Constancy and Change in Attachments to Types of Settlements

Abstract

A consideration of both constancy and change in place attachments, focusing particularly on attachments to a type of settlement as a means by which the U.S. public may maintain the continuity of psychological bonds with places across changes of residence. Empirical evidence suggests that people form psychological bonds with types of settlements, expressions of which are similar to those identified in past research as indicative of psychological bonds with the tangible surroundings of the home, and that residential mobility may be best conceptualized as sustaining bonds, temporary dislocations, reunions, and reorientations in bonds with a type of settlement rather than as disruptions in bonding processes.