Understanding the Self

1. CHAPTER II
LESSON 2
THE MATERIAL SELF
“TO BUY OR NOT TO
BUY”

2. “A man’s material
self is the sum total
of all he can call his”
This includes his
body family and
reputation

3. Clothes and house.. His lands and
horses and yatch and bank
accounts”.

4. IF ONE’S MATERIAL POSSESSIONS
INCREASE THE POSSESSOR FEELS
TRIUMPHANT

5. EFFECT OF MATERIAL
POSSESSIONS
Curtis (2017) cited that cash
can have serious bearing on
one’s belief regarding the way a
person views himself or herself .

6. The following are evidences behind the
idea that money can truly change people:
value.
1 . Social and Business value
Heyman and Ariely (2004) summised that there are
two motivations for completing a given task. The
first is social , by recognizing a task social value a
person sees it as a help out. When money is
offered as the motivation, however , people then
start thinking less of the social aspect and more
about the business

7. 2. Self Sufficiency and Service
Those who are conscious of money
typically strive to be more sufficient that
those for whom money isn’t a priority
3. Self View
The amount one earns could have an
effect on how he or she views both
himself or herself and others

8. 4. Ethics

9. • Many addiction (not only on drugs) begin
because a person gets a positive response
from a certain type of behavior

10. POSSESSIONS AND THE EXTENDED
SELF
The premise that people regard their possessions
as parts of themselves is not new.
Goffman (1961) provides a thorough review of
the evidence of deliberate lessening of self
manifested in such institutions as mental hospitals,
homes for the aged, prisons, concentration camps,
military training camps, boarding schools, and
monasteries.
One of the first step in receiving new members
into these institution is to systematically deprive
them of all personal possessions including
clothing, money, and even names.

11. Handbag snatching can produce not only a
financial but also an emotional, long-term effect on
victims. Similarly, losing photographs of loved ones
that are often carried in a purse, may cause the
victims security impaired; they tend to distrust and
feel suspicious towards other people and develop a
fear of walking in public and even in a similar
environments.
Research has also found that victims sometimes
describe possessions as having high sentimental
value and being much more than functional.

12. Special Cases of Extended Self
1. Collections (I Shop Therefore I Am)
As Belk (1982) notes, humans and
animals once primarily assembled
collections of necessities for distinction
and self- definition. Collection of this sort
may be initiated by gifts or other
unintended acquisitions, but the
cultivation of a collection is a purposeful
self-defining act.

13. Collecting has become a significant activity
in our consumer society as it has become
more widely affordable through the
discretely time and money available to the
general population rather than just to
wealthy elite. (Mason 1981)

14. Luxury and Materialism are by
products of material self.
Materialism refers to the theory or
beliefs that nothing exists except
matter, its movement and its
modifications A tendency to
consider material possessions and
physical comfort is more important
than spiritual values.

15. I Shop Therefore I Am
A person is defined by what
he thinks , but by what he
owns.
Shopping is an expressive and
constitutive existential act.

16. People are created to be loved, and the
things were created to be used ; the reason
why the world is in so much chaos right
now is because people are being used and
things are being loved”.

17. 2. Pets as Extended Self
Pets are regarded as representative of self
and studies show that we attempt to infer
characteristics of people from their pets.
Some people observe that like people, pets
regarded as family members. Regardless, it's
significant we name our pets, feed and care
for them, photograph them, spend money on
them, groom them, talk to them, protect them,
sleep and play with them and mourn their
death.

18. Levinson(1972) and Robin and Bensel
(1985) found that pets are so
instrumental to self identity that they
are often useful as transition objects
(surrogate parents) for children and
surrogate children for adults. These
observations suggest that pets can be
therapeutic in expanding the self of
children, hospital patient and the
elderly.

19. 3. Body Parts as Extended Self
Body parts are among the most central parts of
the extended self. In psychoanalytic terms such
extension is called cathexis. Cathexis involves the
charging of an object, activity or idea with emotional
energy by the individual. The concept most
commonly has been applied to body parts and it is
known for instance that women tend to cathect
body parts to a greater degree than men and that
such cathexis reflect self acceptance. When a body
part is more highly cathected, there is greater use of
grooming products to care for this part of the body.