Adolescents' favourite places and environmental self-regulation

Abstract

The objective of the study was to give credence to the argument that favourite places are used as a means of regulating unpleasant and pleasant feelings, the coherence of self-experience, and self-esteem. High school and vocational school students ( n = 144), 17 and 18 years of age, wrote essays about their favourite place, describing the situational and/or emotional context for seeking out a favourite place and the experiences they had there. The essays that emphasized the importance of the place itself ( n = 19) rather than social experiences or recreational facilities were included in the content analysis. Internal thoughts and feelings, external stimuli and social conflicts that threatened self-esteem and the coherence of self-experience were the reasons given for going to a favourite place. Since these rationales led to experiences emphasizing the avoidance of pain and threats to self, and to the effort to maintain self-esteem and produce coherence to one's self-experience, the interpretation of these experiences as environmental self-regulation is more warranted than previously. However, this observation is still based on retrospective self-reports alone. Positive and supportive experiences also preceded the visit to the favourite place. This suggests hypotheses for future studies; positive experiences may just be prolonged in a favourite place or they may create incoherence in selfexperience, thus necessitating introspection in a favourite place.