ABSTRACT
Materialism can take a couple of paths into philosophical deep water. It can lead to contrasts with idealism or spiritualism, or it can lead to consideration of the ethical and moral proposition that the best life is the one that is most well-equipped with physical comforts and goods. Less extreme forms of materialism connected to ordinary consumer economics have been measured, and those measurements are prominent in the consumer behavior and marketing literature. Consumer culture as a specific term can be found in use in several contexts. It can be understood as a force that differentiates groups within a society. The connection of materialism and consumerism with psychological well-being has been meta-analyzed, and the scales used in that analysis can be tracked down, examined, and discussed as well; among them, along with the materialistic values scale, are the Money Ethic Scale, the Money Over Mind Questionnaire, the Spending Tendency Scale, and the Compulsive Buying Scale.
