The material/Economic

self
 Material Self
• The material self is a total of all of the
tangible things you own: your possessions,
your home, your body. As you examine your
list of responses to the question, “Who are
you?” note whether any of your statements
refers to one of your physical attributes or
something you own.
 Economic Self
• Economic self-sufficiency is the
ability of individuals and
families to maintain sufficient
income to consistently meet
their basic needs – including
food, housing, utilities, health
care, transportation, taxes,
dependent care, and clothing –
with no or minimal financial
assistance or subsidies from
private or public organizations.
• Economic Self-Sufficiency Goals
• Increase levels of educational
attainment to increase employability
and future earnings
• Increase access to work and work
supports necessary for stable
employment
• Increase successful transitions from
government safety net services to
economic independence
• Increase individuals' ability to be
financially resilient
 William James
A Man’s self is the sum total of all that he can call his, not only
his body and his psychic powers, but. His clothes and friends,
his reputation and works, his lands and horses, and yacht and
bank-account.
 We have 8 terms
example.
Bodily self.
Is your physical self. Extended self is your
possession.
 Materialism
The importance a consumer attaches to
wordly possession.
Conspicuous Consumption
is the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury goods
and services to publicly display economic power—of the income
or of the accumulated wealth of the buyer. To the
conspicuous consumer, such a public display
of discretionary economic power is a means of either attaining or
maintaining a given social status. The development of Thorstein
Veblen's sociology of conspicuous consumption produced the
term invidious consumption, the ostentatious consumption of
goods that is meant to provoke the envy of other people; and the
term conspicuous compassion, the deliberate use of charitable
donations of money in order to enhance the social prestige of the
donor, with a display of superior socio-economic status
 Bertrand Russell
The more a possession symbolically represent
the self the greater the negative reactions
experience if it is last.
Extensions/Symbols of the self
Pets have become parts of the extended self.
Pets belong to the top 5 possessions.
(covert et al, 1985)
Positive relationship between self-esteem and owning pets.
(Levinson, 1962)
The dog as” co-therapist.
 Bertrand Russell
It is the preoccupation with possessions, more
than any thing else, which prevents us from
living freely and nobly.
 Possession as Unstrable Meaning
• Meaning is in a constant state of flux.
• Cultural categories of person that help shape identity are subject to constant
manipulation by individuals, social groups, and marketing agents.
• Meanings of objects that are used to make visible and stabilize the categories of
culture are also subject to frequent change through their appropriation in
advertising, in television programming, and among social subgroups.
• A teenager who has just purchased his snow board, the youthful, extreme sports
image of snowboarding may soon fade as more people over to take up the sport.
 Possessions as Symbolic Expressions of
Identity
• There’s an observation that one’s possession are considered a part of oneself.
• They are symbols and extensions of the personal and social aspects of her
identity/person hood.
• Possession help people define themselves.
• Possession can enhance one’s image and develop a positive sense of self.
• It can be a reassurance that one is the person one’s wishes to be. Goods and
possessions person lacks.
 Example

• May prominently display his diploma in an attempt to

convince him self and others that he is the erudite
scholar he aspires to be. Even though you are not too
smart or not qualified, so long as you wear an expensive
watch, an high-class pair of shes and you have the latest
model of cellphone