Change in / change of

[kinfai]

I looked up in dictionaries and I couldn't find a clear explanation on distiguishing between "a change in" and "a change of". Nonetheless, I was given the following examples:

a change in the situation
a change in lifestyle
a changes in the immigration laws
a change in personality
a change of government
a change of temperature
a change of address
a change of scenery
change of heart = change in attitude (can it be change in heart and change of attitude?)

There seems to have kind of rules in choose "in" or "of" but I'm sorry I just can't figure them out.

Could somebody help me, please? Thanks a lot.

[danmahaffey]

Kinfai, the difference between change in and change of lies in the difference between in and of.

When in is used, it means within. When of is used it means with respect to.

Thus, change in means a difference within, and change of means an exchange of one for another.

Try this on your examples to see how well it fits.