Study Set Content:
primarily about our bodies, clothes, immediate family, and home. We are deeply affective by these things because we put so much investment of our self to them.
Materialistic/ Economic Self
various ways people answer the question “Who Am I?”
Empirical Self
categorized the material self into 3 categories:
William James
tangible objects people, places that carry the designation my or mine. These are entities that are clearly an intimate part of who we are (Ex. My pets, my iPhone, my hometown, my thesis).
Material Self
According to Andersen & Chen (2002) this is how we are regarded and recognized by others.
Social Self
includes individuals that we regard as “ours” (ex. Parents, siblings, romantic partners, close friends, and colleagues.
Social Self
this is our emotions, attitudes and beliefs. A person is said to have a belief, from the time the belief is
first acquired to the time it is discarded or lost. (ex. We say things like “I can’t buy that”, “I inherited a view”
Spiritual Self
“We regard our possessions as part of ourselves. We are what we have and what we possess”
Belk, 1988
“A study that deals with activities that directly involved in selecting, obtaining, and using products and services and ideas to satisfy needs and desires, including decision processes that precede and follow these actions.” (Davis and Palladino, 1995)
Consumer Psychology
“The study of the buying units and exchange processes involved in acquiring, consuming and disposing of goods, services, experiences and ideas.” (Mowen, 1995)
Consumer Behavior
tell a lot about their owners (status symbol). Thus, one’s sense of self and identity is influential on how an individual chooses to purchase his/her wants and how he/she makes economic decisions that will address his/her personal and social needs
Possessions
Synonymous with luxuries. People buy them for reasons that do not warrant necessity.
Wants
These are important for survival. Food, clothing, and shelter are basic needs so people purchase them out of necessity
Needs
Concerned with how things serve a practical purpose
Utility
Concerned with the meaning assigned to the object. It is also concerned with how objects become powerful symbols or icons of habit and ritual which can be quite separate from their primary function.
Significance.
Materialism and Happiness. What is the value of materialism (Fournier & Richins, 1991)?
o Pursuit of possessions and materialism’s role in consumption choices reflects materialism as a value
o The importance of acquisition to reach satisfaction
o Impossible to achieve happiness
We tend to devote time and money for things we want to buy
(Boven, 2005)
We give importance to buying more
(Rinchins, 2003)
And in effect we experience “…joyless material possessions… resulting in comfort but not pleasure.”
(Nicolao et al, 2009)
“Materialists believe that acquiring things will make them happier and they tend to act on this belief by buying more”
(Watson, 2003)
