Wednesday, December 24, 2014

What Psychology Says About Materialism and the Holidays — APA interviews Tim Kasher


Well-being is inversely correlated with materialism.
APA: What does psychological research say about materialism’s link to happiness? 
Kasser: The connection between materialism and well-being is the longest-standing strand of research in the materialism literature. My colleagues at the University of Sussex and I recently published a meta-analysis that showed the negative relationship between materialism and well-being was consistent across all kinds of measures of materialism, types of people and cultures. We found that the more highly people endorsed materialistic values, the more they experienced unpleasant emotions, depression and anxiety, the more they reported physical health problems, such as stomachaches and headaches, and the less they experienced pleasant emotions and felt satisfied with their lives.
The most supported explanation for why well-being is lower when materialism is high concerns psychological needs. Specifically, materialistic values are associated with living one’s life in ways that do a relatively poor job of satisfying psychological needs to feel free, competent and connected to other people. When people do not have their needs well-satisfied, they report lower levels of well-being and happiness, as well as more distress.
As Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs suggests. An economy is the material life-support system of a society but well-being only begins with material sufficiency. Material sufficiency is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for well-being. Material abundance is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for human well-being, regardless of the neoliberal propaganda and advertising to the contrary. There's more to living the good life in a good society than money and toys.

Happy Holidays!

American Psychological Association
What Psychology Says About Materialism and the Holidays
Six questions for materialism expert Tim Kasser, professor of psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois

5 comments:

Matt Franko said...

Tom fyi this guy is a bit out of paradigm as he talks about material sales being needed for higher tax revenues etc...

What about the creative people among us who manipulate the material and want to earn a living doing this and want to be appreciated by their fellow members of mankind for doing it...

Im thinking like clothing designers, food chefs, artists, hair stylists, now tattoos are getting popular etc...

This sort of is bouncing up against the disparaging comments one can hear about Rome's "bread and circuses" as being "bad"... I personally cant imagine a good life without good food prepared by talented people and the performance arts (music/song especially)...

We have to figure out ways to make it all work for everyone in our surplus society. ..

I recognize that material greed is bad (gold, "money", hoarding, etc).... im trying to make a point away from material greed here... and towards our appreciation for people who are gifted in material oriented activities. .. these people have to be paid well also imo...

Rsp

hog said...

There is the question whether fiat money really is materialistic.


What I'm definite about is that music and song are not.

Unknown said...

Fiat has the capability for providing material safety for everyone, but of course, if no one is very poor, no one else is very rich. It's a matter of definition.

I remember reading some research a while back that hoarding wealth is a symptom of anxiety and fear. Evidently the richer they are the greater the fear of "losing it all". Combined with the macho euphoria of "betting it all" that some engage in to get there, it sounds more like an extreme pathology than something to admire.

Ironically, the Republican belief in cutting the safety net can only be increasing their sense of a vast boiling sea of poverty forever lapping at their toes.
--zapster

Matt Franko said...

Hog, agree but what about the instruments and the performance venues? That part of it is material... iow the Martin D-28 is made by craftspeople in Nazareth, PA... one ends up costing maybe $2500 ... many artists desire this "material" instrument and th he people who work there appreciate the artists who play them.. but the artist needs to come up with the currency balances to pay for them which is not easy for many young artists ...

So there is always a material system that runs along side the non-material... hard to avoid it. Probably a matter of perspective or scale... rsp

hog said...

Of course you could argue how everything is material in one way o another, however for the sake of materialism and happiness, I'd argue that there exists some sort of spectrum defined by properties such as physicality, transience and criteria such as:
is it something that you'd have to worry about losing, bringing along with you?
or does somehow the though of having to share something with others cause you distress?