Personality and Values Based Materialism: Their Relationship and Origins

This research investigates thedevelopmental processes by which consumers become more or less materialistic.It begins with a review of lnglehart's work in this area, andthen applies his theories to explain conceptions of materialism developed by Richins and Belk.Inglehart predicts that thesubjective experience ofeconomic deprivation andinsecurity during one'sformativeyears leads toadult materialism.Early subjecti ve experiences ofdeprivation andinsecurity strongly predict materialism as conceptualized by Belk, but are not related to materialism as conceptualized by Richins.Inglehart also allows forthesocial intluence of family andpeersto shape materialistic orientations.Findings indicate that theformative social influence offamily andpeers predicts both Belk'sandRichins's materialism.Thisdifference between Belk'sand Richins's materialism is explained on thegrounds that Belk'smaterialism retlects personality whereas Richins's reflects personal values.PersonalValues Materialism (Richins)