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Contents
- Abstract
- Study 1
- Method
- Subjects
- Procedure
- Measures
- Aspiration Index
- Guiding principle ranking
- Self-Actualization
- Vitality
- General Causality Orientation Scale
- Results
- Preliminary Analyses
- Primary Analyses
- Brief Discussion
- Study 2
- Method
- Subjects
- Procedure
- Measures
- Aspiration Index
- Guiding Principle Ranking
- Self-Actualization
- Vitality
- Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression Inventory (CES–D)
- State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
- Results
- Preliminary Analyses
- Primary Analyses
- Brief Discussion
- Study 3
- Method
- Subjects
- Procedure
- Measures
- Aspiration Index
- Children’s Global Assessment Scale (CGAS)
- Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents, Version R-A (DICA)
- Community Mental Health Interview (CMHI)
- Results
- Preliminary Analyses
- Primary Analyses
- General Discussion
- Appendix A
Figures and Tables
Abstract
Aspiring for financial success is an important aspect of capitalist cultures. Three studies examine the hypothesis that values and expectancies for wealth and money are negatively associated with adjustment and well-being when they are more central to an individual than other self-relevant values and expectancies. Studies 1 and 2 use 2 methods to show that the relative centrality of money-related values and expectancies is negatively related to college students’ well-being and mental health. Study 3, using a heterogeneous noncollege sample, extends these findings by showing that a high centrality of aspirations for financial success is associated with interview ratings of lower global adjustment and social productivity and more behavioral disorders. Discussion is focused on the deleterious consequences of materialistic world views and the need to examine differential effects of content regarding goals and values.
Financial success has long been a core component of the American dream, and many of the values modeled and encouraged by modern society suggest that success and happiness depend on procuring monetary wealth (Derber, 1979). Yet folklore and table side discussion often suggest that a darker side lurks behind the American dream. Pursuing material wealth is sometimes viewed as empty or shallow and as precluding investment in one’s family and friends, self-actualization, and contributions to the community.
Suspicion about the worth of material pursuits is echoed in some humanistic theories. Both Rogers (1963) and Maslow (1954), for instance, consider humans to be energized by an actualizing tendency and believe that well-being occurs to the extent people can freely express their inherent...