Materialistic Thinking and its Mental- Hygienic Implications among Students of Budapest Business School

• Authors: Judit Gombás
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Previous research with extrinsic (“materialistic”) and intrinsic (“non-materialistic”) life goals suggest that intrinsic aspirations (e.g. relationships, community service, personal development) are associated with a better functioning, mentally and physically more healthy personality. In this survey 198 undergraduate students of BBS were examined by the Aspiration Index questionnaire in order to determine the pattern of extrinsic and intrinsic life goals in their personality, to find relationship between personal background-factors and these aspirations, and to compare the attitudes of the young population to a less homogenous reference group. Compared with the reference group, young women of BBS find all goals more important, except for social commitment and general intrinsic aspiration. Both BBS female and male students were found more materialistic. The materialistic attitudes are significantly stronger among the students of business programs, but not among the students of humanities (andragogy). In conclusion, the students of BBS tend to accept more extrinsic life goals than members of the external reference group. These attitudes are influenced by the generational properties of this young population and by the educational program they attend (business or humanities). The extrinsic attitudes do not serve the individuals’ personal development or happiness; neither do they serve the interests of society. The new paradigms of the future business world are not yet interiorized.

Keywords

EN

aspiration index; students of business and humanities; extrinsic and intrinsic goals; materialistic thinking; mental health

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Practice and Theory in Systems of Education
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 194-208

Dates

published

2015-05-01

received

2015-01-08

accepted

2015-04-21

online

2015-07-29

Contributors

author

Judit Gombás

• Budapest Business School, Budapest, Hungary

References

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• Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1996). Further examining the American dream: Differential correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 281-288.
• Kasser, T., & Sheldon, K. M. (2000). Of Wealth and Death: Materialism, Mortality Salience, and Consumption Behavior. Psychological Science, 11 (4), 348-351.[Crossref]

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/ptse-2015-0019