There are a plethora of concepts describing the relationship between people and spatial settings, but
Sense of Place (SOP) is perhaps the most general.
Our research uses an attitude framework to assess
whether SOP encompasses place concepts commonly
addressed in environmental psychology: Attachment, Identity, and Dependence. It is useful to consider sense of place as an attitude towards a spatial
setting especially since the constructs noted above
share strong similarities to the a¡ective, cognitive
and conative components of attitude, respectively.
An attitude approach o¡ers place research a number of bene¢ts: (1) organization of rather disorga-
nized constructs, (2) linkage to established
literature, and (3) established research methods.
Sense of Place has been referred to as an overarching concept which subsumes other concepts describing relationships between human beings and spatial settings (Shamai, 1991). In general, SOP is the meaning attached to a spatial setting by a person or group. Tuan (1979) has provided the most oftcited de¢nition, declaring that a place is a center of
meaning or ¢eld of care that emphasizes human
emotions and relationships. Ryden (1993) added that
`a place . . . is much more than a point in space . . .
but takes in the meanings which people assign to
that landscape through the process of living in it'
(pp. 37^38). Accordingly, SOP is not imbued in the
physical setting itself, but resides in human interpretations of the setting.
For theorists such as Canter (1991) places represent a con£uence of cognitions, emotions and actions organized around human agency. In this
respect, Canter recognized that places could be conceptualized as an integrated system comprising three attitude domains. He further ventured that
developing an understanding of the processes involved in the integration of these domains would
Finally, place dependence is de¢ned by Stokols
and Shumaker (1981, p. 457) as an `occupant's perceived strength of association between him or herself and speci¢c places.' This strength of
association is not necessarily positive, based on Thibaut and Kelly's (1959) comparison level/comparison
level for alternatives model. This process involves a
comparison of the current outcomes to those that
would be obtained by selecting an alternative
course of action. Each option may be negative; the
chosen option may simply be the best among poor
alternatives. Thus, place dependence concerns how
well a setting serves goal achievement given an existing range of alternatives (`how does this setting compare to others for what I like to do?'). Place dependence appears to di¡er from attachment in two ways. First, it can be negative to the extent that a