Preferencias residenciales en dos grupos sociales diferentes, habitantes de San Cristóbal, estado Táchira (Venezuela)

Investigación que se ubica en el campo de la Psicología Ambiental, más específicamente en el área de la valoración ambiental(environmental appraisal). Se plantea como objetivo general describir, a través de un análisis comparativo, las preferenciasresidenciales de un grupo de universitarios y de trabajadores,habitantes durante más de cinco años de la ciudad deSan Cristóbal. Los principales hallazgos se pueden resumiren: elecciones residenciales influenciadas por el estilo devida y los valores del grupo; la “imagen ideal” de zonaresidencial en ambos grupos se corresponde con un imagensuburbana; los desarrollos habitacionales producidospor el sector público fueron los grandes ignorados; existeun fuerte arraigo con la ciudad y una alta calidadambiental percibida.DescriptoresPreferencias residenciales, Valoración ambiental,Atributos ambientales.AbstractThis descriptiveexploratory research, of evaluative character, is located in the field of Environmental Psychology, more specificallyin the area of environmental appraisal. It means that theenvironment constitute the attention center, taking alsointo account the psychological processes that take part in thesubjective valuation that is made regarding the surroundings,dealing as well with the dimensions and properties aboutthe settlements. It begins with the unit conduct-environmentand looks for the establishment of links-relations (Pol, 1981).The general objective was to describe, through comparativeanalysis, the residential preferences of a group of college students and workers, inhabitants of San Cristóbal. A semi-structured interview was applied to an intentional sample of residents with more than five years living in the city of San Cristóbal. The mainfindings can be summarized as: residential elections areaffected by life style and group values, the “ideal image” of aresidential zone is a suburban image. Public housing isstrongly ignored, there is a strong place attachment anda high city’s environmental quality is perceived.Key words:residential preferences,environmental appraisal,environmental affordance