Attachment

Why and How we attach to a particular place !!!

Place attachment and meaning are particularly relevant when considering issues of urban development and community-building. Attachment and meaning emerge from a variety of experiences and situations, and are often related to parks, green spaces, and natural areas. Attachment may serve to promote and encourage environmentally responsible behavior using appeals to individuals’ self-identity and dependence. 

Why we attach 

1. Place attachment and meaning are the person-to-place bonds that evolve through emotional connection, meaning, and understandings of a specific place and/or features of a place.
2. The attachment and meaning of a  place can encourage individuals to actively protect and engage in pro-environmental behavior.
3. Many people who work on behalf of the environment cite their childhood experiences in nature as the foundations for their work.

How Attachmment Forms

Some localities project a certain indefinable sense of well-being and become places we want to return to, time and again. Other settings, especially dramatic landscapes or locations of intense experiences, cause an almost-immediate, intimate, and emotional association.  Individuals may not even need to see some places first-hand to feel connection or attachment, such as Indian' feeling toward the the Taj Mahal or Tadoba National Park.

Is attachment to place specific or general? From a biological perspective, attachments are likely to form, at least initially, to places exhibiting attractive, calming, or safe features. An individualistic view assumes that attachment forms to specific locations based on first-hand experiences. The sociocultural perspective predicts that attachment forms via the shared cultural ideologies of groups and shared interactions with place. All three perspectives are relevant to a discussion of place. Further, neuroscience research provides evidence that sense of place constitutes a distinct dimension in mental processing.

Emotions

Emotion is central to the formation of place attachment and reinforces relationships between individuals and their environment. Emotional attachment can be particularly difficult to study, yet researchers detect some patterns in emotional response. Adult remembrance of childhood place can invoke intense memories and emotional connection, including feelings of love, grief, pleasure (including play, sensory, mastery, adventure, and freedom), security, and identity.