Tim Kasser's the High Price Essay

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Based upon these results, Kasser posed the question as to what other values advanced by capitalist society were linked low levels of mental and physical health, such as maintaining a strong social image. He tested the links between aspirations to financial success, the need for social esteem, and image-related concerns in his next study. Social image was measured by ranking such statements high as: "Your name will be known by many people; You will be famous; You will be admired by many people." Valuing an 'appealing' appearance involved agreeing with statements about having an attractive image and successfully hiding the effects of aging as important values. In this second round of surveys, extrinsic drivers such as money, fame, and materialism all seemed to be linked as a 'cluster' of aspirations found in persons who also ranked high in anxiety and depression and low in vitality and levels of self-actualization.

When Kasser administered his Aspiration Index to a still-broader cross-section of individuals from Germany and Russia, materialistic aspirations and poor mental health were also correlated, despite what Kasser called the less materialistic and consumerist cultures of these societies, in comparison to the United States. The complete Aspiration Index, when tested upon a population of male and female 18-79-year-old adults in a diverse area of Rochester, New York found that a lack of emotional and physical vitality and a prioritization of financial wealth, fame, and public image were conjoined.

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This linkage was true regardless of the respondent's age, race, and most tellingly social class (given that it might be possible that poorer individuals with a lack of access to healthcare and opportunities might be more materialistic in their aspirations). Thus Kasser began refining his hypothesis based upon a relatively small sampling of college students, and gradually subjected his conjecture to more and more diverse and broad-ranging populations of individuals.

Kasser's academic approach links ideology to empirical research. While Kasser clearly has a political agenda, he does attempt to use scientific testing and high levels of methodological scrutiny when testing his results. Academic writers such as Kasser use the previous research of others and data from a wide variety of disciplines (philosophy, sociology, psychology, and cultural studies) to conduct their own research and to inform their construction of a hypothesis that is then tested in as objective a fashion as possible.

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