Materialism and Well-Being Revisited: The Impact of Personality

Abstract

Although the negative link between materialism and well-being has been confirmed by results from many empirical studies, mechanisms underlying this association still remain partially unexplained. The issue is addressed in this article in two ways. Firstly, the nature of the components of materialism is examined, and secondly-the article demonstrates that personality (particularly neuroticism and narcissism) is one of the important factors linking materialism and well-being. The article presents the results of three empirical studies, in which three main assumptions were verified-that the components of materialism, i.e. acquisition centrality, acquisition as a pursuit of happiness and possession-defined success, have dissimilar impacts on well-being, that materialists with high and low levels of neuroticism and narcissism differ with regard to well-being, and that neuroticism and narcissism mediate the relationship between materialism and well-being. The studies were based on self-reports and utilized well-known, established questionnaire measures of materialism, personality and well-being. The results showed that each component of materialism was associated with well-being in a slightly different way. Of the three possession-defined happiness was the strongest predictor of all aspects of well-being examined and the centrality component was not associated with any of them. Materialists with a high level of neuroticism and low level of grandiose narcissism experienced diminished well-being in comparison to materialism with a low level of neuroticism and high level of grandiose narcissism. Neuroticism and grandiose narcissism were both significant mediators, acting contrary to each other-neuroticism lowered well-being, whereas grandiose narcissism elevated it.

Well-Being, Temporal Orientation, and the Dual Nature of Materialism

“…Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed. Hypothesis 1: The “peacock” and “mouse” type materialists will be replicated in a North American sample. The two types were found in both Studies 1 and 2 in the research by Gornik-Durose and Pilch (2016), and additional evidence for the dual-nature model has been provided by Gornik-Durose (2020); however, this finding has not been replicated in a sample in a different culture from the original. Hypothesis 2a: Materialism is correlated with future-negative TP. This is likely as materialism and future-negative TP are both positively related to neuroticism and negatively related to well-being (Dittmar et al., 2014; Stolarski & Matthews, 2016).…”

Concurrent and Longitudinal Predictors of Adolescent Delinquency in Mainland Chinese Adolescents: The Role of Materialism and Egocentrism

“…Second, we can regard egocentrism as a defense mechanism to cope with the negative experience of self-inadequacy by self-inflation (i.e., Freudian defense mechanism of “reaction formation”). Third, there are some studies showing a positive relationship between materialism and narcissism [ 21 , 22 ] and a negative relationship between materialism and empathy [ 23 ].…”

“…Greene et al [ 25 ] showed that sensation seeking and egocentrism predicted risk-taking behaviors in adolescents. Górnik-Durose [ 21 ] showed that narcissism (a concept closely related to egocentrism) served as a mediator between materialism and well-being indicated by emotional well-being and psychological well-being. In conjunction with the above-mentioned findings on the relationship between materialism and egocentrism, we proposed that egocentrism may serve as a mediator of the influence of materialism on adolescent delinquency.…”

Selflessness, Depression, and Neuroticism: An Interactionist Perspective on the Effects of Self-Transcendence, Perspective-Taking, and Materialism

“…Previous research has found that self-transcendence is negatively related to depression ( Reed, 1991 ; Ellermann and Reed, 2001 ; Haugan and Innstrand, 2012 ) as well as neuroticism ( Levenson et al, 2005 ). In contrast, materialism has been positively associated with depression ( Kasser and Ryan, 1993 ; Dittmar et al, 2014 ) as well as neuroticism ( Sharpe and Ramanaiah, 1999 ; Burroughs and Rindfleisch, 2002 ; Watson, 2015 ; Górnik-Durose, 2019 ).…”