The authors investigated the structure of goal contents in a group of 1,854 undergraduates from 15 cultures around the world. Results suggested that the 11 types of goals the authors assessed were consistently organized in a circumplex fashion across the 15 cultures. The circumplex was well described by positioning 2 primary dimensions underlying the goals: intrinsic (e.g., self-acceptance, affiliation) versus extrinsic (e.g., financial success, image) and self-transcendent (e.g., spirituality) versus physical (e.g., hedonism). The circumplex model of goal contents was also quite similar in both wealthier and poorer nations, although there were some slight cross-cultural variations. The relevance of these results for several theories of motivation and personality are discussed.

An instrument (SCOI) was designed to measure Fromm's (1955) marketing character, which is based on the notion that the self may be experienced as a commodity whose value and meaning are externally determined. In study 1 (N=80 & 302), the hypothesis that the SCOI would be positively correlated with Conformity, Authoritarianism and Anger Expression was supported, providing support for Fromm's (1955) theory that these latter three traits would be evident in those individuals defined by the marketing character. The hypotheses that the SCOI and Materialism (Richins & Dawson, 1992), would be positively correlated with both Commercial Television Viewing and Anxiety were also supported. In study 2 (N=87), the hypotheses that the SCOI and Materialism would be positively correlated with Depression and negatively correlated with Voluntary Simplicity were supported. The hypothesis that the SCOI would be negatively correlated with Life Satisfaction was not supported, although Materialism was significantly and negatively correlated with Life Satisfaction. In study 3 (N=80), the hypotheses that the SCOI and Materialism would be negatively correlated with Empathy and Neuroticism were not supported, the latter result suggesting that neuroticism may not be an adequate indicator of psychological health per se. In study 4 (N=101), the hypotheses that the SCOI and Materialism would be negatively correlated with Biophilia and Environmentalism were also supported. Further, the SCOI was able to discriminate both between Ss from Newcastle, NSW (one of two preferred test markets in Australia) and Ss from a permaculture community in south-east Queensland, Australia, and between Ss enrolled in management and Ss enrolled in arts/science at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Hence, the SCOI generally performed as expected in tests of convergent, divergent and discriminant validity.

In the present study, the relationship between a measure of Fromm's (1955) marketing character (the Saunders Consumer Orientation Index, or SCOI) and Rokeach values was investigated. The Rokeach value 'equality' was ranked low when considered in terms of scores on the SCOI, suggesting that social comparisons made in the consumer domain are made with the aim of deter-mining relative success or failure rather than equality.

Depression is occurring in almost epidemic proportions in modern society (Seligman, 1990). The current study aims to explore the relationship between depression, life satisfaction, and social interest. Eightyseven students from the University of Newcastle were administered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and the Social Interest Index (SII). As hypothesised, it was found that depression was negatively correlated with life satisfaction and social interest. It was also found that females displayed greater social interest than males, however no difference was observed in level of depression by gender. These findings support the concept that treatment for depression might be oriented away from introspection, and directed instead towards increasing social awareness and interaction.

Maslow's (1954) theory of a hierarchy of human needs has generated little research, perhaps because of the lack of specific, concrete operationalisation of concepts such as ‘psychological well-being’ and basic need satisfaction. The Need Satisfaction Inventory (NSI: Lester, 1990) was developed to measure basic need satisfaction and 157 undergraduate subjects completed both it and the Beck Depression (BDI) and Anxiety Inventories (BAI), as well as Spielberger's (1986) Anger-Expression questionnaire (AX). The latter three questionnaires represent an operationalisation of Spielberger, Ritterband, Sydeman, Reheiserdc Unger's (1995) notion that emotions act as indicators of psychological well-being. The hypothesis that scores on the NSI would be significantly correlated with the BDI, BAI, and AX was supported. Ss also completed the Richins and Dawson (1992) materialism index, and it was hypothesised that if hoarding material goods does in fact represent compensatory neurotic behaviour, then materialism would also be negatively correlated with the NSI. The hypothesis was confirmed, providing further evidence for Maslow's (1970) theory that basic need satisfaction is associated with psychological health. However, in the absence of norms for the NSI, there was no conclusive evidence to suggest that basic needs reside in a consistent, and strict global hierarchy.