Discussion: Materialistic People *MINIMUM 300 WORDS Purpose: To generate concret
ID: 3461732 • Letter: D
Question
Discussion: Materialistic People
*MINIMUM 300 WORDS
Purpose: To generate concrete examples of the personal traits and beliefs of materialistic people.
1. Do you know or have you known someone that you would judge to be materialistic? What kind of person are they in terms of their personal traits, outlook on life, and behaviors toward others? Make a list of their most distinctive characteristics. Does your list match the profile developed by researchers?
2. Do you agree that materialism develops out of psychological insecurity, attempts to compensate for inadequacies, and results in diminished well-being? Are there other forms and sources of materialism not identified by psychologists?
Explanation / Answer
Materialism could be defined as a set of beliefs that people hold around certain values such as spending more on consumption of materials, satisfaction through consumption and measuring success with the amount of material accumulated. Most of the individualistic cultures are purely materialistic where they treat people as materials and love material possessions as their companions. They do not have any regard for relationships and all their relationships are based on materialistic gain. They find their pleasure and satisfaction in material consumption. They also compare themselves with others and accumulate materials even on loans and end up in pain when they are not able to pay it back.
One of my school friends who lives with his partner fits into this definition. He loves to buy things that he doesn’t even use it. He bargains with his partner if he has to spend some money for her and he would do so if only he has a return on whatever he spends on his partner. He kept buying things on EMIs and using his Credit Cards. He never cared about whether he could repay it or what would happen if he loses his job all of a sudden. He doesn’t treat people who don’t spend unnecessarily by branding them as stingy. He doesn’t respect anyone who has less materials than him. He just wants to project himself as if he has got everything that others don’t have thus making himself appear special everywhere. He doesn’t have many friends and he doesn’t have any empathy but behaves arrogantly with people who are not materialistic. All these characteristics match with the materialistic personality profile developed by researchers.
Craving for things is a psychological disorder and some people who didn’t get things at their early age, will develop a tendency to compensate for their deficiencies thus showing off whatever they have to others and deriving pleasure from it. This overcompensation will lead them to accumulate things in any manner. At last this would only bring suffering and stress.