My favorite place

I remember when I was studying psychology, about ten years ago or even more, I had a subject called Environmental Psychology. It was about human behavior and its relationship with the environment. As far as I can remember, I think its purpose was mostly to increase productivity in companies and things like that; to find out what places promote teamwork and other skills, like making appropriate decisions or negotiations, and to find out what factors can cause stress in workers. The main factors were noise, light, temperature and the arrangement of the furniture. I believe it wasn’t a very interesting subject; in fact I can barely remember who the teacher was. But what I do remember (more or less) is a study we had to do for the quarter: It was about the people’s favorite places. We had a previous hypothesis that we had to confirm by interviewing a sample of our friends and families.

 When you search for “favorite places” results in “Google” you can see, on the one hand, paradisiacal beaches from the Caribbean to Southeast Asia and lovely landscapes of mountains and lakes, as well as lists of large cities all over the world, and on the other hand places like “my grandparents’ home”, or places related to being with someone you love. What we found in our study is that people’s favorite places are their own homes and bedrooms. It may be surprising at first sight but if we take a look at Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs it is easy to understand.

 At the base of it there are the physiological needs for maintaining homeostasis: breathing, drinking water and eating, sleeping, excreting, or having sex, and maintaining a body temperature which is usually satisfying in one’s home. On the next level of the pyramid there is the need for safety. Where, if not in our own homes, would we feel more secure? In addition, our home is the place we know best and this reduces uncertainty. In the same sense, controlling everything around you makes you feel secure. If we continue climbing this pyramid of human motivation we find the need for love and belonging which usually is supplied by our families and friends at home. And even if we live alone, we often have things at home that remind us that we love and are loved by others. The fourth level, which involves feelings of self-esteem, is fulfilled by the characteristics of our home: where it is located, how big and how comfortable it is, because our home is part of the image we project. At the top of these needs is the feeling of self-realization. When we look at our home, we see what we have achieved in our lives: the careers we have developed, the families we have brought up, and this is how we measure our self-realization.

In conclusion, I might say that we like our homes because they are the places where we can cover all our needs, where we feel secure and loved, where everything reminds us of who we are and who we were and this may be the reason why we feel homesick when we are far away from home, even if we are on one of those gorgeous beaches in the pictures.

Wildcat