Psychology and Consumer Culture : The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World

by Kasser, Tim

• ISBN13: 9781591470465
• ISBN10: 1591470463
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Summary

Psychology and Consumer Culture provides an in-depth psychological analysis of consumerism that draws from a wide range of theoretical, clinical, and methodological approaches. The contributors to this edited volume demonstrate that consumerism and the culture that surrounds it exert profound and often undesirable effects on both people's individual lives and on society as a whole. Far from being distant influences, advertising, consumption, materialism, and the capitalistic economic system affect personal, social, and ecological well being on many levels. Authors address consumerism's effect on everything from culture, ethnicity, and childhood development to consciousness, gender roles, identity, work stress, and psychopathology. Contributors provide a variety of potential interventions for counteracting the negative influence of consumerism on individuals and on society. The book makes a strong case that, despite psychology's past reticence to investigate issu

Table of Contents

Contributors	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
Chapter 1. Where Is the Psychology of Consumer Culture?	3	(6)
Tim Kasser and Allen D. Kanner
I. Problems of Materialism, Capitalism, and Consumption	9	(80)
Chapter 2. Materialistic Values: Their Causes and Consequences	11	(18)
Tim Kasser, Richard M. Ryan, Charles E. Couchman, and Kennon M. Sheldon
Chapter 3. Why Are Materialists Less Satisfied?	29	(20)
Emily G. -Solberg, Edward Diener, and Michael D. Robinson
Chapter 4. Globalization, Corporate Culture, and Freedom	49	(20)
Allen D. Kanner, and Renée G. Soute
Chapter 5. Shopping for Sustainability: Psychological Solutions to Overconsumption	69	(20)
Deborah Du Nann Winter
II. Theoretical Perspectives	89	(58)
Chapter 6. Materialism and the Evolution of Consciousness	91	(16)
Mihaly-Csikszentmihalyi
Chapter 7. Mindfulness and Consumerism	107	(20)
Erika L. Rosenberg
Chapter 8. Lethal Consumption: Death-Denying Materialism	127	(20)
Sheldon Solomon, Jeffrey L. Greenberg, and Thomas A. Pyszczynski
III. Clinical Issues	147	(64)
Chapter 9. Acquisitive Desire: Assessment and Treatment	149	(20)
Jeffrey Kottler, Marilyn Montgomery, and David Shepard
Chapter 10. Self-Control and Compulsive Buying	169	(20)
Ronald J. Faber
Chapter 11. Money, Meaning, and Identity: Coming to Terms With Being Wealthy	189	(22)
Stephen Goldbart, Dennis T. Jaffe, and Joan DiFuria
IV. The Influence of Commercialism on Child Development	211	(60)
Chapter 12. The Commercialization of Childhood: Understanding the Problem and Finding Solutions	213	(20)
Diane E. Levin and Susan Linn
Chapter 13. Commercialism's Influence on Black Youth: The Case of Dress-Related Challenges	233	(18)
Velma D. LaPoint and Priscilla J. Hambrick-Dixon
Chapter 14. "The More You Subtract, the More You Add": Cutting Girls Down to Size	251	(20)
Jean Kilbourne
Author Index	271	(10)
Subject Index	281	(16)
About the Editors	297