A survey was conducted with a sample of 482 residents in high-rise residential buildings to investigate the impact of aspects of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) on occupants' overall environmental satisfaction (OES). A three-step approach was proposed to structure the OES. The structure was first tested by the non-parametric tests and the results of statistical analysis showed that the combined aspect of air quality and thermal comfort had the greatest influence on OES in apartments, followed by luminous comfort and acoustic comfort. A detailed structure was then developed and proved residents' subjective feelings about certain sub-factors, such as air freshness, had strong correlations with each IEQ aspect. The individual items, namely gender, age, physical environment, and adaptive behaviors, were further explored and tested. The results show that most of the items had significant impact on occupants' feelings regarding sub-factors. The adaptive behaviors of shading and lighting affect luminous comfort significantly and activity intensity and mental stress decides acoustic comfort most. In further studies, the OES could be quantified with the data from both real condition simulation and questionnaire survey. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.