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An Examination of Fromm's (1955) Marketing Character and Materialistic Attitudes and Their Relationship to Psychological Health
Conference paper   Peer reviewed

An Examination of Fromm's (1955) Marketing Character and Materialistic Attitudes and Their Relationship to Psychological Health

Shaun Saunders
Proceedings of the 5th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Social Sciences, pp.1784-1801
Annual Hawaii International Conference on Social Sciences, 5th (Honolulu, United States, 31-May-2006–03-Jun-2006)
Hawaii International Conference on Social Sciences
2006
url
http://www.hicsocial.org/SOC2006.pdfView
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Abstract

Sociology Fromm marketing character psychological health anger competition
Fromm (1955) was particularly critical of western society and its basis on what he termed the 'marketing character', in which he asserts the self is experienced as a commodity whose value and meaning is externally determined and whose intrinsic psychological needs were not adequately addressed. The aim of the present study is to assess the marketing character (as measured by the SCOI) and Materialism in terms of Spielberger et al's (1995) notion of 'psychological vital signs': depression, anxiety and anger. The hypotheses that the SCOI would be significantly and positively correlated with Depression and Anxiety were not supported, nor the hypothesis that Materialism total scores would be significantly and positively correlated with Anxiety was not supported. However, the hypothesis that the SCOI would be significantly and positively correlated with Anger Expression was supported, as were the hypotheses that Materialism total scores would be significantly and positively correlated with Depression and Anger Expression, providing support for Fromm's (1955) assertion that destructive behaviour might serve as a compensatory mechanism for unfulfilled or frustrated intrinsic human needs. The implications of these results are discussed within the framework of a proposed 'Competition-Frustration-Anger-Aggression Syndrome' (CFAAS).

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