Compensation About Materialism Value For Lower Class Undergraduate Students' Self-Esteem

Materialism is the belief that it is important to acquire money and material possessions. With the rapid development of market economy, more and more Chinese regard pursuing materials as the first important thing, especially youths. A great number of studies have found materialism has negative effect on social development and personal growth. Therefore, it is significant to conduct study on the antecedents of materialism in order to control materialism level and guide forming health value and consumption habits.And the formation of materialism values is influenced by individual families in the socialization process. Family social class as an important factor has large influence on individual psychological and behavior. In recent years, class differentiation is intensified.Based on these circumstances, this thesis investigates the relations between social class and materialism as well as psychological mechanism by questionnaire and experiment method. Finally, it discusses whether materialism has effect on self-esteem among lower class.Based on questionnaire method, study 1 collected survey data in different college in Wuhan, getting a sample of 405 individuals. The results showed that the effect of an individual's subject social class on materialism value is significant, lower class students have stronger materialism value. And the self-esteem in the rich-poor gap played mediate effect between subject social class and materialism value.Study 2 went on to further explore its causal relationship and potential mediating effect between subject social class and materialism value, using experiment method. 70 participated postgraduates were randomly arranged into two treatment groups, priming them with higher or lower subject social class. The results showed that the effect of an individual's subject social class on materialism value is significant, lower class students were likely to have stronger materialism value. And the self-esteem in the rich-poor gap played mediate effect between subject social class and materialism value.Based on previous two study, study 3 adopts experiment method to investigate whether materialism tendency is an effective strategy for people in lower social class to react to lower self-esteem. This study randomly selects 66 undergraduates in lower social class as subjects. 33 subjects who are in experimental groups adopt imagining paradigm to prime materialism while 33 subjects in controlled group do not take it. The result reveals that the self-esteem level of subjects who are in lower social class after priming materialism increases obviously.To sum up, the above-mentioned 3 studies explore the materialism value of' college students from the perspective of social class and provide advice to cultivate right value on college students.