More gratitude,less materialism: The mediating role of life satisfaction

An empirical relationship has been documented between gratitude and materialism, such that stronger feelings of gratitude are associated with lower materialism. Building on Fredrickson's (1998, 2001) theory that positive emotions ‘broaden’ and ‘build’ we sought to expand upon this finding by (1) examining satisfaction with life as a potential mechanism for this relationship, and (2) exploring the causal direction of this relationship through experimental means. Study 1 (n = 131) demonstrated that satisfaction with life mediated the relationship between gratitude and materialism. Study 2 (n = 171) showed that that experimentally induced gratitude resulted in higher satisfaction with life and lower materialism in a high gratitude condition compared to an envy (low gratitude) condition. Implications and directions for future research were discussed.     

Relationship between lifestyle values and achievement goal orientation among vocational students in Thailand

This study brings models of value theory and motivational goal theory together to investigate the relationship between lifestyle values (materialism, religiosity, physical well-being and image) and achievement goal orientation of college students enrolled in vocational programmes in Thailand (N?=?1670, males?=?38.5% and females?=?61.5%). We found associations between various lifestyle values and achievement goal orientation. Multiple regression analyses found a positive association with religiosity and personal well-being on the adoption of mastery goals and a positive association with materialism and personal image on the adoption of performance goals. These findings are interpreted with respect to self-determination theory.     

Stalin as a Marxist Philosopher

This article treats Stalin's contributions todialectical and historical materialism. It argues that the latterfound his theses of the `enormous' role of ideas, and of theexistence of social phenomena that do not belong either to thebasis or to the superstructure, in Georgij Plekhanov's `monism'.Nevertheless, Stalin did add some new points of his own.Furthermore, his adopting Plekhanov's monism also helps usunderstand the apparent contradiction between Stalin's emphasison non-economic and non-class factors in human history and hisrejection of `idealist' rudiments in dialectics.     

Materialism and well-being: the moderating effects of religiosity on young Malaysian consumers

This article presents the results of a large-scale study of the relationship between materialism and well-being by examining the moderating role of religiosity. By confining the present study to a sample of young consumers drawn from Malaysia – a country of diverse subcultures who share similar cultural values (collectivistic), we attempt to validate findings of previous research that may reflect the influence of age, country, culture, subculture, and the variety of measures of religiosity, materialism and well-being. This study finds that having strong religious orientations makes Muslim youths happier, whereas such a relationship does not hold for their Buddhist counterparts. The present study also finds no relationship between materialism and well-being among youths in either religious subculture, but finds that religiosity has a significant negative effect on the well-being of Muslims who have strong materialistic values as their Buddhist counterparts who hold equally strong materialistic orientations.     

物质主义者眼中的奢侈品：符号还是功能？

本研究通过眼动和情境实验相结合的方式,探讨了物质主义与奢侈品社会符号价值的关系,以及公众自我意识在上述关系中的中介作用。结果发现,相比功能价值信息,高物质主义者更加关注奢侈品的社会符号价值信息(研究1);对于高社会符号价值的奢侈品具有更强的购买意愿,公众自我意识起着中介作用(研究2)。研究表明,高物质主义者具有较高的公众自我意识,因而在购买奢侈品时更加重视其社会符号价值。