Materialistic meaning

The belief that material possessions improve individuals’ personal and social well-being permeates America. However, contrary to this belief, multiple studies show that materialists, compared to non-materialists, have lower social and personal well-being. Compulsive and impulsive spending, increased debt, decreased savings, In light of these findings, many studies have tried to determine what causes such strong materialistic desires in America. In a recent paper, my colleagues and I examined the "geography of Consistent with past research that has demonstrated negative influences of neighborhood characteristics on individual attitudes and behaviors, our results suggest that various local economic indicators of wealth (e.g., more financial development, higher median per-capita income) affect individuals’ materialistic values, impulsive buying tendency, and savings behavior. These signals of wealth conveyed by the local economy appeared to impact self-evaluations in a manner similar to when one is exposed to idealized advertising images. That is, individuals who were young, poor, and lived around wealth were most vulnerable to engaging in social comparison with idealized, wealthier individuals, and using their scant resources to accumulate possessions to, presumably, convey wealth they did not have. The reason for the link may have to do with "relative deprivation," or the feeling that people are less well-off than those around them. In this case, living in a strong local ec...

Someone with a high level of materialism, described as "materialistic," considers material possessions to be central to their life and their identity. They focus a good deal of their energy on acquiring possessions. Someone with a low level of materialism described as "non-materialistic," or "not materialistic," does not consider acquiring possessions to be particularly important, although they vary in the extent to which they acquire material possessions in order to meet other objectives, such as social acceptance. Why Materialism Is Such a Problem In the United States, materialism is as American as apple pie and football. It is in many ways a national pastime. The Thanksgiving holiday has largely been overshadowed by Black Friday sales and many department stores even hold sales on Thanksgiving itself. In short, a day that was supposed to focus on gratitude, family, and, yes, football, to an extent, is now largely centered on department store sales. It's difficult not to be materialistic in a culture where shopping is virtually a competitive sport and where children are ostracized if they're not wearing the right gym shoes or brand name clothes. The rise of online shopping, which has its own holiday shortly after Thanksgiving, "Cyber Monday," has in many ways made it more convenient to shop and easier to develop a One needn't leave the house to consume, but simply click a button. Although hoarding and shopping addiction are separate conditions, they can co-occur. Getting ...

Janelle Barowski Janelle is a tutor for Nursing and Health Administration. She has an Associate's degree in Nursing from Middlesex College. She also has a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Nursing Administration and Leadership from Western Governors University. She currently is a practicing pediatric and geriatric nurse. • Instructor Definition of Materialism When you look around the room, what do you see? If you're at home, you might see photos, books, and personal mementos. If you happen to be studying at the library, you probably see books, tables, chairs, and computers. Most of these objects were probably mass produced and if lost or destroyed, they can be replaced. While we tend to think of these objects as just things, they're actually more important than many people realize. In the social sciences, materialism is a philosophy that places a high value on objects, usually considering them more valuable than experiences or personal relationships. The term often carries negative connotations and is frequently applied to people who believe buying things or acquiring wealth will make them happy. For instance, a person who feels depressed or unimportant might decide that if they had a big house or expensive car, people would pay more attention to them or believe that they were important. In reality, the link between happiness and materialism is complicated and somewhat murky. On one hand, simply buying things in an effort to become happier is not only ineffective, but it m...

Recent Examples on the Web His dad was a jack-of-all-trades, contentedly nonmaterialistic. — BostonGlobe.com, 2 Nov. 2021 These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'nonmaterialistic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.