Operationalizing Home with Basic Psychological Need Theory: Creation of the Need-Based Home Scale

Recent authors have made significant advancements to the study of home with basic psychological need theory (BPNT). These authors conceptualize dwellings as structures that satisfy basic physical needs, whereas homes are dwellings that also satisfy basic psychological needs. A significant barrier to this stream of research is the lack of a supported measure of home created from this conceptualization, which prevents accurate and robust quantitative studies on need-based approaches to home. To remove this barrier from the present literature, the current article undergoes a seven-study scale development process to produce the Need-Based Home Scale (NBHS). The NBHS assesses the extent that participants believe that their residence satisfies basic physical and psychological needs, thereby perceiving it as a home. We show that the NBHS produces superb psychometric and validity evidence, as it demonstrates appropriate relations with both similar constructs and alternative operationalizations of home. We also show that the NBHS relates to important antecedents (residence quality) and outcomes (positive affect and life satisfaction). These results indicate that the NBHS is an appropriate operationalization of home stemming from need-based conceptualizations of home. Future research can apply this measure to test whether prior assertions in the study of home are supported when operationalized in this manner, and the NBHS can also be used to test whether broader tenets of BPNT are capable of explaining the dynamics of home. Together, the current article both removes barriers and opens new directions for research in the interdisciplinary study of home.