The High Price of Materialism: Further Reading

Below is a list of sources for the studies referenced in New Dream video The High Price of Materialism, narrated by psychologist Tim Kasser.

Overviews of the literature on materialism and consumer culture

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268.  

Dittmar, H. (2008). Consumer culture, identity, and well-being: The search for the ’good life’ and the ‘body perfect’. Hove & New York: Psychology Press.

Kasser, T. (2002). The high price of materialism. Cambridge, MA:  MIT Press. 

Kasser, T., Cohn, S., Kanner, A. D., & Ryan, R. M. (2007). Some costs of American corporate capitalism: A psychological exploration of value and goal conflicts. Psychological Inquiry, 18, 1-22. 

Studies on how materialism relates to personal, social, and ecological well-being:

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

Brown, K. W., & Kasser, T. (2005). Are psychological and ecological well-being compatible? The role of values, mindfulness, and lifestyle. Social Indicators Research, 74, 349–368.

Kasser, T. (2011). Cultural values and the well-being of future generations: A cross-national study. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology 42, 206–15. 

Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1993). A dark side of the American dream: Correlates of financial success as a central life aspiration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 410–422.    

Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1996). Further examining the American dream: Differential correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 281-288.

McHoskey, J. W. (1999). Machiavellianism, intrinsic versus extrinsic goals, and social interest: A self-determination theory analysis. Motivation and Emotion, 23, 267-283.

Niemiec, C. P., Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2009). The path taken: Consequences of attaining intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations in post-college life. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 291-306. 

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

Twenge, J. M., Gentile, B., DeWall, C. N., Ma, D., Lacefield, K., & Schurtz, D. R. (2010). Birth cohort increases in psychopathology among young Americans, 1938-2007: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of the MMPI. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 145-154.  

Work on the “see-saw” effect of values

Grouzet, F. M. E., Kasser, T., Ahuvia, A., Fernandez-Dols, J. M., Kim, Y., Lau, S., Ryan, R. M., Saunders, S., Schmuck, P., & Sheldon, K. M. (2005). The structure of goal contents across 15 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 800-816. 

Maio, G. R., Pakizeh, A., Cheung, W-Y, & Rees, K. J. (2009). Changing, priming, and acting on values: Effects via motivational relations in a circular model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 699-715.

Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol. 25 (pp. 1-65). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. 

Work on the causes of materialism

Kasser, T., Ryan, R. M., Couchman, C. E., & Sheldon, K. M.  (2004). Materialistic values: Their causes and consequences. In T. Kasser & A. D. Kanner (Eds.), Psychology and consumer culture: The struggle for a good life in a materialistic world (pp. 11-28). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Kasser, T., Ryan, R. M., Zax, M., & Sameroff, A. J. (1995). The relations of maternal and social environments to late adolescents' materialistic and prosocial aspirations.  Developmental Psychology, 31, 907-914.

Rindfleisch, A., Burroughs, J. E., & Denton, F. (1997).  Family structure, materialism, and compulsive consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 23, 312-325. 

Schor, J. B., (2004). Born to buy: The commercialized child and the new consumer culture. New York: Scribner.

Sheldon, K. M., & Kasser, T. (2008). Psychological threat and extrinsic goal striving. Motivation and Emotion, 32, 37-45.