CHAPTER 2: UNPACKING THE SELF

Lesson 2: To Buy or Not to Buy? That is the question

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
We are living in a world of sale and shopping spree. We are given a wide array of products to purchase and
almost everywhere, we find promotions of different products. Part of us wants to have that product. Our
wanting to have and possess has a connection with another aspect of our self --- the MATERIALSELF.

COMPONENTS OF THE SELF

(William James, The Principles of Psychology)

1. Its constituents.
• the material self
• the social self
• the pure ego
2. The feelings and emotions they arouse ---self-feelings.
3. 3.The actions to which they prompt, self-seeking and self-prevention.

MATERIAL SELF

The material self is primarily about: our bodies, clothes, immediate family, and home.

A. Body
• The inner part of our material self.
• We are directly attached to commodities that we cannot live without.
• We strive hard to make sure that our body functions well and good.

B. Clothes
• Placed in the second hierarchy of material self.
• Clothing is a form of self-expression. According to Lotze, “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."

C. Immediate Family
• Our parents and siblings hold another part of our self.
• We see them as the nearest replica of our self.
 D. Home
• It is where our heart is.
• The earliest nest of our Selfhood.

POSSESSIONS

• As James (1890) described self: “a man's self is the sum total of all what he CAN call his.”
• Russel Belk (1988) posits that, “we regard our possessions as part of ourselves. We are what we
have and what we possess.”

• Possession then becomes a part or an extension of our self. The possessions that we clearly have tell
something about who we are our self-concept and even our future.