Lesson 2: To Buy or Not to Buy?

Lesson Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Explain the association of self and possessions;
2. Identify the role of consumer culture to self and identity; and
3. Appraise one’s self based on the description of material self.

INTRODUCTION
 Belk (1988) – “We regard our possessions as parts of our selves. We are what we have
and what we possess.”
 There is a direct link between self identity with what we have and possess. Our wanting
to have and possess has a connection with another aspect of the self, the “Material
Self.”

Material Self
 Refers to the physical elements that reflect who you are.

• William James
* Harvard psychologist in the late nineteenth century.
* The Principles of Psychology (1890)
- Understanding the self can be examined through different components
* He described these components as:
I. The material self according to James is about our bodies, clothes, immediate family and
home. We are deeply affected by these things because we have put much investment of
our self to them.
II. Its constituents
o it is composed of the material self, the social self, the spiritual self and the pure
ego. (Trentmann 2016; Green 1997)
III. Self-feelings
IV. Self- seeking and Self-preservation
 SELF
BODY

CLOTHES

IMMEDIATE FAMILY

HOME

Material Self Investment Diagram.

1. Body - The innermost part of our material self.

- We are directly attached to this commondly that we cannot live without.
- We strive hard to make sure that this body functions well and good.
- Any ailment or disorder directly affects us.

2. Clothes
- Next to our body are the clothes we use.
- Influenced by the “Philosophy of the Dress” by Herman Lotze, James believed that
clothing is an essential part of the material self.
- In Lotze Book ( Microcosmus ), stipulates that “any time we bring an object into the
surface of our body, we invest that object into the consciousness of our personal
existence taking in its contours to be our own and making it part of the self.”
- (Watson 2014) The fabric style of the clothes we wear bring sensations to the body to
which directly affect our attitudes and behavior.
- Clothing is a form of self-expression.
- (Watson 2014) We choose and wear clothes that reflect our self.
3. Immediate Family
 Our parents and siblings hold another great important part of our self.
 What they do or become affects us.
 We place huge investment in our immediate family when we see them
as the nearest replica of our self.

4. House
- The four component of material self.
- The earliest nest of our selfhood.
- There was an old cliché about rooms: “if only walls can speak.”
- The home thus is an extention of self, because in it, we can directly connect our self.

We are what we have:

 Having investment of self to things, made us attached to those things.

The more investment of self-given to the particular thing, the more we
identify ourselves to it. We also tended to collect and possess
properties. The collections in different degree of investment of self,
becomes part of the self. As James (1890) described self; “a man’s self is
the sum total of all what he CAN call his.” Possesions then become a part
or an extension of the self.

 As we grow older, putting importance to material possession decreases,

However, material possession gains higher value in our lifetime if we use
material possession to find happiness, associate these things with
significant events, accomplishments and people in our lives.