Abstract: In 1978, Proshansky proposed the concept of place identity. Now in the field of environmental psychology, place identity is an important concept for investigating the relationship between humans and the places. As one component of self identity, it is related to physical environment. In the past literature, researches distinguish place identity from place attachment, sense of place and place dependence in terms of cognitions, feelings and behaviors, respectively. Across the levels of individual, society and culture, the factors affecting place identity were demonstrated. In the future, new research approaches such as experimental methods investigating social cognition and longitudinal design can be used to explore the internal mechanism of place identity. The ways of applying this concept to solve currently practical problems in China are discussed.

Key words: place identity, identity, place attachment, sense of place, environmental psychology