What difference does it make, if some people talk about their homes in warm emotional terms, whereas others use only neutral descriptions? Perhaps none. Maybe the affective tone of the responses to the home interview is just a superficial stylistic difference without any real psychological consequence. The people who fail to mention that their homes are “warm,” “happy,” or “free” might just be more reticent, more reserved, but otherwise the same as those who do use such adjectives to describe their homes. However, it is also possible that the description of the home in warm emotional terms represents something more essential. Perhaps for those who express such emotion the home provides an important set of meanings not available to others, and this difference has repercussions in other areas of their lives.

When looking at the interviews, we noticed that in some of the families all four members gave positive emotional descriptions of the home. In others, all four gave neutral or negative descriptions. If expression of affect about the home is a meaningful variable, one would expect these two kinds of families to be different in other respects as well. Families that agree on the positive emotional tone of the home should be more integrated. The pattern of feedback provided by a positive emotional atmosphere in the home might help one to cultivate a different self from one nurtured in an emotionally neutral home. Perhaps in families of the first type, members feel emotionally more secure and thus are free to invest their psychic energy in wider goals.