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.
 Belk (1988) stated that ‘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.
The materials self, according to James primarily
is about our bodies, clothes, immediate family,
and home. We are deeply affected by these thing
because we have put much investment of our self
to them.
BODY

CLOTHES
IMMEDIATE
FAMILY
HOME
BODY

The innermost part of our materials self is our body.

Intentionally, we are investing in our body. We are
directly attached to this commodity 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. We do

have certain preferential attachment or intimate
closeness to certain body parts because of its value to
us.
 There were people who get their certain body
parts insured. Celebrities like Mariah carey
who was reported to have placed a huge
amount for the insurance of her vocal cords and
legs (Sukman 2016).
CLOTHES
Next to our body are the clothes we use.
Influenced by the “Philosophy of Dress”
by Herman Lotze, James believed that
clothing is an essential part of the
materials self.
CLOTHES

 Lotze in his 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)
CLOTHES
 The fabric and style of the clothes we wear
bring sensations to the body to which directly
affect our attitudes and behavior. Thus, clothes
are placed in the second hierarchy of material
self.

 Clothing
is a form of self-expression. We choose
and wear clothes that reflect our self (Watson
2014).
IMMEDIATE FAMILY
Third in the hierarchy is our immediate
family. Our parents and siblings hold
another great important part of our self.
What they do or become affects us. When
an immediate family member dies, part of
our self dies, too.
IMMEDIATE FAMILY
When their lives are in success, we feel their
victories as if we are the one holding the trophy. In
their failures, we are put to shame or guilt. When
they are in disadvantage situation, there is an urgent
urge to help like a voluntary instinct of saving one’s
self from danger.

We place huge investment in our immediate family

when we see them as the nearest replica of our self.
HOME
The fourth component of materials self is our
home. Home is where our heart is. It is the
earliest nest of our selfhood. Our experiences
inside the home were recorded and marked
on particular parts and things in our home.
There was an old cliché about rooms: “if only
walls can speak.” The home thus is an
extension of self, because in it, we can
directly connect our self.
 Having investment of self to things,
made us attached to those thing. 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 self is the sum total of all
what he CAN call his. “ Possessions then
become a part or an extension of the self.
WE ARE WHAT WE ARE
 Russel Belk (1988) posits that “…. we regard our
possessions as part of ourselves. We are what we
have and what we possess.”
REFERENCES
Alata, E., Caslib Jr., B., Serafica, J., & Pawilen, R.A.
“Understanding the Self” REX Book Store. 1st ed.
2018.