Professional paper

Assessing materialism in Indian urban youth

Rimple Manchanda orcid.org/0000-0002-7374-3388 ; Galgotias University, Noida, India
Naseem Abidi ; Jaypee Business School, Noida, India
Jitendra Kumar Mishra ; MATS Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bangalore, India

Abstract

In India, the concept of materialism has shifted from (the Indian philosophical concepts) Lokāyata/Cārvāka, from supernaturalism to naturalism, following the development of science and modernism. People, who were predominantly religious and believed in philosophical idealism, as opposed to materialism, have started following philosophical materialism to express their worldview and progress. E.g., living in a big city and owning a car is perceived as an orientation toward material goods and materialism, which may not be true. This study makes an attempt to develop a measure for materialistic orientation, which takes into account the cultural and behavioural distinctions of Indian urban youth. Existing measures of materialism are reviewed to develop a measure that is more attuned to trace the contextual materialism in Indian urban youth. Findings of the study suggest that, in order to measure the level of materialism, three dimensions need to be considered, i.e. significance, individuality and satisfaction.

Keywords

materialism; idealism; material satisfaction; material significance; material individuality

Hrčak ID:

150578

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/150578

Publication date:

21.12.2015.

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