Why does materialism fail to satisfy

To reach their findings, the researchers assessed individuals from a marketing department of a university who were an average age of All participants were required to completed a minute online survey that measured materialism, gratitude, need satisfaction and life satisfaction.

As expected, results of the study revealed that those who rated low on gratitude and high on need satisfaction were more likely to be materialistic and less satisfied with life. Past research has shown similar findings. A study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies revealed that high levels of gratitude and low levels of materialism in adolescents was associated with high life satisfaction, social integration and low envy and depression.

In a new study, universally screening students for depression meant that more students were initially identified and started treatment. Data were collected as part of a larger study conducted in a Midwestern university. Completed questionnaires were collected from students female.

Subjects were seniors enrolled in the undergraduate marketing course. Questionnaires were administered in scheduled group sessions in the fall semester of Two different materialism scales were used in this study: Ger and Belk's revised materialism scale and Richins and Dawson's materialism scale..

In their cross-cultural study on materialism, Ger and Belk modified and expanded sonic scale items from Belk's original materialism scale. The modified scale includes 4 subscales:. This subscale consisted of 4 items, e. This subscale consisted of 9 items, e. This subscale consisted of 5 items, e. This subscale consisted of 3 items, e. Because this scale measures materialism as a personality variable, it will henceforth be referred to as "Matpers-". Richins and Dawson on the other hand, conceptualized materialism as a set of centrally held beliefs about the importance of possessions in one's life.

Their scale consists of 3 subscales:. This subscale consists of 7 items, e. This subscale consisted of 6 items, e. Because this scale measures materialism as a value, it will henceforth be referred to as "Matval-". An incremental fit index is used to assess the models' goodness-of-fit.

The normed fit index NFI for the two materialism scales are. Well being was measured using a well established instrument described by Andrews and Withey Responses were marked on a 7-point scale ranging from "terrible" to "delighted. Because established scales to measure subjective affluence during childhood and adolescence were not available, measures were created for this study.

Three items for two age periods age , were generated to measure the sense of economic well being of the respondents during their fort-native years. The items read as follows:. As a child, my parents rarely seemed concerned about having enough money. As a child, I frequently felt that I was not able to have the things that I wanted because we could not afford them. As a teenager, my parents rarely seemed concerned about having enough money.

As a teenager, I frequently felt that I was not able to have the things that I wanted because we could not afford them. The items were marked on a 5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. High scores on this scale indicated high levels of felt economic deprivation. Alpha for the six items as a whole is. Current family income was measured to serve as a control variable. Because respondents were college undergraduates, parental income was judgcd to be the most appropriate indicator of the students' current standard of living.

Consistent with past studies, there was a general negative relationship between life satisfaction and materialism see table 1. This shows that Matval is primarily associated with unhappiness through its direct connection to material satisfaction, but it was not inconsistent with the idea that materialists may neglect their social relationship and more intrinsically enjoyable activities in favor of material acquisition.

Looking at the Matval subscales, the happiness subscale, which measures the degree to which respondents believe that acquiring more stuff would make them happy, is clearly the most closely associated with life dissatisfaction.

The belief that success in life can be measured by possessions is modestly but frequently related to life dissatisfaction. But the connection between possessions playing a central role in one's life and being dissatisfied with one's life is fairly weak, although still statistically significant for the scale as a whole.

Whereas Matval was most closely associated with distress about life's material pleasures, nongenerous and envious people i. This distinction between Matval and Matpers may reflect a difference in the conceptual breadth of the two measures.

Matval measures a tightly focused group of beliefs about material consumption. But Matpers taps into broader personality traits. One can envy one's neighbor's spouse as well as her or his car, and one can be nongenerous with one's time or love as well as one's money. Hence, the potential breadth of these Matpers constructs may help explain their significant relationship to so many aspects of life satisfaction. Preservation is measured by three statements: 1 1 like to collect things, 2 1 have a lot of souvenirs, 3 1 tend to hang on to things I should probably throw out.

Hence, preservation might tap into what Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton called "instrumental materialism" which includes using material objects as symbols to strengthen interpersonal relationships. If this finding is confirmed in further research, it leaves researchers two options; either re-define materialism so as to exclude preservation, or develop theories that overtly recognize materialism's possible positive effects as well as destructive aspects.

Future research might explore the possibility that people differ in a general ability to form close attachments. Hence, those likely to form close friendships arc also likely to become attached to their possessions and score high on Preservation. Skeptics of the connection between materialism and unhappiness might argue that all we have really uncovered is poverty.

Perhaps poor people tend to be unhappy and also tend to be preoccupied with their financial difficulties, which shows up as materialism. None of the other materialism subscales even approached significance in correlating with family income. In order to test Inglehart's Postmaterialism hypotheses, the relationship between economic insecurity and materialism was checked. Recall that Inglehart proposes that personal feelings of economic insecurity during one's formative years lead to a lasting materialistic orientation.

Perhaps the niost striking finding of this study was the lack of empirical support for this influential theory see Table 2. Neither Matval nor Matpers were significantly correlated with pre-adult economic insecurity.

Even when looking at the seven subscales, only the Matval Happiness subscale shows a significant correlation, and this is a modest. Special Projects Highline. HuffPost Personal Video Horoscopes. Follow Us. Terms Privacy Policy.

Part of HuffPost Wellness. All rights reserved. Consumer culture may be harming individual well-being. Materialist values are linked to Type-A behavior. Money really can't buy you happiness. Materialism could ruin your relationships. Consumer cultures may breed narcissistic personalities. Consumerism is fueled by insecurity -- and remedied by mindfulness.

Americans are redefining success beyond money and power. Suggest a correction. Now What? Newsletter Sign Up. Successfully Subscribed! I have never met more fraught, insecure, narcissistic and selfish people who were pretending to be happy but would starve themselves, get a lot of plastic surgery, try to get insta-famous in their flashy things and backstab endlessly.

I agree with everything you have stated in your article. Materialims is a reflection of irrational behavior. If we only bought what we needed in life in terms of material good I think people would find that they need very little to survive in this world.

The best way to achieve this is focus on the returns you get from the item. Clearly it will mean buying less but focus on quality goods which will last for a long time giving you a good return on your investment.

Buy less but better quality. After reading this I will try to tune out the commercials and skip over the ads. We all have to strike a balance between staying informed and not letting News and advertisements impact us negatively. Hi Nils, This is a great article and I love the idea of journaling what we are grateful for. A family member of mine, however, shops constantly. She is always showing me her purchases, house renovations, asking for recommendations, etc. To answer your question, absolutely will this family member unconsciously influence you in the ways outlined in this article.

Being aware of this is great in and of itself. Great article thank you. I used to buy too many clothes in my twenties as it would fill the void from my abusive childhood of abandonment and neglect. After getting in to too much debt I paid it all off and now save for long haul trips around the world. That way I can work a job that suits me and continue seeing the world with the spare cash.

I have a massive fear if getting in to debt again lol. Unfortunately some young people with bad childhoods try to avoid their feelings with shopping and even worse drugs and alcohol. The sooner those uncomfortable feelings are confronted the better before long term life mistakes are made. Totally agree with you, Jessica. Thank you for the great article. I used to constantly buy model planes. Then I got the models that had real jet engines. I ended up quiting the hobby 3 years ago and have been doing more traveling and reading books with my money, and found true happiness.

Nice article. I think you and your brother as divulgators expressing in the best way concept originally crafted by scientists are the best in the filed of science of happiness. Thank you for your hard work. I obtained wealth out of embarrassment of very poor childhood.

I found myself buying things to feel better. I also thought it would make me seem more interesting to others. This strategy worked the opposite. The more I got, the less money and time I had for social endeavors. The more I got, the fewer friends I had until I became fairly alone. The isolation is a kind of walking death and the objects do not help comfort in that regard.

I think it is important to teach people through articles such as this the pitfalls of certain behavior. In retrospect I feel foolishness but I will learn from mistakes and this article is helpful to direct change. Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab.

After logging in you can close it and return to this page. What Is Materialism Anyway? A mountain of research has shown that materialism depletes happiness, threatens satisfaction with our relationships, harms the environment, renders us less friendly, likable, and empathetic, and makes us less likely to help others and contribute to our communities. Indeed, when it comes to relationships, those with materialistic goals not only rate their own social interactions more negatively, but people in general rate their relationships with materialists as less satisfying as well.

Here are 7 tips that you can add to your arsenal… 1. Start Pursuing Intrinsic Goals, Not Extrinsic Goals Social psychologists differ between two different motivations or goals that people have. Extrinsic goals. These are all about becoming rich or famous, seeking power over others, and polishing your public image. They are a means to an end. They are about achieving a certain desired outcome while completely neglecting the process of getting there. Intrinsic goals. These are goals that fuel who you are as a person.

They fulfill you deeply. And most importantly, they fulfill your core human needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. They are about enjoying the journey. Whereas extrinsic goals are only a means to an end, intrinsic goals are an end onto themselves. They are personally meaningful to you and you would engage in them just for the sake of it without desiring some ulterior motive.

Materialists are a prime example of people who are pursuing extrinsic goals. One way would be to simply copy what the people in the previous study did: 1. This can happen when we find ourselves trapped in situations that are too controlling robbing us of our sense of personal freedom , overchallenging robbing us of our sense of competence , or rejecting robbing us of our sense of relatedness. You are chasing after more and more stuff your entire life, spinning endlessly in the hedonic treadmill.

You die before ever getting all the stuff you thought you needed to be happy.