Two on-line surveys of psychology college students explored the connection between psychological flexibility, materialism, non-attachment and shopping for motivation. Results confirmed that individuals excessive on psychological flexibility additionally tended to worth the pursuit of cash and possessions much less and to be much less connected to experiences, ideas, or relationships. The paper was revealed in Personality and Individual Differences.
Psychological flexibility refers to a person’s capability to reply to challenges in a approach that alters the results of such experiences. Higher psychological flexibility is related to greater well-being. Increasing psychological well-being is usually the fascinating final result of psychotherapy.
Psychological idea sees psychological flexibility as consisting of a set of psychological processes that may take a wholesome and an unhealthy type. In this manner, psychological flexibility and psychological inflexibility may be seen as two separate psychological properties and never simply as two ends of a single dimension of particular person variations. Psychological flexibility is thus the results of wholesome types of these processes, whereas psychological inflexibility is the results of unhealthy varieties.
David C. Watson and Andrew J. Howell wished to review how psychological flexibility and inflexibility is expounded to a few of the different points of wholesome or much less wholesome psychological functioning. They selected to look at the associations with materialism, “a set of personality traits whereby an individual is possessive of material objects or money, ungenerous with material things, and envious of the possessions of others” and non-attachment, “the reduced tendency to either attach to or move away from experiences, thoughts, or relationships based on whether they are positive or negative.”
In the second research, they explored the affiliation with shopping for motivation as one other correlate of materialism. Namely, they examined whether or not psychological flexibility/inflexibility is expounded to “the preference for experiential versus materialistic purchases” and “the presence of autonomous relative to heteronomous motivation for such experiential purchases.”
The researchers defined that “experiential purchases are those made with the primary intention of acquiring a life experience: an event or series of events that one lives through. Material purchases are those made with the primary intention of acquiring a material good: a tangible object that is kept in one’s possession…”
In the scope of the primary research, the researchers surveyed 313 undergraduate college students of an introductory psychology course at a Canadian college. Students accomplished an evaluation of psychological flexibility, particular points of materialism (possessiveness, non-generosity and envy via the Belk Materialism Scale; values of fabric and financial rewards, prosperity, management and financial safety via the Revised Materialism-Post Materialism Scale), total materialism, and Non-Attachment.
In the scope of the second research, the researchers surveyed 307 undergraduate college students. In addition to the evaluation of psychological flexibility/inflexibility, these college students accomplished an evaluation of three parts of experiential shopping for – autonomous motivation, heteronomous motivation, and amotivation. Autonomous motivation for purchases means shopping for one thing as a result of the particular person endorses the explanations for the acquisition, whereas heteronomous shopping for motivation implies that the particular person is shopping for one thing for causes which might be externally managed (e.g., due to the expectations of others).
The outcomes revealed associations between psychological inflexibility, excessive materialism, and attachment, and between psychological flexibility, low materialism, and non-attachment. The researchers suggest that the hyperlink between psychological flexibility and materialism is achieved via non-attachment. The second research confirmed that “psychological flexibility was correlated with both experiential buying and autonomous reasons for experiential buying, whereas inflexibility was related to controlled and amotivated reasons for experiential buying.”
“Together these studies provide novel evidence of the relevance of psychological flexibility/inflexibility to predicting people’s tendency toward materialism, material versus experiential buying, and autonomous versus non-autonomous reasons for experiential buying,” the authors concluded.
The research provides to the information concerning the correlates of psychological flexibility. However, it must be taken into consideration that each research had been completed completely on college students of introductory psychology programs at a single college. Results on different populations may not be the identical. Additionally, the research design doesn’t permit making any cause-and-effect conclusions from the research information.
The research, “Psychological flexibility, non-attachment, and materialism”, was authored by David C. Watson, Andrew J. Howell.
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