Annotated Bibliography: Personality And Value Based Materialism

Appendix A: Annotated Bibliography

Ahuvia, A. C., & Wong, N. Y. (2002). Personality and values based materialism: Their relationship and origins. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 12(4), 389-402. doi:10.1207/15327660260382414 The causes of materialism were defined by the work of both Belk and Richins. Belk 's ideas on materialism emphasizes the importance of personality. He identified four personality traits: envy, non-generosity, possessiveness, and preservation that can cause materialism. But Richins defines materialism as a personal value. Ahuvia and Wong surveyed 287 undergraduates from American colleges who completed surveys on personal values, materialism, personality materialism, deprivation during childhood and adolescence, life

sense of security would decrease the value they assume their possessions are worth. In the first study, 185 people ranging from 18-71 years old were primed with a sense of security by having them remember and a time they felt supported by another person. They then wrote down how much they think the blanket on their bed is worth. In the second study, participants read words related to security, a sense of positivity, or no feeling at all. They needed to set a price to sell the pen back. The results supported the researchers? hypotheses that there is a connection between feelings of security and a sense of security created by holding onto possessions, as well as connecting security to how much people think certain items are worth. In summary, improving one?s sense of security decreases one?s valuing of possessions. The article is important to my thesis in the section on children because of the researcher?s? findings on materialism. A sense of security as well as social support is an intervention that can decrease

Material parenting is when parents use material items to show their love or to shape children?s behavior. 261 American participants, between 20-40 years old, filled out a survey regarding questions on family circumstances and relationships with parents in third, seventh, and tenth grade. The survey also measured parenting style, conditional and unconditional material rewards, material punishments, feelings of insecurity, beliefs about the effectiveness of purchases to transform themselves, and materialism. The results supported the researchers? hypotheses, which found that material parenting may influence children?s materialistic values by encouraging them to use possessions to make themselves better. Essentially, parental warmth is associated with giving material rewards, and those children later in life think of the accumulation of goods as a way to measure their success. The researchers found that material punishments were not positively associated with adult materialism. This suggests that material punishments may not impact materialism in the same way that rewards do. The decrease of parental warmth and rejection of a child were related to increase childhood feelings of insecurity, which were related to higher materialism in adulthood. Adults who received material rewards as children believe that