THE IMPORTANCE OF MATERIAL POSSESSIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF INDIVIDUAL VALUES AND SOCIAL ORIENTATIONS

• Authors: Gornik-Durose M.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

In the article the problem of the concentration on acquiring and possessing material goods and placing them at the central point of an individual's life, described in the literature as materialism, is located within the context of individual values and social orientation understood in terms of Inglehart's materialistic and postmaterialistic values. Empirical analyses, based on a data base created in the project 'Diagnoza Spoleczna 2005' ('Social Diagnosis 2005), aim to answer two questions: the first - related to the relationship between attitudes to material possessions among individual values recognized by Poles in the conditions of a developing market economy and consumer society, the second - addressing the relationship between attitudes to material possession and materialistic and postmaterialistic social orientation. The results show that despite the indisputably significant role of demographic variables, mainly income and age, in differentiating the level of materialism in people, there is a significant relationship between individual values and perceiving material goods as important prestige symbols a well as experiencing the joy of buying. On the other hand there are no significant differences between groups with certain social orientations (materialistic, postmaterialistic and mixed) in relation to prestige obtained through material possessions. However the joy of buying was stronger among postmaterialistically oriented people than among others. Taking into consideration the results obtained suggestions related to the understanding of materialism as a phenomenon with various facets were introduced.

Keywords

EN

MATERIALISM; POSTMATERIALISM; VALUES

Discipline

• PSYCHOLOGY: PSYCHOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences jointly with the Committee on Psychological Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Kolokwia Psychologiczne (Psychological Colloquia)
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 16
• Pages: 85-102
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Gornik-Durose M.

• M. Gornik-Durose, Uniwersytet Slaski w Katowicach, Instytut Psychologii, ul. M. Grazynskiego 53, 40-126 Katowice, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

08PLAAAA05269959