Hughes

Logan Hughes

Malcolm Campbell

English 1103

March 30th, 2015

Does money affect a persons emotional stability?


A survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre of Washington, DC in 2007
on 43 countries reported that 57% of individuals who are in rich countries
considered themselves happy, while only 16% of people in poor countries felt the
same way about their situation (The Economist). These staggering numbers bring
up a question that has more than likely crossed everyones mind, Does the amount
of money a person makes or attains affect their overall happiness?
Money is something that everyone comes in contact with on a daily basis.
Whether you are a small child wanting to by a gumball out of the machine for 25
cents, a college student having to get a job for the first time in order to pay for
his/her college tuition, or a father and mother who are looking at buying a new
house in order to build a family. Many people even build their lives and choose their
majors around the amount of money they think would make them comfortable in
the future, but is this really the key for happiness.

Looking on the opposite side of the emotional spectrum, money has been

proven to bring stress, affect relationships, and cause clinical depression in millions
of Americans. In an article presented by Duke University earlier this year, they
provided a national survey that gave insight into how money negatively affects
individuals. In the survey it can be shown that most people are emotional challenged

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and stressed because of their financial situation and when stressed it starts to affect
things as important as marriage and family relationships (Duke). Jeffrey Dew, who
conducted a study at Utah State University on Finances and Divorce Rates, claims
that couples that argue over their finances less than once a month are 30-40 percent
more likely to get a divorce. Whereas people who tend to fight about money more
than once a month, once a week, or daily increase their chance of divorce by a
staggering 125-160 percent chance (Dew). It is astounding that material object such
as a piece of currency can infiltrate into one of the most sacred and emotionally
promising events in an individuals life, marriage. These types of events caused by a
lack of financial stability have been seen since 1929 when the Great Depression hit
America. During this time period in history one wouldnt be able to see how this lack
of economically stability affected marriages in America because getting divorced
essentially cost too much money. For example, while husbands were at war they
would abandon their families and wives in order to get out of a marriage and then
when they came back from war this is when the divorce rates started rising
exponentially. Looking at relationships during peoples financial droughts is one
way to see how money affects people, however, and even bigger issue can support
the argument that money does effect happiness is depression.

Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and

loss of interest. One of the leading causes of depression around the world is a loss of
money or a general lack of money. When people find themselves in financial
distress they generally start feeling depressed and at a loss for what they should be
doing in their life. The movie Its a Wonderful Life, highlights this when George

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Baily (main character) becomes so stressed about money that he contemplates

suicide in order to provide more money for his family (IMDb). This may seem like a
far-fetched idea, but in todays world where gaining more money is the focal point of
millions of peoples lives, this thought surely has raced through peoples minds. The
BBC released an article in 2011 describing how the financial worries during the
2008 recession had changed trends in suicide rates. from 2007 to 2009the
increase varied between 5% and 17% for people aged under 65 years old after a
period of falling suicide rates. The Lancet Reported (Triggle). These types of
increases in suicide rates on a global level during an economic downturn are
something that shouldnt be overlooked and really show that people are turning to
the worst possible option in order to escape money issues. In the same article by the
BBC reported that, Prescription for drugs such as Prozac rose by more than 40%
over the past four years with GPs (general practitioners) saying more and more
people were coming to them with money troubles (Triggle). Unfortunately, even
doctors are seeing the side effects to an economy that is struggling and people who
are more money hungry than ever. Suicide, even with these troubling numbers, may
be something many people overlook, but when trying to determine the answer to
the question presented in this piece, it is a vital issue needed.

Other professionals are taking a different form of stance on this issue such as

Jennifer Lerner, who is a social psychologist at Harvard University that specializes in

how emotions effect our financial decisions (Levin). In her podcast interview with
David Levin she talks about how peoples spending habits are directly correlated
with what emotion or time period a person is going through. She goes on to say that

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the traditional economic theory says that people think rationally when making
decisions, however when it comes to making money decisions this is very rarely the
case. When people are sad or depressed they tend to lash out by making poor
decisions and spending money they dont necessarily have in order to make them
feel better (Levin). This type of outlook on the question is something different that is
similar to research presented earlier, but is very different in the fact Jennifer Lerner
is saying that peoples emotions are what is causing them to make poor financial
decisions instead of saying that poor financial decisions are what causes peoples
emotions. Either way one wants to view the issue it would seem, from the research,
that it is an ongoing cycle effect. Once a person is in financial hardships they begin
making irrational financial decisions that end up contributing to their bad emotions
that continue to make more and more financial problems.

Emotions not only play into your financial life when you are a in a lower

social class but also when you consider yourself in the top tier social class. Case in
point, children who are born into a lower social class generally hope to achieve a
higher social class in their own life. Once these children enter a social class it
becomes very hard to sympathize with the previous social class they considered
their selves accustom to, this is apparent in the novel Great Expectations by Charles
Dickens. During the book, the main character, Pip starts his life off in a harsh
situation living as an orphan child with his sister and her husband in a household
that is small and embarrassing. As the book continues on Pip gains a very pricey
fortune and is sent off to London in order to mingle and become something that fit
his recently received money. When he returns home he begins by talking about his

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wifes husband, I wish Joe would have been rather more genteelly brought up, and
then I should have been so too. (Dickens) It can be seen in the novel that peoples
views of even their own family and upbringing can be shifted with a little more
money in their pocket. Money changes lifestyles, opportunities, living situations, and
peoples social circles to the point where they lose themselves and are more
interested in the next thing they are going to buy.

Money affecting peoples emotions can even be proven on a scientific level. In

a peer reviewed journal entry by various writers and doctors called Cognition and
Emotions, it explains how the body reacts to punishments and rewards differently.
When humans have positive emotions dopamine is released into their system, which
improves decision-making and memory (Carpenter, Isen, Peters, Stephanie,
Vstfjll). This can be related to money because usually when an individual is
reward by gaining some form of money they tend to become happier which helps
improve things like decision-making. The opposite can be said of people who are
depressed from the punishment that a significant loss of money can bring. When
people lose money they tend to lash out and make poor decisions that start to affect
their emotional state (Carpenter, Isen, Peters, Stephanie, Vstfjll). When one starts
making a series of bad decisions they may fall into depression and have serious
anxiety. Biologically the body has no choice but to react to receiving and having
money taken away from them.
Furthermore, for one to be able to make a full decision on what they feel is
right or wrong they would have to hear both sides of the argument. In the
newspaper article Happinomics by Northeastern Universitys Angela Herring; she

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spoke with Michael Norton from Harvard Business School, Robert Frank who is an
economic professor at Cornell University, and psychology professor Daniel Gilbert
from Harvard, on how America is one of the most depressed all around countries in
the world, and at the same time they are one of the richest. These professors talk
about how having more money only brings more troubles and stress (Herring). In
the international system the United States ranks number one in total over all gross
domestic product over every other country in the world. GDP is a political model
that shows how much money a country is making over a certain period of time,
usually a year. However, that being said, the U.S. doesnt even rank in the top tier of
countries for overall happiness, the leader in this category is Denmark. What the
professors are saying is that the U.S., even though we are considered a wealthy
country, we are not happy as a whole because we put our focus into the wrong thing.
When a person has more money than they know what to do with it adds a serious
amount of stress. Even in a model and article that seems to be arguing against the
fact that money and happiness dont really have a connection, it still helps the
argument that money does affect a persons emotional stability and actions.
Through the research it is evidently clear that money and emotions collide
every time they come in contact with one another. If you have no money you want
some form of money and if you have a lot of money you want even more money that
brings more and more stresses in a persons life. Does money bring happiness? The
answer is more complicated than people look into. Yes, money makes a person
happy, but only for a short amount of time before the urge to want more hits them
and they are immediately unsatisfied but what they have. It is the sad truth in a

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capitalistic world that brainwashes people into thinking something is never enough.
People always want what is bigger and better, if cars are what a person wants then
they will always try and get the next fastest and sexiest car they can find, if it is
money they may have a million dollars but they will want five million, and if they
have five million they will want ten. The capitalistic way our government is set up
has proven to be a good way to run a world that is chaotic and hard to process but
people get lost on what is really important in life and that is how you are feeling and
what you are doing with what you have. Americans as a whole are the perfect
example to how money can corrupt individuals, families, businesses, friendships,
and the country as a whole. Giving away money is a sin, and taking money is always
certain and when people in a capitalistic country such as Americas favorite line is
money may not bring happiness, but having no money surely brings problems,
there is an evident flaw in the system. Is it something someone can fix? Probably
not. The nation and world are too far gone into their ways and at this point these
morals on money are all people really know. Kids are raised up to not help other but
help themselves, unfortunately for them it is impossible to escape the hardships
money brings to them but everything in their lives leads them into that direction.
Their parents want them to do better than them, schools urge them for the better
grade and not to process information in order to get into a good college, colleges
want you to make the better grade in order to go to a graduate school, the whole
point of graduate school is to come out with a higher degree in order to gain more
money than the kid living next door to him/her when they were only small helpless
kids. It is no single persons fault for having this mindset it is just what we, as people

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have always known. It is good to have money and it gets a person a lot of things they
wouldnt normally be receiving. But people have to realize that money is only a
small piece of green paper in the grand scheme of life. People need to take a step
back and look at the facts and do the research into the psychology of money and
finances in order to realize that what is corrupting them and their emotions are not
the people around them always, but instead what is in their wallets and what is in
their bank accounts.















Works Cited

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A.C.M, J.P., and J.S. "Money and Happiness." The Economist. N.p., 30 Oct. 2013. Web.
m17 Mar. 2015.

Blackman, Andrew. "Can Money Buy You Happiness?" WSJ. Wall Street Journal, 10
Nov. 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.

Carpenter, Stephanie, Ellen Peters, Daniel Vstfjll, and Alice Isen. "Positive Feelings
Facilitate Processing." Cognition & Emotion (n.d.): n. pag. Psychology Press.
Psychology Press. Web. 06 Mar. 2015.

Goodrich, Francis, Albert Hackett, and Frank Capra. "It's a Wonderful Life." IMDb.
IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.

Herring, Angela. "'Happinomics': The Science of Money and Emotion." News
Northeastern. Northeastern University, 14 May 2012. Web. 06 Mar. 2015.

Levin, David, and Jennifer Lerner. "The Deciding Factor." NOVA. N.p., 01 Mar. 2010.
Web. 07 Mar. 2015.

Triggle, Nick. "Suicide Rates in Europe 'linked' to Financial Crisis." BBC News. BBC
News, 08 July 2011. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.

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"Money And Emotional Reactions." Duke Personal Assistance Service. Duke

University, n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2015

"U.S. Divorce Rates and Statistics." U.S. Divorce Rates and Statistics - Divorce Source.
N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.