Episode 17: What is Home, Psychologically?

I’ve spent several years now asking myself a question that I convinced myself was for science. If I’m honest, it’s really been for me.

What is home?

Is it a place? A building? A room? A street? Or is it something that lives entirely in our hearts?

In this episode of The Places We Become, travel psychologist Dr. Katie Blake, PhD explores the psychological concept of home—what the research says on what it is and what it isn’t—and where we can find it. Drawing on environmental psychology and undeniably my own story, this episode highlights the three elements of a place that scientifically define home and why those features are likely not linked to GPS coordinates.

In this episode of The Places We Become, I share:

• The three variables that researchers have defined must be present for one to feel at home: familiarity, continuity, and belonging

• The concept of psychological home and why the feeling of home might not be tied to a place at all but instead something you build

• A personal account of finding home and losing it and how we can psychologically sort through the grief of that loss

• Research on refugees and displaced people who reconstructed home—and what we can learn from that research if we’re searching for home

• The important differences between where you’re from, where you live, and where your psychological home may be found

• Why naming the specific things you miss about home can help you find your way back

If you’ve ever wondered what it is that makes a home a home—or even felt it somewhere out there when traveling, this episode is for you.

Read the companion piece: This episode pairs with an article I wrote called What Is Home? The Psychology of Belonging, Place, and Where We Feel Most Ourselves for The Journal of Travel Psychology. If the episode raised more questions than it answered, which I hope it did, the article goes further into the research and into the story.

Research discussed: Environmental psychology research on place attachment (Setha Low and Irwin Altman, 1992). The concept of psychological home (Sigmon, Whitcomb & Snyder). Research on home reconstruction among displaced populations.

Share Your Story!

What is home to you? Is it a specific place? And, if so, how specific? A city? A block? An address? Or is it something you’ve felt many places in your lifetime? Share your story for a chance to be featured on a future episode of The Places We Become.

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