The affective reactions of housewives to community relocation

Abstract

The affective reactions of two groups of housewives who had recently experienced relocation in a new community (in Australia) were compared. They revealed a pattern which was highly similar for the two groups, although they differed in socioeconomic status, as well as marital, education, vocational, and mental health status. The pattern featured feelings of loneliness and inadequacy and a need for cognitive mastery of the new environment, but also considerable positive feeling. For both groups, the impact of the loss of physical objects during the psychosocial transition was associated with outward-directed aggression, and the loss of personal and social objects was reflected in loneliness and in the expression of less positive feeling. The implications of these findings for community psychology were discussed.