Skip to main content
Log in

Materialism and Its Relationship to Life Satisfaction

  • Published:
Social Indicators Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Studies into the consequences of pursuing a materialisticlifestyle have found that materialism is negatively related tolife satisfaction. While most of these studies have beenconducted using American samples, the few reported studies usingAustralian samples have limitations that the current study soughtto address. Using a sample of 162 Australian adults and animproved methodology, a negative relationship was found, in thatthose individuals who were high in materialism were lesssatisfied with their `life as a whole' and with specific `lifedomains' than those who were low in materialism. The implicationsof these findings for future research are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Andrews, F. M. and S. B. Withey: 1976, Social Indicators of Well-Being: Americans' Perceptions of Life Quality (Plenum Press, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics: 1996, Selected Social and Housing Characteristics for Suburbs and Postal Areas (No. 2029.5) (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Author).

  • Belk, R. W.: 1984, 'Three scales to measure constructs related to materialism: Reliability, validity, and relationships to measures of happiness', in T. Kinnear (ed.), Advances In Consumer Research, vol. 11 (Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT), pp. 291-297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. W.: 1985, 'Materialism: Trait aspects of living in the material world', Journal of Consumer Research 12, pp. 265-280.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk. R. W.: 1995, Collecting in a Consumer Society (Routledge, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • Beutel, A. M. and M. M. Marini: 1995, 'Gender and values', American Sociological Review 60, pp. 436-448.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryce, W. and T. J. Olney: 1991, 'Gender differences in consumption aspirations: A cross-cultural appraisal', Social Behavior and Personality 19, pp. 237-253.

    Google Scholar 

  • Csikszentmihalyi, M. and E. Rochberg-Halton: 1981, The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, S. and G. Bamossy: 1991, 'If “we are what we have,” what are we when we don't have?: An exploratory study of materialism among expatriate Americans', Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 6; (Special Issue), in Floyd W. Rudmin (ed.), 'To have possessions: A handbook on ownership and property', pp. 363-384.

  • deVaus, D. A.: 1990, Surveys in Social Research, 2nd edn. (Allen & Unwin, Sydney).

    Google Scholar 

  • Diekhoff, G.: 1992, Statistics For The Social and Behavioral Sciences: Univariate, Bivariate, Multivariate (Wm. C. Brown Publishers, USA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E.: 1984, 'Subjective well-being', Psychological Bulletin 95, pp. 542-575.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dittmar, H. and L. Pepper: 1994, 'To have is to be: Materialism and person perception in working-class and middle-class British adolescents', Journal of Economic Psychology 15, pp. 233-251.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fife-Shaw, C.: 1995, 'Questionnaire design', in S. Hammond, G. M. Blackwell and C. Fife-Shaw (eds.), Research Methods in Psychology (Sage, London), pp. 174-192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fournier, S. and M. L. Richins: 1991, 'Some theoretical and popular notions concerning materialism', Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 6, pp. 403-414.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ger, G. and R. W. Belk: 1990, 'Measuring and comparing materialism crossculturally', in Marvin E. Goldberg, Gerarld Gorn and Richard W. Pollay (eds.), Advances in Consumer Research, vol. 17 (Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT), pp. 186-192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ger. G. and R.W. Belk: 1996, 'Cross-cultural differences in materialism', Journal of Economic Psychology 17, pp. 55-77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kau, A. K., J. Kwon, T. S. Jiuan and J. Wirtz: 2000, 'The influence of materialistic inclination on values, life satisfaction and aspirations: An empirical analysis', Social Indicators Research 49, pp. 317-333.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, J.: 1978,Waltzing Materialism (Harper & Rowe Publishers, Sydney).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kline, P.: 1993, The Handbook of Psychological Testing (Routledge, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • LaBarbera, P. A. and Z. Gurhan: 1997, 'The role of materialism, religiosity, and demographics in subjective well-being', Psychology andMarketing 14, pp. 71-97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mick, D. G.: 1996, 'Are studies of dark side variables confounded by socially desirable responding? The case of materialism', Journal of Consumer Research 23, pp. 106-119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muchinsky, P. M.: 1993, Psychology Applied to Work: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 4th edn. (Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, California).

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Guinn, T. C. and R. J. Faber: 1989, 'Compulsive buying: A phenomenological exploration', Journal of Consumer Research 16, pp. 147-157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prentice, D. A.: 1987, 'Psychological correspondence of possessions, attitudes, and values', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53, pp. 993-1003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richins, M. L.: 1987, 'Media, materialism, and human happiness', in Melanie Wallendorf and Paul Anderson (eds.), Advances in Consumer Research, vol. 14 (Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT), pp. 352-356.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richins, M. L.: 1994, 'Special possessions and the expression of material values', Journal of Consumer Research 21, pp. 522-533.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richins, M. L. and S. Dawson: 1990, 'Measuring material values: A preliminary report of scale development', in Marvin E. Goldberg, Gerald Gorn and Richard W. Pollay (eds.), Advances in Consumer Research, vol. 17 (Association For Consumer Research, Provo, UT), pp. 169-175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richins, M. L. and S. Dawson: 1992, 'A consumer values orientation for materialism and its measurement: Scale development and validation', Journal of Consumer Research 19, pp. 303-316.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rindfleish, A., J. E. Burroughs and F. Denton: 1997, 'Family structure, materialism, and compulsive consumption', Journal of Consumer Research 23, pp. 312-325.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schroeder, J. E. and S. S. Dugal: 1995, 'Psychological correlates of the materialism construct', Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 10, pp. 143-253.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sirgy, J.M., D. Cole, R. Kosenko, H. L. Meadow, D. Rahtz, M. Cicic, G. Xi Jin, D. Yarsuvat, D. L. Blenkhorn and N. Nagpal: 1995, 'A life satisfaction measure: Additional validational data for the congruity of life satisfaction measure', Social Indicators Research 34, pp. 237-259.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sirgy, J. M., D. Jin-Lee, R. Kosenko, H. L. Meadow, D. Rahtz, M. Cicic, G. Xi Jin, D. Yarsuvat, D. L. Blenkhorn and N. Wright: 1998, 'Does television viewership play a role in the perception of quality of life?', Journal of Advertising 27, pp. 125-142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sirgy, J. M.: 1998, 'Materialism and quality of life', Social Indicators Research 43, pp. 227-260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. and W. Bryce: 1992, 'Materialism and care for others', in Floyd W. Rudmin and Marsha L. Richins (eds.), Meaning, Measure, and Morality of Materialism (Association for Consumer Research Provo, UT), pp. 149-157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoon, K.: 1995, 'Comparison of beliefs about advertising, attitude toward advertising, and materialism held by African Americans and Caucasians', Psychological Reports 77, pp. 455-466.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ryan, L., Dziurawiec, S. Materialism and Its Relationship to Life Satisfaction. Social Indicators Research 55, 185–197 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011002123169

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011002123169

Keywords

Navigation