Consumer Culture, Identity and Well-Being: The Search for the 'Good Life' and the 'Body Perfect'

by Dittmar; Helga

• ISBN13: 9781841696089
• ISBN10: 1841696080
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-09-17
• Publisher: Psychology Pres

Summary

Advertising, materialism and consumption are central aspects of contemporary Western culture. We are bombarded with idealised images of the perfect body, desirable consumer goods, and affluent lifestyles, yet psychology is only just beginning to take account of the profound influence these consumer culture ideals have on individuals'¬" sense of identity and worth. Consumer Culture, Identity, and Well-Beingdocuments the negative psychological impact consumer culture can have on how individuals view themselves and on their emotional welfare. It looks at the social psychological dimensions of having, buying and wanting material goods, as well as the pursuit of media-hyped appearance ideals. In particular, it focuses on: the purchasing of material goods as a means of expressing and seeking identity, and the negative consequences of this psychological buying motivations in conventional buying environments and on the Internet the unrealistic socio-cultural beauty ideals embodied by idealized models. Throughout, different approaches from social psychology are integrated, such as self-completion, self-discrepancy and value theory, to create a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding the impact of internalising core consumer culture ideals on how individuals see themselves and the implications this has for their psychological and physical health. This book is of interest to anybody who wants to find out more about the psychological effects of living in modern consumer societies on children, adolescents, and adults. More specifically, it will be of interest to students and researchers in social psychology, sociology, media studies, communication and other social sciences, as well as to psychologists, health workers, and practitioners interested in the topics of identity, consumption pathologies, body image, and body-related behaviours.

Author Biography

Helga Dittmar is Reader in Psychology at the University of Sussex.

Table of Contents

Author and contributors	p. xi
List of illustrations	p. xiii
List of figures	p. xiv
List of tables	p. xvi
Acknowledgements	p. xvii
Understanding the impact of consumer culture	p. 1
Overview of the core research chapters	p. 3
Core constructs: Consumer culture, identity, and well-being	p. 5
Mass consumer society: Economic-structural, socio-cultural, and psychological transformations	p. 10
Consumer culture ideals and their indirect effects on individuals	p. 12
The psychological impact of consumer culture on identity and well-being	p. 17
To have is to be? Psychological functions of material possessions	p. 25
Parts of the self	p. 29
Instruments of control	p. 32
Symbols of personal and social identity	p. 34
Identity-related differences in functions of possessions	p. 42
Conclusion	p. 48
Consuming passions? Psychological motives for buying consumer goods	p. 49
From shopper typologies to buying motives	p. 51
Buying motives and gender	p. 53
Impulse buying: When passion takes over deliberation	p. 54
The internet as a contemporary buying environment	p. 56
Buying motive research with young consumers in the UK	p. 59
Conclusion	p. 69
Is this as good as it gets? Materialistic values and well-being	p. 71
Well-being and subjective well-being	p. 73
What is materialism? Definitions and measurements	p. 74
The dark side of materialism	p. 77
Value conflict	p. 79
Money-making motives and income	p. 84
Conclusion and implications	p. 92
I shop therefore I am? Compulsive buying and identity seeking	p. 95
What is "compulsive buying"? Minority pathology or mass problem?	p. 97
Psychiatric disorder or identity seeking?	p. 101
Materialism and compulsive buying	p. 105
The quest for a more ideal self	p. 111
Compulsive buying tendency on the internet	p. 115
Conclusion and future trends	p. 119
Does size matter? The impact of ultra-thin media models on women's body image and on advertising effectiveness	p. 121
Does thinness sell?	p. 123
The psychological impact of thin media images on women	p. 124
Does size matter? A series of experimental exposure studies	p. 128
Conclusion	p. 143
Think "ideal" and feel bad? Using self-discrepancies to understand negative media effects	p. 147
Self-discrepancies, body image, and media exposure	p. 149
When women think "thin" and feel bad	p. 156
When men think "muscular" and feel bad	p. 162
Conclusion and future research	p. 171
What is beautiful and who is "cool"? Consumer culture and socialisation	p. 173
Socialising body and material ideals	p. 176
The thin beauty ideal, dolls, and young girls' body image	p. 179
Materialism and peer relations in children	p. 187
Conclusions and future research	p. 195
What is the price of consumer culture? Consequences, implications, and the cage within	p. 199
The evidence: Consequences of consumer culture	p. 200
Implications for interventions	p. 207
Consumer culture as a "cage within"	p. 212
Summing up and looking ahead	p. 220
References	p. 223
Notes	p. 249
Author index	p. 251
Subject index	p. 259
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