Summary Of Tim Kasser The High Price Of Materialism

High Price of Materialism
Tim Kasser mentions, “…people who strongly value the pursuit of wealth and possessions report lower psychological well-being than those who are less concerned with such aims.” (365) By using an extensive amount of Logos, Ethos, an Repetition in his article “The High Price of Materialism”, Tim Kasser supports his argument that material items do not guarantee happiness.
Through use of ethos, Kasser conveys his idea that materialism leads to a less healthy lifestyle. From the beginning it is known that he is a professor of psychology and a prize-winning teacher at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois (365). Given the professors status at the school and publically, he is known to carry out his own studies on matters
relating to psychology. For this particular topic, Kasser administered all of the experiments to gather his findings. Once he collected all of the data he published his findings of how peoples values and goals relate to their well-being. Anyone who is a professor, published and prize winning is bound to hold a high level of credibility.
Kasser continues to support his hypothesis by the use of logos.
In order for the experiments to be carried out, Kasser had to develop a biographical questionnaire of sorts that covered questions of all topics. The survey became known as the aspiration index. When the questionnaire was drafted he wanted to cover all of the bases and not leave out any important factors that could possibly relate. Questions about disorders such as depression and anxiety were key players in the surveys. The frequency of the incidents was the primary concern though. Aside from the disorders it focused greatly on finding out the goals of the participant. Goals ranged from self-actualization, acceptance, and sense of community (366). Each question was meant to cover a key factor. All of these questions were designed to find out just how valuable financial success was to the individual in question. The results of the experiment were rather surprising. “Those who considered financial success a relatively central value reported significantly lower levels of self actualization and vitality, as well as significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety.” (Kasser 367) Essentially the results supported the premise that materialism is an unhealthy
thing.
Through use of repetition, Kasser further proves the idea that materialism leads to unhappiness. The experiments were repeated a number of times and altered to cover new ideas. In order to make the experiment data more accurate experiments must be repeated. When Kasser repeated his experiments, he would try with different age groups to see if the data would vary amongst age groups. Those tested varied in ages from Eighteen to Seventy Nine years old. He mainly wanted to find if the older a person got if their ideals changed, and if so their frequency of anxiety depression would change also. Those that were surveyed came from broad origins. All socioeconomic backgrounds were surveyed. The lower, middle, and upper class were all given the same survey with the intention of finding out if the results were different pending current social class. Once the survey experiments ran their course, Kasser tried the experiment from a different approach. He asked 192 students to complete the questionnaire, but in addition they were to keep a diary for 2 weeks. Twice a day the students were required to answer a series of questions about their current feelings. They were asked “…how much they had the same nine physical symptoms assessed in the adult sample and how much they felt each of the nine emotions…” (370). The results of the new experiment were the same as in the prior experiment therefore rendering his hypothesis true.
Combined, Logos, Ethos, and Repetition complete Kassers article. He uses each rhetorical device to his advantage to push his idea that materialism does not lead to guaranteed happiness. His credible background and usage of logos and repetition helped form his findings into an article that was resourceful enough to back his original hypothesis.