A Behavioural Analysis of the Concepts Used in Housing Choice

Abstract

<p>Research on housing choice at the level of individual decision makers is handicapped by insufficient knowledge of the subjective concepts people use to think about housing. The thesis has one major objective; to clarify the nature of housing concepts, and two secondary objectives; to assess their relative importance and to examine group differences in their use. An inductive, exploratory and multi-operational approach is considered most appropriate and hence, conclusions are expressed are hypotheses. Concepts are defined at two levels of generality on the basis of personal construct elicitation procedures, a 200 item master code, and clustering techniques. Tradeoff<br />analysis is used to consider concept importance; particularly those relating to accessibilities. Multidimensional scaling is used for the analysis of first, the variables which define groups with different choice behaviours, and secondly, the manner in which groups display differences in choice behaviour.</p>