Pride and Shame of Place: an exploration and examination of antecedents and consequences

Introduction. In environmental psychology, and more specifically in the research field of people-place bonds, the role of pride and shame of place have received very little attention. This PhD research project aimed to fill the gap in the scientific field regarding the two concepts by exploring and examining them and their antecedents and consequence. Three studies were conducted in order to answer the general research question of this thesis: “What are the antecedents and consequences of pride and shame of place and how do these relate to existing concepts in the study of people-place bonds?”. Methods. The research question was answered through a series of three consecutive studies. At first, a qualitative study was done interviewing a total of 17 residents from Italy and the Netherlands from rural and urban settings. Through thematic analysis both pride and place’s antecedents and consequences were explored and identified. The second study was done within in a small Irish school student sample (n = 24). A one-group pre-experimental study was conducted in which an innovative intervention aiming to promote (authentic) pride of place was tested on its efficacy and some correlations were explored. Lastly, a third study was conducted in which the same intervention was tested using a two-condition experimental design on a larger sample (n = 134) at high schools in Portugal and Italy. The effect of the intervention was measured and an explorative mediation analysis was done in order to assess the direction of interrelatedness of several people-place constructs and their outcomes. The thesis is finalised with a general discussion and reflection on the entire research process. Results. In study 1, from the 17 interviews a total of 64 themes were identified that give a first attempt in creating insight in what these two place-based emotions are, what elements of a place they are based on, how they develop and what possible consequences arise when they are experienced. The 23 themes for the antecedents of pride of place, and the 10 themes for the antecedents of shame of place were categorised according to the tripartite framework of people place-bonds by Scannell & Gifford (2010). For the consequences, 22 themes were identified for the pride of place consequences and 9 themes for shame of place ones. Study 1 lead to inform a quantitative study testing the effect of a place based educational curriculum. Study 2 showed that the scales included in the questionnaire were reliable for the use in the context of studying people-place bonds and for an adolescent population. The correlation analyses showed that the pride scales were correlating with some other variables, as expected. The paired sample t-test results showed that the intervention did not have the expected impact on students. Study 3 showed that all the alternative hypotheses related to the effectiveness of the intervention were rejected. However, 18 mediation models were tested of which four showed to be significant. Authentic pride positively mediates the relationship of place identity, place connectedness and place attachment on individual self-esteem. Shame of place negatively mediates the relationship of place connectedness on individual self-esteem. Conclusion. In general, the PhD study can be called successful as it managed to provide some first data on the antecedents and consequences of pride and shame of place filling the identified gap in state-of-art research. Furthermore, it was explored how these pride and shame of place emotions relate to other place-based constructs. More research is now needed and it is suggested to develop new pride and shame of place measuring instruments, as well as deepening the issue of how to intervene, if possible, on such psychological experiences.