Identifying dimensions of place- identity formation in residential neighborhoods based on professional’s perspective using Q factor analysis

Place- identity as one of the main constructs in environmental psychology has a very important role in the cognitive relationship between man and his place of residence, and also enhancing mental health and improving his quality of life. But the lack of agreement of experts and professionals in defining the structure of the concept, and its dimensions has prevented it from a comprehensive understanding. On the other hand, most studies have been conducted in this field by place and its characteristics, while identity is a human and especially a psychological concept. Therefore, achieving the dimensions and factors affecting the formation of place- identity in residential neighborhoods from the perspective of architectural and urban professionals emphasizing on psychological aspects of the concept can be a step towards advancing place-identity research in the field of architecture and urbanism. Also, the findings would help in planning and designing of the residential neighborhoods.

What are the factors affecting the formation of place- identity in residential neighborhoods, from the perspective of architectural and urban professionals? What are the dimensions of place- identity formation in residential neighborhoods, based on the perspectives of architectural and urban professionals?

The study is a kind of the basic research with exploratory nature in terms of goal, and in terms of data collection method, it is placed in the descriptive research category. The research method is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, resulting from the school of multiple operationalism derived from sustainability approach. Therefore, identifying dimensions of place- identity formation in residential neighborhoods from the perspective of architectural and urban professionals has done in four sections; 1- open and deep interviews with professionals to recognize factors affecting the formation of the concept of place- identity; 2- open and axial coding used in Grounded theory research, preparation of content table and the researcher- made questionnaire that revised by experts; 3- Delphi survey that has been implemented in two rounds in order to assess the reliability the questionnaire, and 4- Q factor analysis was performed using SPSS-26 software. Q factor analysis is described as a means of determining dimensions or profiles of people. The statistical population of the research in the first step was 9 architectural and urban professionals, witch first was selected targeted, and then in Delphi survey, there were 25 people who were selected by network sampling method (snowball sampling method), to theoretical saturation.

The results from Q factor analysis and categorizing the factors, show that there are 8 dominant perspectives on the formation of place- identity among professionals that shape the dimensions of the place- identity in residential neighborhoods and are as follows: dimensions of "physical-structural", "psychological", "social- cultural", "functional- activity", "aesthetics", "environmental", "historical" and finally "semantic". The dimensions named by the main concept of the category derived from the questions that the experts emphasized on the main questionnaire. Also, professionals’ perspectives were identified in a range of social psychology with an atomic nature to semantics with a holistic nature.