis and Karsten (2009), analyzing sense of home in the context of the dualresidence situation of commuters, identified three dimensions that people consider to be important in their experience of home: a social dimension (i.e., interaction with family), a material dimension (i.e., personal objects in a home), and an activity patterns dimension (i.e., routines connected to place identity). ...
... Klis and Karsten (2009), analyzing sense of home in the context of the dualresidence situation of commuters, identified three dimensions that people consider to be important in their experience of home: a social dimension (i.e., interaction with family), a material dimension (i.e., personal objects in a home), and an activity patterns dimension (i.e., routines connected to place identity). This idea has been reinforced by a further study that underlines the fact that the meaning attributed to the house might be both enhanced and weakened by efforts to customize the place (Roster et al. 2016). Previous research has shown that a person's sense of home also includes a strong emotional component (Blunt and Dowling. ...
We assessed the sense of psychological home among adult men (n = 17; M age = 29.7 years old) who had experienced migration to Italy, focusing on the relationship between psychological home and the process of integration into the new country. Psychological home is a dynamic process in which people sense a safe and secure environment that ranges beyond the confines of a structured dwelling, a process which is reflective and which communicates one's self-identity. Participants engaged in a semistructured interview with the aim of establishing a generic concept of psychological home and identifying the issues that arise at the intersection of psychological home and migration. The results highlighted certain themes about the meaning that psychological home assumes in the lives of migrants and about the way in which the migration experience acts to support or hinder the process of building this sense of home. Of special interest is the idea that individuals might develop multiple psychological homes related to the different places and relationships that they experience. In this sense, establishment of a psychological home might be considered the ideal affective state for psychological adaptation to a new country.
... In this type of experience, bookstores take on a role which resembles one's home, an emotional place of well-being (Belk, Seo, & Li, 2007) that provides comfort and safety (Roster, Ferrari & Jurkat, 2016). Given that bookstores have a quiet and calm environment, offer protection and the opportunity for relaxation and socialization for the whole community, they are similar to third places (Oldenberg & Brisset, 1982). ...
... In the academic literature, physical bookstores are considered to be unusual, and to have certain third place characteristics (Addis, 2016;Laing & Royle, 2013). Our study also identifies elements in the bookstore that make up the concept of home, such as quietness, calmness, wellbeing, protection, security and socialization (Belk et al., 2007;Oldenberg & Brisset, 1982;Roster et al., 2016), as expressed in the Home Haven experience. The Magic Portal experience, which is related to the transformative power of reading, is anchored in books, which are magical objects that allow contact with alternative realities that provide pleasure and learning. ...
The aim of this study is to understand the role and relevance of the physical store in contemporary integrated retail. The literature suggests that a physical store maintains its relevance as a place of experience, but from the consumer's perspective it does not detail what determines relevance and which experiences emerge from the physical store. Based on the concept of experience co-creation, we argue that each consumer's experience is unique, and that the relevance of the store is determined by the consumer's personal characteristics. We identified emergent experiences from both physical and virtual stores and the role of technology in consumer empowerment. As a managerial contribution, our study provides a direction for physical and virtual integrated retail management. We determined that in bookstores, a segment strongly impacted by dematerialization, the characteristics that determine the relevance of the physical store are related to an appreciation of reading and an attachment to materiality. The experiences that emerge from the store are Buying Place, Gold-Digging, Magical Portal and Home Refuge. Although the results are context-specific, they can drive analysis of the dematerialization of retail in general.
KEYWORDS
Consumer experience; physical store; virtual store; dematerialization; integrated retail
... In this type of experience, bookstores take on a role which resembles one's home, an emotional place of well-being (Belk, Seo, & Li, 2007) that provides comfort and safety (Roster, Ferrari & Jurkat, 2016). Given that bookstores have a quiet and calm environment, offer protection and the opportunity for relaxation and socialization for the whole community, they are similar to third places (Oldenberg & Brisset, 1982). ...
... In the academic literature, physical bookstores are considered to be unusual, and to have certain third place characteristics (Addis, 2016;Laing & Royle, 2013). Our study also identifies elements in the bookstore that make up the concept of home, such as quietness, calmness, wellbeing, protection, security and socialization (Belk et al., 2007;Oldenberg & Brisset, 1982;Roster et al., 2016), as expressed in the Home Haven experience. The Magic Portal experience, which is related to the transformative power of reading, is anchored in books, which are magical objects that allow contact with alternative realities that provide pleasure and learning. ...
The aim of this study is to understand the role and relevance of the physical store in contemporary integrated retail. The literature suggests that a physical store maintains its relevance as a place of experience, but from the consumer's perspective it does not detail what determines relevance and which experiences emerge from the physical store. Based on the concept of experience co-creation, we argue that each consumer's experience is unique, and that the relevance of the store is determined by the consumer's personal characteristics. We identified emergent experiences from both physical and virtual stores and the role of technology in consumer
empowerment. As a managerial contribution, our study provides a direction for physical and virtual integrated retail management. We determined that in bookstores, a segment strongly impacted by dematerialization, the characteristics that determine the relevance of the physical store are related to an appreciation of reading and an attachment to materiality. The experiences that emerge from the store are Buying Place, Gold-Digging, Magical Portal and Home Refuge. Although the results are context-specific, they can drive analysis of the dematerialization of retail in general.
... An overaccumulation of items may impede an individual's well-being and connection with their environment because of the stress and negative stigma associated with excessive possessions Roster et al., 2016). Roster (2001;2015) reported that people perceive their possessions as an extension of their identity. ...
... Roster (2001;2015) reported that people perceive their possessions as an extension of their identity. Subsequent investigations explored whether an overabundance of possessions, termed clutter, had a negative influence on one's well-being (e.g., Roster et al, 2016). For instance, Crum and Ferrari (2019a) analyzed whether clutter impacted overall life satisfaction among women of color. ...
Office clutter might significantly impact productivity, yet no
study examined workers differences across upper and lower
employee status. The present study surveyed 202 U.S. on-site
workers on work-related variables, including office clutter. Job
classifications were aggregated, creating two groups: upper- and
lower-level employees. A significant difference in office clutter
impacted worker-levels: upper-level workers compared to lowerlevel
workers had higher office clutter scores. Exploratory factor
analysis created a two-factor solution (explaining 62.6% of the
common variance): satisfaction/pleasure from one’s work and
risk for work-related burnout/tension. There was a significant
difference in office clutter perception: upper-level workers
were significantly more likely to report clutter and being at risk
for burnout/tension than lower-level workers. Office clutter
significantly negatively predicted satisfaction with one’s job and
positively related with risk for work-related burnout. Frequently
reported office clutter items (in order of frequency) were paper,
trash (e.g., used coffee cups), and office supplies.
... Studies have established that the quality of the residential environment largely influences human health, QoL and mental well-being [6,11,12] . Hence, a higher perceived REQ is linked with better well-being [11] and a poorly perceived REQ is linked with poor well-being [13] . ...
Residential environmental quality (REQ) affects human health and quality of life (QoL). Therefore, this study as sessed residents’ perception of the REQ of the Yenagoa metropolis. Data for the study were sourced from the 400 administered questionnaires, which required respondents to rate their REQ based on seven selected indicators (air quality, drinking water quality, housing location, sanitation, waste management, housing accessibility and noise pollution). The respondents were sampled using the multistage sampling technique. The data were analyzed using frequency, percent age, t-test, ANOVA and REQ model. The findings show that the overall calculated REQ of Yenagoa was classified as “good quality". The best-rated indicator was drinking water quality, while the least-rated was noise pollution. Ratings based on respondents' sex, income and educational status recorded similar results. Also, the respondents' perception of the REQ across the four zones was similar as the calculated ratings of all the zones fell under the "good quality" classification. Furthermore, the hypotheses tested revealed that there were no significant differences in the perception of the REQ by sex and income status, while significant variation exists by education status. Despite the general "good quality" rating, there is still room for improvement, especially in the areas of noise pollution, sanitation and housing location, which received relatively low ratings.
... This finding is consistent with prior research indicating that the neighborhood environment is a strong determinant of well-being (Gandelman et al., 2012;Sirgy & Cornwell, 2002;Zhang & Zhang, 2017). Unsatisfying neighborhood quality is often related to poor outcomes, such as long-term health problems (Jutte et al., 2015), psychological disorders (Beard et al., 2009;Kim, 2010;Hurd et al., 2013), delinquent behaviors (Ludwig et al., 2001) and low subjective well-being (Roster et al., 2016). However, even an accumulating body of literature has recognized the link between neighborhood conditions and well-being (Gale et al., 2011;Gao et al., 2016;Toma et al., 2015;Wu et al., 2015). ...
This study focuses on children as social actors to explore the factors that influence their subjective well-being. The primary purposes of this study are twofold: (1) to examine the potential mediating effects of out-of-school activities on the association between neighborhood quality and children’s subjective well-being; and (2) to examine the potential moderating effects of friendship quality on the associations between neighborhood quality, out-of-school activities, and children’s subjective well-being. This study used international data from the third wave of the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB). The final sample consists of 93,344 children (mean age = 10.95, 49.3% were boys). The results revealed a significant indirect effect of neighborhood quality on children’s subjective well-being via out-of-school activities. Furthermore, the effect of neighborhood quality on children’s subjective well-being was stronger for children with low friendship quality than for those with high friendship quality. Similarly, the effect of out-of-school activities on subjective well-being was stronger for children with low friendship quality than for those with high friendship quality. This study provides important theoretical and practical implications for future research and interventions.
... Woodward (2021) has recently noted clutter often raises moral dilemmas among families, and represents a potent force that affects people, creating complexity and contradictions. How one saves and keeps possessions can range from completely normal to excessive and dysfunctional possessional attachment (Roster et al., 2016). Inheritance introduces items to an individual's home that were acquired by others but become the responsibility of the receiver. ...
Marketing and consumer research has drawn attention to life transitions as critical sites of consumption but has insufficiently explored bereavement, a universal life transition that can involve (un)wanted inheritance, initiating a potential cycle of retention, reimagining, or disposal. Life transitions represent potentially transformative moments of consumption when individual consumption can be more positively redirected towards sustainable choices. Using semi-structured interviews and qualitative data this study critically investigates the cycle of inheritance consumption, informed by Evans’ understanding of consumption with an emphasis on both acquisition and disposal. The study uncovers three liminal stages: separation and detachment; instability, ambiguity, and prolonged liminality; and stability and completeness. First, we expand the scope of empirical consumer research by conceptualising inheritance as liminal. Second, we illuminate the inheritance consumption cycle, showing liminal inheritance stages are critical transition moments that trigger complex positive and negative emotional responses, with implications for whether goods remain suspended or pass into further utility. Finally, we extend liminality theory by conceptualising bereavement as a liminal life transition, and call for researchers to study inheritance beyond acquisition, since how inherited goods are retained or divested in liminal moments can have implications for sustainability and may provide opportunities to steer more responsible and fulfilling consumption with an emphasis on limits rather than excess.
... In environmental psychology, the problem of human relationships with the living medium gets the attention of many researchers. [4,7,8,9,10,11,12,13] Based on a thorough philosophical and psychological analysis, the researchers determine the existential aspects of the interaction between home and a person, such as "functionality", "relevance" of the home environment, and "home attachment". ...
The creation of comfortable living space represents scientific interests for specialists of many fields, in particular architects and environmental psychologists. The current study is devoted to the analysis of the comfortable living space properties by an empirical method with the use of figurative and verbal representation. On the one hand, it considers architectural requirements for the organization of human habitat. On the other hand, it focuses on the psychological tools to identify the characteristics of the living environment, inherent in a comfortable space. We assume that there are differences between these two types of human perception of the living space. These differences can be determined, theoretically substantiated, and empirically validated. In addition, these differences may indicate the existence of a particular level of spatial literacy measured by such criteria as “the degree of spatial organization” and “the level of spatial familiarization”. To test the formulated hypothesis, we have used several methodological tools. First, the projective drawing technique “My dream house and I”, which makes it possible to obtain figurative information about the “stereotypical”, more imposed image of the living space or an ideal desirable architecture, which is determined by the institutional influence. Second, the projective drawing technique "I'm in a comfortable space", which allows us to get figurative information about the peculiarities of a person's own ideas about a comfortable space or desirable medium. Third, the "spatial semantic differential” (a verbal, linguistic matrix), which allows us to determine the representation of living space by such indicators as size, structure, dynamics, strength, as well as pragmatic, aesthetic, and ethical indicators. This methodological tool was used to assess the drawings made by the respondents according to the scales presented in the spatial semantic differential. The research was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of specialists from the field of environmental psychology and architectural design practice. A qualitative analysis of the data done by the method of descriptive statistics lets us identify indicators that allow architects and psychologists to describe two types of drawings. The quantitative analysis of the data was done with the use of descriptive and mathematical statistical methods, in particular the analysis of significant differences. It lets us obtain information about those indicators of space representation that are significant for the image of the “dream house”, and those relevant for the image of the “comfortable space”. The current article presents intermediate results of a pilot study conducted among respondents with a diverse background: the first and second-year students from different faculties and regions.
... Existing research on the effects of one's own residential neighborhood environment in China mostly focuses on its influence on well-being (Zhang & Zhang, 2017). Indeed, a perceived better neighborhood's built environment is linked with higher well-being (Toma et al., 2015), whereas a perceived poor neighborhood community is related to lower level of well-being (Roster et al., 2016). During Covid-19, when self-isolation and prescribed quarantine measures were adopted, neighborhood community had become the main place for its residents in order to conduct physical and social activities: it therefore played an extremely important role in shaping residents' life style. ...
The wide-spread novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has posed severe challenges to people’s life especially their life style. Due to the residential confinement contingency, people were restricted in their study, work and leisure within constrained residential community. The physical environment of residential community therefore became the main activity place and it thus played a significant role for facilitating inhabitants’ daily activities and influencing community identity. Based on the eudaimonic identity theory, this study explored how the spatial dimensions of perceived residential environment quality (PREQ), activity experience (i.e., flow) and social capital, would impact on urbanities’ residential community identity during Covid-19. Results from 508 Chinese residential inhabitants analyzed via structural equation modeling suggested that: a better degree in the spatial dimensions of PREQ would predict a stronger community identity; flow and social capital mediated the relationship between the spatial dimensions of PREQ and the inhabitants’ community identity. The implications of such accounts for our understanding of community identity are then discussed, considering the important meaning of the relationships between people and the perceived physical properties of their residential place.
... 2 As multiple studies found, living environment satisfaction is directly and indirectly linked to subjective wellbeing, psychological welfare, and life satisfaction. [3][4][5][6][7] This emphasizes the need to identify determinants of satisfaction in historic contexts to enhance them to achieve a higher quality of life and well-being among the residents. ...
Background: Satisfaction with neighborhood environment in historic quarters is a major indicator of livability and urban quality of life in these quarters, yet little research has been conducted on neighborhood satisfaction in historic contexts of Iranian cities. This descriptive-analytical study aimed to evaluate the level of the neighborhood (outdoor living spaces) satisfaction and determinants contribute to it in Esfanjan historic neighborhood, Semnan city, Iran. Methods: Determinants of neighborhood satisfaction were collected through a comprehensive literature review, organized in a questionnaire form, and distributed among 215 residents of the neighborhood using the convenience sampling method. The Likert scale was used to express satisfaction levels and the Pearson correlation test in SPSS software was used to measure the level of satisfaction and the relationship between influenced factors and neighborhood satisfaction. Results: The results show that the level of neighborhood satisfaction in the Esfanjan quarter is low and there is a meaningful relationship between all determinant categories and satisfaction. The most significant relationship is related to physical-spatial, functional-structural, socio-cultural, and individual-contextual factors respectively. Among functional-structural factors, maintenance; among physical-spatial factors, quality of access routes; among socio-cultural factors, social interaction and participation; and among individual-contextual factors length of habitation have the strongest correlation with neighborhood satisfaction. Conclusions: This study reveals the importance of good design as the chief factor that influences neighborhood satisfaction in this historic quarter. It also suggests some measures and strategies achieve a more livable urban environment in Esfanjan historic quarter based on neighborhood satisfaction.
... A portion of our everyday activities involves interacting with objects and making decisions about how to arrange them in space. How we arrange our environments can also exert influence on the way we behave and process information (Bernstein & Turban, 2018;Norman, 1988;Roster et al., 2016;Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). A growing body of research supports the idea that systematic organisation of objects in our environments can have a number of benefits for task performance (Kirsh, 1995(Kirsh, , 1996Solman & Kingstone, 2017a, 2017b. ...
Humans routinely organize or reconfigure the environment as part of their everyday activities, such as placing a set of keys in a designated location to reduce the need to remember its location. This type of spatial organization is widely thought to reduce both the physical and cognitive demands of a task in order to allow individuals to perform tasks more easily. Although spatial organization can be a useful strategy when searching for items in the environment, individuals do not always choose to utilize these organizational strategies when carrying out everyday tasks. Across three experiments, we examined individuals' preference for spatial organization in the context of a real-world search task, and the degree to which individuals engaged in time- and effort-based cost-benefit analysis to inform whether to choose between an organization-based or non-organization-based search strategy. We found that individuals' strategy preferences could be explained by the perceived task time associated with each strategy, but not perceived task effort. However, even statistically controlling for relative perceived task time or reported effort, participants showed a strong systematic preference against organization prior to engaging in the task, and, post-task, a strong preference towards organization. Implications for understanding individuals' use of spatial organization are discussed.
... However, owning many items potent to raise burden (Smith & Ekerdt, 2011) since too many items generate clutter. Clutter is a condition where space is filled with randomly placed items that can create chaos (Roster et al., 2016). Rees (Rees et al., 2018, p. 331) founded that excessive clutter led to mental illness and caused negative emotions in children, such as frustration, sadness, hatred, shame, and guilt. ...
The need for storage space at home has increased following the Covid-19 pandemic, yet in the design process of residential space, storing space is often neglected. Some scholars warned that cramped and crowded spaces potentially affect the residents' physical and mental health. This study proposes an analysis of residential space based on space utilization volume, which is divided into three parts: domestic space, storing space, and dead space. This research was conducted in the Rusun Dakota, a low-cost apartment building in Jakarta, Indonesia. We use a mix of qualitative and quantitative observation methods, 3D modeling, and space utilization volume calculations. We found that: 1) an average of half of the space volume is used for domestic space; 2) less than 20% is used for storing space, and 3) more than a third of the space volume is dead space. The latter potent to be utilized as storing space, although we do not recommend using the whole dead space. The finding unfolds opportunities for further research to find the optimal proportion for storing space.
... As a result of doubling apparel consumption over the past two decades (McKinsey 2016), middle-class consumers (mostly women) have faced a new problem of clutter that is best captured by a popular saying "Nothing to wear and nowhere to store." Studies in psychology have shown a strong negative effect of possession clutter on perceived wellbeing and on life satisfaction (Roster, Ferrari, and Jurkat 2016;Ferrari and Roster 2018). Storage space of an average dwelling puts a cap on the number of garments one can own and store. ...
Following food, mobility, and household-energy use, the consumption of textiles and fashion in Europe has been identified as the fourth highest environmental pressure category in terms of use of primary resources. Slow fashion advocates argue that it is necessary to reevaluate our relationship with clothes and to reduce overall fashion consumption in affluent countries. This article examines a relatively new practice of voluntary reduction of apparel consumption through the lens of three popular online minimalist fashion challenges that encourage participants to use a limited number of clothes, shoes, and accessories over a certain period. It explores how the initiators of the challenges frame the reasons that lead to downsizing, the benefits from undertaking the challenge and the idea of “good life” as the result of living with less. The findings indicate that rationales for voluntary reduction of apparel consumption are more focused on individual wellbeing than on altruistic concerns. The analysis also suggests that in defining an upper limit in apparel consumption (how many garments a wardrobe should contain), numerical indicators serve as a benchmark rather than a goal.
... The experience of home is central and universal because of its role in identity construction (Smith, 1994) and its emotional significance in people's everyday lives (Roster et al., 2016). ...
While prior studies have examined the creative and sacred aspects of luxury brands, home-like aspects of retail remain under-investigated and under-theorized. Yet this issue is central because in-store domestic experiences can entail strong forms of customer engagement and loyalty. Drawing from observations in luxury stores in Paris, this study demonstrates that domestic meanings are a pervasive element of the luxury in-store narrative that complements the portfolio of meanings luxury brands already use to support their high-end positioning. More specifically, this research shows to what extent and how luxury stores instill home-like socio-material cues that fit with the luxury context in which they are embedded. In doing so, this study contributes to the literature on luxury retail by examining how homeyness is staged in high-end environments, thus complementing prior research on luxury houses as creative and sacred institutions.
... It seems that the quality of the residential community-to some extent-determines life satisfaction, especially for those who are over 50 years of age [33] and for those who are retired [12]. Extensive studies have also found that the quality of the residential community is of key importance for a dweller's subjective well-being [34]. However, in China, a country of fast urbanization with huge population and a densely inhabited community, research on green areas embedded in communities for promoting life satisfaction within the Chinese urban context is sparse, highlighting the need for in-depth exploration. ...
Attention on and interest in life satisfaction has increased worldwide. However, research on life satisfaction focused toward the urban dwellers’ residential community is mainly from western countries, and the limited research from China is solely focused on the geriatric population via a narrowly constrained research perspective. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate urbanites’ life satisfaction toward their residential community, combining the psychological (behavioral community engagement, mental state of flow, and cognitive community identity), physical (PREQIs-perceived residential environment quality indicators: e.g., green area), and social perspectives (social capital). The proposed conceptual model was tested on a regionally representative sample of 508 urban community residents in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan province, China. Data were analyzed via a structure equation modelling approach in AMOS software. Findings suggested that all of the psychological, physical and social factors contributed to a prediction of life satisfaction. Specifically, social capital mediated the path from community engagement and flow to life satisfaction, and community identity mediated the path from flow experience and green area to life satisfaction. Additionally, social capital contributed to predict life satisfaction through its influence on community identity. Findings provide suggestions for urban designers and policymakers to focus on creating an urban community equipped with green area, which helps to promote physical activities that are flow-productive, to enhance residents’ identification to their residential community and, therefore, increase life satisfaction.
... Material possessions can have an effect on peoples' wellbeing, physical and mental health, security and comfort (Cwerner & Metcalfe, 2003;Roster et al., 2016;Smith & Ekerdt, 2011). Over the last 60 years there has been a well-documented increase in the acquisition of material possessions (Carr et al., 2012;Hand, Shove & Southerton, 2007;Schor, 1998). ...
Space for living in new build houses in the UK is at premium and households have more stuff than ever before. The way this stuff is accommodated in dwellings can significantly affect residents’ quality of life and well-being. This paper presents a new conceptualisation of material possessions that could be of use to those involved in housing design. Three universal characteristics of material possessions; value, temporality and visibility are used to identify the space in the home that possessions might require. A conceptual framework that integrates these characteristics with spatial information about the interior of the home is developed. The paper argues that the conceptual framework could help designers, policymakers and house builders to better understand first the nature of material possessions, and second how those possessions could be accommodated in contemporary homes, ultimately supporting improved quality of life and wellbeing for households.
... One of the main trends of research in this field is attempting to gain a categorical grasp of environmental features that cause residential satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction, mainly through quantitative investigations. These quantitative studies have played valuable roles in elucidating the tendency to evaluate based on concrete and objective characteristics such as living space (both interior and exterior), design, rent, price, and so on (e.g., Amole, 2009;Bonaiuto, et al., 1999;Campagna, 2016;Jansen, 2014;Honold, et al., 2012;Mueller, 1981;Roster, et al., 2016Sixsmith, 1986. In contrast, qualitative research "explores what it assumes to be a socially constructed dynamic reality through a framework which is value-laden, flexible, descriptive, holistic, and context sensitive...From a qualitative perspective, reality or knowledge are socially and psychologically constructed" (Yilmaz, 2013, p. 312). ...
Studying how residents perceive the residential environment and live their lives by compromise with residence leads to understand their recognition and coping with the world itself. The present study adopted qualitative method to reconsider such a wide, complex, and multi-layered phenomenon of the residential environment recognition. In-depth interviews were held with 16 Japanese participants. The subjects were mainly asked about impressions and evaluations of their present residential environments, centering on his/her house. The Modified Grounded Theory Approach (M-GTA) was utilized for analyzing data because it enables researcher to reveal clearly the common structures among cases. Through the analysis with M-GTA, 23 concepts were extracted, and from these concepts a common structure was identified as: one core category "Recognition and Evaluation of Residential Environment" fulfills a problem discovery function, and one category "Coping with Environment" plays a problem solving role, and another core category "View of Residential Life" leads to comprehensive grasp of circumstances and adjusts other two categories to function effectively. Furthermore, the significance and the limitation of this research were also discussed.
... It means singleness of purpose, sincerity and honesty within, as well as avoidance of exterior clutter, of many possessions irrelevant to the chief purpose of life" (1936, p. 5-6). The findings are reflected in research regarding the negative impact of cluttered homes on subjective wellbeing (Roster et al. 2016), decreased performance and increased stress as a result of the attentional effects of clutter (McMains and Kastner 2011), and a link between clutter and high levels of the stress hormone, cortisol (Arnold et al. 2012). These findings also align with research indicating that cluttered homes and classrooms may be detrimental to attention, cognition, and learning (Fisher et al. 2014;Hanley et al. 2017;Tomalski et al. 2017). ...
Minimalism is an increasingly popular low-consumption lifestyle whereby people deliberately live with fewer possessions. Proponents of minimalism claim the lifestyle offers a myriad of wellbeing benefits, including happiness, life satisfaction, meaning, and improved personal relationships, however, to date there has been no scientific study examining these claims. The current study aims to take a step towards rectifying this, by exploring the experiences of people living a minimalistic lifestyle. Ten people who identify as minimalists participated in semi-structured interviews to discuss their experience of minimalism and wellbeing. The data was collected and analysed using grounded theory methods. All participants reported that minimalism provided various wellbeing benefits. Five key themes were identified in the study: autonomy, competence, mental space, awareness, and positive emotions. Findings align with previous research examining voluntary simplicity, pro-ecological behaviours, and materialism, and offer new insights into the benefits of low-consumption lifestyles. The results have multidisciplinary implications, from positive psychology to education, business, marketing, economics, conservation and sustainability, with the potential to impact future research, policy, and practice.
... For households that moved to temporarily live in the houses of other kinship-related householdssome for as long as the entire 12 months of data collectionclutter also impacted on how people experienced home. Roster et al., (2016) define clutter as an overabundance of material possessions that collectively create disorderly and chaotic home environments. During the temporary living arrangements described above, the volume of possessions become excessive. ...
There are many strategies and models that attempt to measure the impacts and losses from environmental crises. However, there remains a conceptual and methodological bias as assessments provide estimates of tangible and quantifiable indicators, whilst impact to intangible resources that are not easily quantifiable remain a significant oversight in disaster studies more specifically, and sustainability research more broadly. In this paper we use in-depth longitudinal qualitative data to theoretically and empirically demonstrate how intangible resources shape people's experience of so-called "natural" disasters. Building on this, we critically unpack how intangible resources facilitate household disaster recovery. We focus on home-an intangible resource-in order to explore these issues. The case study in Puerto Rico shows that the social characteristics of home are challenged, transformed, and/or exacerbated in different ways, and at different times, in post-disaster contexts. Our longitudinal approach reveals how people's feelings of belonging and attachment, alienation and detachment from home, fluctuate over time. In this way, the paper sheds light on how intangible resources are experienced temporally and spatially. The paper also reveals that the performance of actors such as the State and Non-governmental organisations significantly shape how intangible resources such as home are transformed, and households' agency to maintain and recover such intangibles in post-disaster contexts. The analysis directly challenges the skewed and reductive hierarchies of what counts as a disaster loss. This is an innately political endeavour because it aims to develop strategic decision-making, from preparedness to recovery, that is sustainable for affected populations. Introduction:
... и дружесТВенносТи дома О браз дома имеет многослойную структуру и оказывает воздействие на разные уровни индивидуальности и бытия человека -на поведенческие привычки, настроение, общение и личность в целом. Во многих исследованиях убедительно показано, что домашняя среда представляет собой важный фактор психологического благополучия в разных его проявлениях и что таким образом дом способствует хорошей адаптации человека (Case, 1996;Roster, Ferrari, Jurkat, 2016). Однако, несмотря на косвенные культурологические свидетельства «облагораживающей» функции дома, до сих пор было получено очень немного психологических данных о его развивающих личность возможностях, в частности о том, имеется ли, и если да, то каков вклад средовых характеристик в гуманное мировоззрение человека и его отношение к другим людям. ...
В монографии продолжается обсуждение темы взаимодействия человека с его домом – почему дом и его обитатели похожи друг на друга и что это им дает? В серии эмпирических исследований показано, какие стратегии совладания с трудными ситуациями усиливаются, если дом дружествен обитателям; как его качества сопряжены с моральными мотивами, отношением к справедливости и переживанием благодарности; как влияют друг на друга уютный дом и семейная атмосфера; каким видится дом извне и что мотивирует обитателей его покидать; наконец, как актуализируется поддержка домашней среды в трудных жизненных ситуациях усыновления ребенка, развода, умирания. Книга написана ясным, живым языком, снабжена большим количеством иллюстраций и глоссарием.
Издание может быть рекомендовано специалистам в области психологии личности, семейной и прикладной психологии, антропологии, культурологии, дизайна и архитектуры, студентам, изучающим психологию,
и широкому кругу читателей.
... In addition, if home is seen as a place where meaningful and purposeful activities can occur [41] and personal possessions within this space provide a sense of self-identity [40], Belk et al. [21] report that psychological wellbeing is enhanced. Thus, whilst Manzo [42] and Roster et al. [43] report that there is an adverse impact on the psychological health of the person who hoards because of excess items cluttering the home, there is an argument that these collected items create a therapeutic refuge within the home [44] and enable the individual to use objects in purposeful and meaningful activities [45]. ...
Hoarding is often described as a medical disorder, defined by a persistent difficulty in discarding possessions and associated high levels of emotional distress when forced to part with these. This article will discuss how having a different view of hoarding, seeing hoarding as a daily occupation which provides value, purpose, and meaning and with a relationship to self-identity and life purpose, could offer alternate interventions to support an individual who hoards. The article will consider the components of hoarding activity and how these relate to health and wellbeing and doing, being, belonging, and becoming as understood by occupational therapists. The article will consider what occupational therapy, a profession which considers a person’s daily occupations, the things that occupy their time and which give meaning to their existence, could offer as an alternative to current hoarding interventions. Proposals for occupational therapy interventions will be suggested which would support occupational choice, support engagement in activities which have more positive outcomes on a person’s health, and seek to address barriers which limit engagement and occupational performance in activities within the person’s home environment.
... Roster, Ferrari & Jurkat (2016) The dark side of home: Assessing possession 'clutter'on subjective well- being. (2010) realizaram um estudo piloto a fim de investigar o efeito da aplicação da atividade hortícola sobre o estresse, desempenho no trabalho e qualidade de vida em pessoas com doença psiquiátrica em uma comunidade chinesa. ...
Ao almejar compreender a aplicação da psicologia ambiental na esfera da saúde se propõe contemplar as relações que as pessoas estabelecem com os lugares que habitam. Objetiva-se, portanto, revisar sistematicamente a literatura a fim de examinar os conceitos de ambiente restaurador, significado ambiental e identidade social urbana em relação com contextos de saúde. Essa tríade contempla a interação do sujeito com os espaços, enfatizando, sobretudo, a busca pelo bem-estar. Para tanto, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática da literatura nas bases de dados BVS-PSI, Scielo, Lilacs, Pepsic. Além disso, contemplou-se as bases de dados internacionais que dão acesso às principais revistas da Psicologia Ambiental, sendo elas: Science Direct e Sage Journals. Resultaram vinte sete estudos, analisados e subdivididos em três categorias estruturadas de modo a contemplar as diferenças temáticas, teóricas e metodológicas. Embora tenham delimitações distintas, os artigos examinados se comunicam entre si por meio da perspectiva comum de investir na busca de estratégias de melhoria da saúde e promoção de saúde considerando a relação com o ambiente. Desse modo, espera-se que os achados científicos ofereçam indicadores e subsídios no que condiz à avaliação e estruturação de ações e planejamentos ambientais em contextos de atenção à saúde.
E‐waste, the overabundance of unused technology products, is a growing issue as new technology is rapidly innovated and our society promotes the need to always have the “latest and greatest” products. Community psychology, as a field, is concerned with the global climate crisis, and subsequently must be concerned with e‐waste. This study tested predictors of individual's likelihood to recycle e‐waste with 883 US adults (459 males, 420 females, 3 other/nonbinary; 62.7% 54‐year‐old or younger) through a crowdsourcing procedure. Similar to previous recycling literature, the present study found that personal norms, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control positively predicted the likelihood for an individual to recycle; however, the present study provides further empirical evidence for these relationships and expands recycling literature by focusing on e‐waste recycling. Implications for the field of community psychology with preventive and interventive actions are detailed.
This paper investigates consumer upcycling behavior, a consumer-determined Circular Economy (CE) practice. Consumer upcycling involves transforming or repurposing unwanted object(s) to an object which has equal or higher value than the current value of its component(s). Although it is one of the most beneficial practices for environmental sustainability, more so than other practices such as recycling, and it constitutes a concrete exemplar of how consumers can participate in the Circular Economy, literature on consumer upcycling is rather underdeveloped. Performing inductive content analysis on in-depth interviews of 34 consumers mainly from China, this paper develops a holistic framework representing the internal motivations and consequences of consumer upcycling. Specifically, three distinct dimensions of internal motivations for consumer upcycling are identified: core-self oriented, social-self oriented, and object-self oriented motivations. Further, consequences of consumer upcycling at three levels (social, environmental, and economic) are identified. We find that consumer upcycling may spur other consumer-focused pro-environmental behaviors (i.e., spillover effect) and engender positive attitude and behavior toward purchasing of upcycled products (i.e., switchover effect). All in all, this research contributes to the CE literature by providing insight on how consumers could take initiative to enable the Circular Economy.
It is widely accepted that certain domains of knowledge are better made accessible to students by a complex set of strategies comprehensively known as 'designerly way of knowing'. This 'way of knowing', which is appreciated as essential to (good) design, is developed within the framework of the design process, the copying and reusing of existing forms, and the making of artefacts. The distant teaching applied during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown could only partly substitute for the in-person guidance provided to students in normal design studios. While the transfer of explicit aspects of knowledge, such as constant critical evaluation and reflection on the various stages of the design, could more-or-less be kept to the in-person tutoring, the transfer of implicit aspects of knowledge based on bodily involvement probably suffered considerably. The latter is involved in both the reactions to the modified design presented by students each week, and in the new modifications proposed by the tutor, or the critique realised by means of exploratory sketches meant to show the weaknesses or suggest ameliorations to the design presented. But, there is an upside, too. Students open up their personal space; the instructor can make adjustments to their tutoring on the basis of information they normally don't have access to.
The country where persons migrate may involve essential aspects for successful settlement and integration. Perceptions of home encompass more than spatial location and may include a sense of belonging, intimacy, and security, which contribute to one’s well-being. Psychological home refers to a feeling of belonging to others, with or without maintaining a specific environmental context; it is a dynamic process, reflective of self-identity. The present scoping review used the PRISMA methodology to evaluate the literature concerning migrants’ psychological perception of their home environment in their country of arrival. Data were drawn from 28 studies and identified characteristics (design, purpose, and main findings) derived from migrants’ psychological perception of home. Results highlighted elements referring to cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, according to a psychological home model. Moving forward, main themes identified that should be explored further and might include migration and acculturation processes; family and community relationships; the material characteristics and symbolic meanings of spaces and objects; and the psychological characteristics of migrants.
Inhabitants of UK housing have more possessions than ever, whilst space for living in standardised houses is at a premium. The acquisition of material possessions, and how it affects both space and inhabitants’ wellbeing, has not previously been considered in architectural practice or housing policy research fields. This paper addresses this gap, by exploring how practising architects design for the storage of material possessions in housing. For the first time, it places storage practices at the centre of housing design thinking, by engaging practising architects in a design intervention to explore original design solutions that support inhabitants’ lives and lifestyles, and therefore their wellbeing. The study uses a new storage-focused conceptual design framework to seek design knowledge, to better understand how storage practices could be considered when designing. The findings have implications for design practice research, providing an account of how architects consider storage in housing design, drawing on novel design intervention methods.
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased workload demands for many NHS staff including those working in the community. Nurse managers can make a difference by being authentic leaders, nurturing a supportive organisation where the workload is managed participatively and self-kindness is legitimate. Unfortunately some staff may experience burnout and this article presents a personal management plan to address the symptoms of burnout and aid recovery, although it cannot promote a total recovery if the cause of the symptoms remains unaddressed.
Milton Friedman once argued that the free market system has been the most effective economic system in lifting millions out of poverty and that greed is a key component of that system. While greed has been almost universally condemned throughout major world religions, economists such as Friedman, have argued that there are some benefits to greed in free market economies. In this chapter, I explore the positive case for greed in a market economy argued by John Meadowcroft. Ultimately, I argue that while there are benefits to society derived from individuals pursuing their self-interest, in contrast, the effects of greed on society are harmful. I then suggest solutions on how society can help shape the character of its citizens through education in the arts and positive psychology in an effort to curb the excesses of greed.
Although an overabundance of possessions—called “clutter”—is both pervasive and maladaptive, understanding how possessions can accumulate remains understudied. In the present research, we suggest that our prior interactions with possessions—namely, a prior decision to forgo consumption—can reduce future usage intentions. Six studies demonstrate that forgoing using an item can make it seem more special, particularly when forgoing is attributed to waiting for a later occasion. As specialness increases, the item is restricted from future usage: it becomes less likely to be used in ordinary occasions and more likely to be reserved for a narrower set of extraordinary occasions. By transforming ordinary items into (perceived) treasures, we suggest that nonconsumption can encourage consumers to retain possessions indefinitely, waiting for future usage occasions that may never arise—ultimately, fueling the accumulation of clutter. These findings extend work on nonconsumption and special possessions and illuminate a novel driver of clutter. © 2021 the Association for Consumer Research. All rights reserved.
Coming to Minnesota in the 1990s to escape a devastating civil war, our Somali interviewees found themselves among the group with the highest poverty rate and living in rental units that had little resemblance to the homes they left behind. Units were too small for children and extended family; separated kitchen spaces enabled women to cook unveiled but made child supervision difficult; lack of places for children to play outdoors stressed mothers; and bathroom sinks did not lend themselves to washing prior to praying. Supporting well-being were rooms deodorized with unsi; walls adorned with Somali handicrafts and excerpts from the Quran; windows that recreated a familiar aesthetic; floors that served as the site for eating; and beds that transformed into libraries, communicating to children how the quest for knowledge can be a catalyst for success.
Of recent interest in consumer behavior research is the consumer's use of owned possessions to develop and maintain self-concept. This study presents a measure of a central concept in this area–attachment. A conceptual definition of the construct is proposed and is related to social-cognitive theories of the self. The role of attachment in the relationship between people and possessions is discussed. Evidence is presented for the reliability and predictive validity of a simple measure of attachment and for the discriminant validity of the construct. Relationships between attachment and other important consumer behavior constructs are explored. © 1992, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.. All rights reserved.
While place attachment has received some recent attention in social science literature, such attention reveals the narrow partitions that have been employed in seeking to understand our bonds to the material environment. For bonds to place share much of the same phenomenology as bonds to our children, a favorite sweater, our cars, a pet, the family photograph album, and our own bodies. What such attachments have in common is their importance, for better or worse, in defining the self in a contemporary consumer culture. This linkage was clearly articulated by William James (1890):
Our fame, our children, the works of our hands, may be as dear to us as our bodies are, and arouse the same feelings and the same acts of reprisal if attacked. ... a man’s Self is the sum total of all that he CAN call his, not only his body and his psychic powers, but his clothes, and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his lands, and yacht and bank-account. All these things give him the same emotions. If they wax and prosper, he feels triumphant; if they dwindle and die away, he feels cast down. (p. 291).
This paper examines the role of place and identity processes using Breakwell's model as a framework. This model suggests that there are four principles of identity which guide action: continuity, self-esteem, self-efficacy and distinctiveness. These principles are examined here in relation to attachment to a residential environment. It focuses on residents living in an area of the London Docklands, chosen because of the social, environmental and economic change in that area. It was hypothesized that attached respondents would discuss their relationship with the local environment in ways which supported or developed the identity principles whereas nonattached residents would not consider the local environment in this way. Twenty in-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out on a sample of residents from Rotherhithe in the London Docklands. The interviews were transcribed and content analysed. Results showed that there were differences between the attached and nonattached respondents in their discussion of their local environment. In addition, there were differences within the nonattached group such that some residents were not attached and neutral with regards to their residential environment, whereas others were not attached but had a negative evaluation of their residential environment. These results are discussed within the identity process model framework.
Of recent interest in consumer behavior research is the consumer's use of owned possessions to develop and maintain self-concept. This study presents a measure of a central concept in this area–attachment. A conceptual definition of the construct is proposed and is related to social-cognitive theories of the self. The role of attachment in the relationship between people and possessions is discussed. Evidence is presented for the reliability and predictive validity of a simple measure of attachment and for the discriminant validity of the construct. Relationships between attachment and other important consumer behavior constructs are explored.
Although it is understood that the home constitutes one of the ways that individuals articulate a sense of self-identity, housing researchers have largely focussed on the symbolic meaning of home. In our paper, we seek to extend the field of housing studies by exploring the relational effects of the home. Our two key arguments are: first; that objects have effects that are independent of our awareness of them and second; the formation of self is constituted in relation to the material world rather than through a separated interiority. We begin our paper with a number of observations about research on the home and the ways that sociologists and anthropologists have viewed the significance of material objects. In the main part of our paper, we draw upon Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time to illustrate our arguments. In the conclusion, we consider how Proust’s novel might be used as a resource for a more extensive ‘relational’ housing research agenda.
Accumulation of possessions is a common phenomenon in an affluent society such as the United States. People increasingly share a common ideology that more is better, thus legitimizing acquiring ever more stuff. The dramatic accumulation of possessions and the limitation of organization skills among individuals create frustration and panic in managing time and space, resulting in home clutter and chaos. In this study, we collaborated with a professional organizer in order to explore how such organizers interact with their clients and implement their three-stage organizing system - "See it, Map it, Do it" in helping their clients in a process that moves from identifying to solving the problem of clutter and disorganization in their homes. We use a video ethnographic approach and draw on depth interviews with professional organizers and their past and current clients as well as observations in informants' homes. The research was conducted in order to visualize the issues in disorganization and frustrations of home clutter and chaos as well as the methods and results of the organizers. The meanings of clutter were explored by studying the life stories of our informants and observing the services in our informants' home. Finally, the deep meanings of clutter and the notion of dirty as well as the attachment of possessions are explored.
Though “dwelling” is more commonly associated with Heidegger’s philosophy than with that of Merleau-Ponty, “being-at-home”
is in fact integral to Merleau-Ponty’s thinking. I consider the notion of home as it relates to Merleau-Ponty’s more familiar
notions of the “lived body” and the “level,” and, in particular, I consider how the unique intertwining of activity and passivity
that characterizes our being-at-home is essential to our nature as free beings. I argue that while being-at-home is essentially
an experience of passivity—i.e., one that rests in the background of our experience and provides a support and structure for
our life that goes largely unnoticed and that is significantly beyond our “conscious” control—being-at-home is also a way
of being to which we attain. This analysis of home reveals important psychological insights into the nature of our freedom as well as into the nature
of the development of our adult ways of coping and behaving.
Research on place attachment has provided insight on the diversity of meanings humans associate with the physical environment. We provide further insight on the nature of human–place bonding by examining place attachment's effect on respondents’ perceptions of social and environmental conditions along the Appalachian Trail (AT) in the United States. Using a social judgment framework, our results indicated that the two dimensions of place attachment, place identity and place dependence, had opposing effects on the condition domains. For all condition domains, as respondents’ scores on the place identity dimension increased, they were more inclined to perceive the condition encountered as problematic. The opposite pattern of relations was observed for place dependence. These results indicate that the two dimensions of place attachment, while moderately and positively correlated, examine different sources of meaning for AT hikers.
The statistical tests used in the analysis of structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error are examined. A drawback of the commonly applied chi square test, in addition to the known problems related to sample size and power, is that it may indicate an increasing correspondence between the hypothesized model and the observed data as both the measurement properties and the relationship between constructs decline. Further, and contrary to common assertion, the risk of making a Type II error can be substantial even when the sample size is large. Moreover, the present testing methods are unable to assess a model's explanatory power. To overcome these problems, the authors develop and apply a testing system based on measures of shared variance within the structural model, measurement model, and overall model.
In this article, we provide guidance for substantive researchers on the use of structural equation modeling in practice for theory testing and development. We present a comprehensive, two-step modeling approach that employs a series of nested models and sequential chi-square difference tests. We discuss the comparative advantages of this approach over a one-step approach. Considerations in specification, assessment of fit, and respecification of measurement models using confirmatory factor analysis are reviewed. As background to the two-step approach, the distinction between exploratory and confirmatory analysis, the distinction between complementary approaches for theory testing versus predictive application, and some developments in estimation methods also are discussed.
There is a long history of cultural assumptions regarding children’s special affinity or bond for certain places, much of it antedating modern psychology. Within psychology, the subject is more ambiguous. The term attachment evokes a long history of theory and research that has measured the degree to which young children seek to keep a primary caretaker in sight and hearing, showing distress at separation and joy at reunion not merely for the sake of the satisfaction of physical needs but for the value of her presence (Maccoby & Masters, 1970; Sears, 1972). Much of this work has been inspired by the psychoanalytic theory of object relations. A naive reader might suppose that this literature explores people’s relations with objects—with things—which must involve things in their places; but a reader schooled in psychological jargon knows that in this case “object” almost invariably means “mother.” Yet the confusion is not merely naive, as object relations theorists have usually assumed that a child’s feelings for places and things develop as an extension of its relations with its mother. As a result, it has not been clear whether place attachments should be considered merely secondary effects of social attachments, or whether they have an independent existence.
This article reports the development and validation of a scale to measure global life satisfaction, the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Among the various components of subjective well-being, the SWLS is narrowly focused to assess global life satisfaction and does not tap related constructs such as positive affect or loneliness. The SWLS is shown to have favorable psychometric properties, including high internal consistency and high temporal reliability. Scores on the SWLS correlate moderately to highly with other measures of subjective well-being, and correlate predictably with specific personality characteristics. It is noted that the SWLS is suited for use with different age groups, and other potential uses of the scale are discussed.
Compulsive hoarding is a serious problem for consumers, their families, and the communities in which they live. Consumers naturally form attachments to their possessions. However, at the extreme end of the attachment spectrum, these attachments can undermine a consumer's well-being. This study describes attachment styles exhibited by consumers who sought help from trained professional organizers (POs) to help them achieve their de-cluttering goals. Narrative case descriptions were compiled from 28 trained POs across the United States using an Internet survey with mostly open-ended questions. Interpretive analysis demonstrates how POs craft strategies to help clients let go of meaningful goods by considering the client's unique attachment profile and the temporal relevance of possessions to self. This study illustrates how POs help consumers improve their well-being by unraveling possession attachments that threaten consumers' quality of life.
In this article, we provide guidance for substantive researchers on the use of structural equation modeling in practice for theory testing and development. We present a comprehensive, two-step modeling approach that employs a series of nested models and sequential chi-square difference tests. We discuss the comparative advantages of this approach over a one-step approach. Considerations in specification, assessment of fit, and respecification of measurement models using confirmatory factor analysis are reviewed. As background to the two-step approach, the distinction between exploratory and confirmatory analysis, the distinction between complementary approaches for theory testing versus predictive application, and some developments in estimation methods also are discussed.
The extent to which a possession is linked to self is a critical determinant of whether a possession elicits grief if lost. We propose a framework for understanding the formation of the possession–self link, arguing that a possession's ability to represent the important domains on which a person bases her self-worth affects the possession–self link. We also show that dispositional tendencies to incorporate possessions into the self moderate this relationship, while the monetary value of the possession does not affect the strength of the possession–self link.
This paper reviews research in place attachment and organizes the material into three sections: research, method, and theory. A review of several hundred empirical and theoretical papers and chapters reveals that despite mobility and globalization processes, place continues to be an object of strong attachments. The main message of the paper is that of the three components of the tripartite model of place attachment (Scannell & Gifford, 2010a), the Person component has attracted disproportionately more attention than the Place and Process components, and that this emphasis on individual differences probably has inhibited the development of a theory of place attachment. Suggestions are offered for theoretical sources that might help to fill the gaps, including theories of social capital, environmental aesthetics, phenomenological laws of order, attachment, and meaning-making processes that stem from movements and time-space routines.
The statistical tests used in the analysis of structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error are examined. A drawback of the commonly applied chi square test, in addition to the known problems related to sample size and power, is that it may indicate an increasing correspondence between the hypothesized model and the observed data as both the measurement properties and the relationship between constructs decline. Further, and contrary to common assertion, the risk of making a Type II error can be substantial even when the sample size is large. Moreover, the present testing methods are unable to assess a model's explanatory power. To overcome these problems, the authors develop and apply a testing system based on measures of shared variance within the structural model, measurement model, and overall model.
Doron and Kyrios (2005) have suggested that self-related constructs may be vulnerability factors for the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and associated cognitions, possibly including compulsive buying, hoarding, and materialism. The present study examined the relationship between self-related constructs (self-ambivalence and attachment uncertainty), compulsive acquisition, hoarding, and materialism. As predicted, self-ambivalence and uncertainty were correlated with materialism, compulsive hoarding, and compulsive buying, while compulsive acquisition of free things was correlated with uncertainty. Furthermore, self-ambivalence accounted for significant variance in all three possession-related variables even after controlling for depression and indecisiveness. Uncertainty accounted for significant variance in the compulsive acquisition of free things. Materialism exhibited high to moderate correlations with compulsive buying but low to moderate correlations with compulsive hoarding and no association with free acquisition. Lack of family warmth failed to correlate with acquisition variables but did correlate with depression. Overall, the findings supported the contribution of self-ambivalence and attachment patterns but not early family environment to the understanding of compulsive acquisition, particularly hoarding and buying problems.
Discusses the magical status possessions acquire when they transcend ordinary utilitarian status and suggests some concepts behind this phenomenon. Categories of special possessions include (1) parts of self (cosmetics, jewelry, clothing); (2) extensions of self (home, vehicle, pets); (3) objects of magic, science, and religion (icons, talismans, drugs); (4) memory laden objects (gifts, heirlooms); and (5) rare and mysterious possessions (treasure, relics of famous people). Tests for nonrational relations with objects are outlined. An eclectic set of concepts is presented to sketch theoretical perspectives that account for the mysteries of possessions. The concepts presented include fetishism, singularity and sacredness, self extension, and meaning displacement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Theorized that place-identity is a cluster of positively and negatively valenced cognitions of physical settings. The substantive and valuative natures of these cognitions help to define who and of what value the individual is both to him/herself and in terms of how he/she thinks others view him/her. Three factors are seen as underlying the influence of physical settings on the development of place-identity in the individual: the physical settings of the home, school, and neighborhood. It is in the home, school, and neighborhood settings that the child learns some of his/her most significant social roles (e.g., sex, peer-group membership, ethnic group membership). (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Reviews the literature on the meaning of "home" published between 1974 and 1989 in disciplines investigating person–environment relationships. The meaning of home has been defined mostly for traditional households living in single-family detached houses, although there is growing concern among recent studies about nontraditional populations and settings. The role of material aspects of housing and of societal forces in the production and reproduction of the meaning of home has been neglected in the literature. Exemplary studies from other areas of housing research that emphasize these macrosocietal forces are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
House as a Mirror of Self presents a unique examination of the relationship between ourselves and where we live, interwoven with compelling personal stories of searching for a place for the soul. It is not about architecture, or decorating styles, or real estate, but about the more subtle bonds of feeling we experience with dwellings past and present. At the base of this book is a very simple, yet frequently overlooked premise--as we change and grow throughout our lives, our psychological development is punctuated by close affective ties with significant physical environments. Marcus explores how self-image is reflected in our homes; power struggles in making a home together with a partner; territory, control, and privacy at home; self-image and location; disruptions in the bonding with home; and beyond the "house as ego" to the call of the soul. Before you make your next life-changing move or home improvement, use this book to take a look inside yourself and find living space that truly makes room for your soul. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
OBJECTIVE: An exploratory study was undertaken to examine the role of personal possessions in older people's attachment to place.
RESEARCH DESIGN: A qualitative research strategy was selected to gather descriptive data and to capture meanings of personal experience (Rowles and Reinharz, 1988). Over a ten-month period, multiple, in-depth interviews were conducted with a small sample of volunteer subjects in their homes.
ANALYSIS: A phenomenological method of analysis based on procedures outlined by Giorgi (1985) was followed.
KEY FINDINGS: A complex pattern of attachment to possessions was revealed through discovery of two interpretive themes, connection/extension and continuity/discontinuity, that provide deeper understanding of the person-place phenomenon as experienced by the older person.
CONCLUSION: The study validates and extends other studies showing relationships between personal possessions and identity of older people. Attachment of a sense of self to micro-elements of the physical environment has crucial implications for place-making in the older person's residential setting.
This paper provides the first report of an intensive empirical study of social relations of unemployment on a Glasgow housing estate. Its sample is divided into two equal, age-based categories corresponding to families where the male ‘head of household’ is over 25 and has a previous record of regular work, and those under 25 where such experience is absent. The paper identifies and examines a domestic and work-linked cycle which has been disrupted by unemployment. On this basis we then consider the differential adaptation to unemployment of the two groups; differences in their gender relations and differences in the forms and degrees of their reliance on kin and other support. We finally and tentatively propose some connections between unemployment and domestic conflict.
Readers who want a less mathematical alternative to the EQS manual will find exactly what they're looking for in this practical text. Written specifically for those with little to no knowledge of structural equation modeling (SEM) or EQS, the author's goal is to provide a non-mathematical introduction to the basic concepts of SEM by applying these principles to EQS, Version 6.1. The book clearly demonstrates a wide variety of SEM/EQS applications that include confirmatory factor analytic and full latent variable models.
This article examines the adequacy of the “rules of thumb” conventional cutoff criteria and several new alternatives for various fit indexes used to evaluate model fit in practice. Using a 2‐index presentation strategy, which includes using the maximum likelihood (ML)‐based standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) and supplementing it with either Tucker‐Lewis Index (TLI), Bollen's (1989) Fit Index (BL89), Relative Noncentrality Index (RNI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Gamma Hat, McDonald's Centrality Index (Mc), or root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA), various combinations of cutoff values from selected ranges of cutoff criteria for the ML‐based SRMR and a given supplemental fit index were used to calculate rejection rates for various types of true‐population and misspecified models; that is, models with misspecified factor covariance(s) and models with misspecified factor loading(s). The results suggest that, for the ML method, a cutoff value close to .95 for TLI, BL89, CFI, RNI, and Gamma Hat; a cutoff value close to .90 for Mc; a cutoff value close to .08 for SRMR; and a cutoff value close to .06 for RMSEA are needed before we can conclude that there is a relatively good fit between the hypothesized model and the observed data. Furthermore, the 2‐index presentation strategy is required to reject reasonable proportions of various types of true‐population and misspecified models. Finally, using the proposed cutoff criteria, the ML‐based TLI, Mc, and RMSEA tend to overreject true‐population models at small sample size and thus are less preferable when sample size is small.
In recent years there has been a proliferation of writing on the meaning of home within the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, psychology, human geography, history, architecture and philosophy. Although many researchers now understand home as a multidimensional concept and acknowledge the presence of and need for multidisciplinary research in the field, there has been little sustained reflection and critique of the multidisciplinary field of home research and the diverse, even contradictory meanings of this term. This paper brings together and examines the dominant and recurring ideas about home represented in the relevant theoretical and empirical literature. It raises the question whether or not home is (a) place(s), (a) space(s), feeling(s), practices, and/or an active state of state of being in the world? Home is variously described in the literature as conflated with or related to house, family, haven, self, gender, and journeying. Many authors also consider notions of being-at-home, creating or making home and the ideal home. In an effort to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations about the meaning and experience of home each of these themes are briefly considered in this critical literature review.
Hoarding of possessions is thought to be influenced by deficits in information processing, emotional attachments, and erroneous beliefs about possessions. This study examined hypothesized beliefs about possessions using an instrument developed for this purpose, the Saving Cognitions Inventory (SCI). Participants were individuals with compulsive hoarding (n = 95), obsessive compulsive disorder without hoarding (n = 21), and community controls (n = 40). An exploratory factor analysis yielded 4 factors similar to those hypothesized, representing emotional attachment, concerns about memory, control over possessions, and responsibility toward possessions. Subscales created based on these factors were internally consistent, and showed known groups, convergent and discriminant validity. Regression analyses indicated that 3 of the 4 subscales (memory, control, and responsibility) significantly predicted hoarding severity after age, moodstate, OCD symptoms and other OCD-related cognitive variables were entered. Interestingly, difficulty with decision-making also proved to be an important predictor of hoarding behavior. Implications for understanding and treating hoarding are discussed and study limitations are noted.
Few instruments are available to assess compulsive hoarding and severity of clutter. Accuracy of assessment is important to
understanding the clinical significance of the problem. To overcome problems associated with over- and under-reporting of
hoarding symptoms, the clutter image rating (CIR) was developed. This pictorial scale contains nine equidistant photographs
of severity of clutter representing each of three main rooms of most people’s homes: living room, kitchen, and bedroom. The
psychometric properties of this measure were examined in two studies. Internal consistency, test–retest, and interobserver
reliabilities were good and convergent validity with other questionnaire and interview measures was also good. The CIR correlated
more strongly with measures of clutter than with other hoarding and psychopathology scales. The CIR’s very brief pictorial
assessment method makes it useful in clinical and treatment contexts for measuring the clutter dimension of compulsive hoarding.
This paper suggests an analytical framework for the understanding of what makes places meaningful. In an interview study, respondents were asked to list places they considered important and describe what these places meant to them. The analysis of the interviews indicates that meanings spontaneously attributed to places by the respondents can be mapped around and between the three poles of self, others and environment. In addition, a number of underlying dimensions of meaning emerge: distinction, valuation, continuity and change. The relationship between these results and earlier empirical research is discussed. The paper also points out that, to a great extent, the empirical findings converge with theoretical conceptualizations of place within social science. It therefore argues that the results of empirical studies need not be limited to ‘special places’, but may also, using the suggested analytical framework, contribute to more general empirical and theoretical discussions regarding the roles and meanings of place in contemporary society.
This paper explores the nature of people's emotional relationships to places in order to learn about the kinds of places that are meaningful for people, the role these places play in their lives and the processes by which they develop meaning. Because such relationships have been most commonly explored through positive experiences of the residence, this research was undertaken to explore other dimensions of our relationships to places. To accomplish this, in-depth interviews were conducted with 40 participants in the New York metropolitan area. Qualitative analysis reveals the diversity and richness of people's emotional relationships to places, indicating that place meaning develops from an array of emotions and experiences, both positive and negative. Moreover, findings demonstrate the socio-political underpinnings of our emotional relationships to places, particularly the impact of gender, race, class and sexuality, suggesting a need to further incorporate the full magnitude of the human experience into the current discourse on people–place relationships.
The concept of home has been the focus of three decades of research within environmental psychology. Despite this awareness, there has been a lack of ‘critical or innovative theories and methods’ to examinehome . In recent years, there has been a call for a reappraisal of the concept.Broadly, previous discussions of the concept of home within psychology have tended to focus more on the experiential and personal aspects of home than the social and cultural aspects. Until recently, sociological discussions have tended to ignore the experiential significance ofhome . The aim of this paper is to broaden the current debate on home within environmental psychology by examining key themes in the social science literature on home. It argues that there is a movement away from identifying core sites of meaning, towards a context-sensitive focus on the experience and use of home.