RESEARCHES THAT SUPPORT WILLIAM JAMES’ THEORY

GORDON (1968),

 People spontaneously mention their possessions when asked to describe themselves.

 People also amass possessions
 The tendency to treat possessions as part of the self continues throughout life, perhaps
explaining why so many people have difficulty discarding old clothes or possessions that have
long outlived their usefulness.

(WICKLUND AND GOLLWITZER, 1982)

 People may be particularly apart to acquire and exhibit such signs and symbols when their
identities are tenuously held or threatened.

SARTRE (1943)

 People accumulate possessions to enlarge their sense of self.

 Possession also extend the self in time..

(UNRUH , 1983, cited in Belk , 1988)

 People seek immortality by passing their possessions on to the next generation people’s
emotional responses to their possession also attest to their importance to the self.

MCLEOD (1984),

 People who lose possessions in a natural disaster go through a grieving process similar to the
process people go through when they lose a person they love.

BEGGAN (1992)

 People possessions become part of the extended self comes from a series of investigation on
the ‘’ mere ownership effect’’.
 This findings suggest that once possessions become part of the self, people imbue them with
value and use them to promote feelings of self-worth

Greenwald and Banaji, 1995;Jones, Pelham, Mirenberg, and Hetts, 2002; Nuttin , 1985,1987

 When asked to judge the pleasantness of various letters, people show enhanced liking
for the letters that make up their own name, particularly their own initials.

Pelham, Mirenberg, and Jones (2002)

 People are more likely to live in the cities or choose occupations that match their name
or initials.
(Jones, Pelham, Carvallo, and Mireberg , 2004)

 People show greater liking and romantic interest in a person whose name is similar to
their own. Pelham and colleagues have dubbed this tendency ‘’ Implicit Egotism’’.