\"In Japanese language, there is a word “igokochi” which is used to express the

feeling which occurs in a specific place or group, such as uncomfortableness, safety or

comfort. Though the word itself is well heard in daily life, it has been unclear what kind

of concept igokochi is and what it means and represents. The purpose of this study was

to define igokchi and to clarify the elements which influence on people’s igokochi

(igokochi factors). In addition to these points, the study also aimed to develop the

igokochi assessment tool, which could measure the igokochi factors. To achieve these

goals, the study was conducted according to the following steps.

First, the definition of igokokochi was given through literature reviews. In the

second place, potential elements of igokochi factor were extracted from people’s free

descriptions on igokochi, interviews with igokochi experts and literature reviews. These

were then synthesized and classified in 4 groups as categories of igokochi factor:

visceral, behavioral, reflective and social.

For the next step, a questionnaire-based investigation and factor analysis were

conducted in order to extract the dimensions of the igokochi factors. As a result, 16

factors were revealed. On the other hand, the result of cluster analysis and linear

regression analysis with these 16 factors showed that the factors influencing on good

igokochi and bad igokochi seemed different. Thus, the stratified analyses were

conducted for the positive igokochi group as well as for the negative igokochi group. As

a result of the factor analyses, it was found that the factors influencing on people’s good

igokochi had 13 dimensions and that factors influencing on people’s bad igokochi had

14 dimensions. Thirteen-factor structure included “familiar people”, “concern”, “poor

relationship”, “meaningless place”, “beauty and cleanliness of the place”, “can do what

one wants to do”, “strangers”, “noisiness”, “unfamiliarity, stress”, “length of time spent

there”, “likes, favorites”, “relax”, and “concentration, absorption” as factors. Fourteen-

factor structure included “role, contribution”, “easiness of being alone”, “poor

relationship”, “familiar people”, “familiarity, habituation”, “inconvenience of the

setting”, “concern”, “dirtiness”, “noisiness”, “beauty and cleanliness of the place”,

“crowd”, “can be oneself”, “difficult to behave”, and “anxious feeling”.

Finally, an igokochi assessment tool was developed based on the factor structures

extracted in the previous step. In order to validate the dimensions of the developed tool,

a correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between the scores

of igokochi scale dimensions and the factor scores. As a result, strong significant

correlations between the scale’s scores and the factors’ scores were showed. This result

confirmed that the developed scale well represented the extracted dimensions of

igokochi factors. Finally, the effectiveness of the developed scale as an assessment tool

was demonstrated. It is showed that the tool could well evaluate people’s igokochi for

various kinds of places, groups, or situations.\"

Affective Lab -Old-