Investigating Home Effective Attributes in Developing Dweller's Attachment. {Presenting a Causal Process Model}

People communicate with their surrounding environment in different ways. Emotional interaction is one of these ways which can involve positive feelings such as place attachment, belonging to place and so on. On the other hand negative emotional interaction leads to dissatisfaction or sometimes aversion to places which may result in psychological inconveniences. Home is one of the most important places which we interact in our daily lives. Home attachment is defined as positive emotional relationship between home and its dwellers. By creating this relationship, home becomes an anchor for its dwellers. Therefore people feel safe, satisfied and tranquil at their homes.
In its ideal meaning, home involves various contents such as haven, territory, place of privacy, safety and freedom, symbol of social status and so on. Establishing home attachment depends on Presence of some special attributes at home which act as Prerequisites of this relationship. Absence or weakness of these attributes in many contemporary houses has led to dissatisfactory emotional relationships between people and their homes. Therefore people do not feel attached to their homes and it is not easy for them to find peace and calmness there. Continuing this procedure, results in people's separation of their homes which leads to descent of dwelling quality. This research aims to find the factors which raise the positive emotional relationship between people and their homes and therefore is seeking to find the answer to the question that "Among various attributes and meanings of home, which are more important in establishing home attachment?"
In order to answer the above question, a qualitative approach is selected. The method employed is the "causal process" which is a useful method in constructing theories in various aspects of science. After finding concepts which seem linkable in the two subjects (home and place attachment), a logical causal link is made between them in order to construct statements based on these concepts. The causal relationship of concepts in every statement is discoursed through logical argumentation. Making connection between these statements leads to forming processes which link meanings of home to home attachment. Four causal processes are constructed by this method which are combined together in order to make the causal process model of home attachment. This model reveals the aspects and meanings supplement to home which act as Prerequisites of home attachment. Results show that among various attributes of home the followings can cause home attachment and therefore are determinative in establishing this kind of relationship: being home as a haven, as a symbol of social status, as a context for positive emotional relationships and as a context for satisfying human needs. Planning to enrich home of these attributes, will increases the opportunity to create home attachment for its dwellers. This enrichment can be planned in social and physical schemes. Environmental designers and planners are in charge of the physical ones and should create physical solutions to improve these meanings at home. In this case creating homes which ease dweller's attachment is more probable.