PREVIOUS : MM – Emotional Effects

SITE : The Psychology of Money….

 

✳️ MEANING of money (see Intro #3)
Personal VALUE 
Goldberg & Lewis (1978) suggest that money has essentially 4 emotion connotations, causing distortions in behavior :
☀︎ Freedom  – a necessity to acquire what you want
☀︎ Love  – an expression of, & substitute for affection
☀︎ Power – to gain importance, dominance & control
☀︎ Security – a primary way of staving off anxiety

Trouble is brewing when money is (mis)used to buy love, security, power, or when getting it is a goal rather than a reward.
EXP: Those who associated money with security tended to be hoarders, those who associated money with generosity tended to use money emotionally & compensatorially…..

BACKGROUND – There is research interest in “money genograms”, the social & emotional values attached to money originating in childhood family relations (Mumford and Weeks 2003). Childhood attitudes about money are usually shaped by parents’ financial habits as well as the family’s social environment – associated with stress or abundance.
Also, previous generations’ thoughts & beliefs about finances have influence, which may have been taught &/or observed by the child.  (MORE….)
(AI Overview – type  “Childhood attitudes about money” in google)

Based on our early life, our “money stories” are ingrained in the subconscious mind, so even though they are a major influence on how we feel about money, chances are we’re not even aware of them & how intensely they affects our adult financial behaviors.

DYSFUNCTION – Psychotherapists have noted highly irrational behavior of some people regarding their use of money, called “money neuroses”, with extreme kinds of worries. They state that money beliefs & behaviors are not isolated psychic phenomena but integral to the person as a whole, & a measure of underlying pathology. EXP : people who withhold money may also tend to withhold praise, affection or information from others.

Forman (1987) noted that of all the neuroses, the “money neurosis” is most widespread. Like all neurotic processes it involves fear & anxiety connected to unresolved conflict – expressed as maladaptive, self-defeating, irrational money behavior. Factor analysis work provided evidence of the four factors listed above – Freedom, Love, Power & Security – reflecting these specific money pathologies also identified by other researchers working in the area.

He argued that too many people have a simple equation like “money=love”, so the amount of money you spend on a person is proportional to the amount of love you have for them.
To help people identify their neurosis, Forman developed a general money sanity scale, a 20-item questionnaire, ranging  —> from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) <—,  assessing a person’s money sanity or the extent to which their attitudes to, & use of money is problematic.  (sample of Questions)

NOTE : Nearly all this work is based on case studies of middle-class people.  This was a cross-sectional study of a large European population group measured at a time of economic difficulty. Socio-economic & cultural factors could have influenced their results. FROM a UK study (2014).

High scores imply “insanity” or the presence of maladaptive money beliefs & behaviors. The dimensions do reflect the specific money “pathologies” identified by various different researchers working in the area. The scale gives a picture of many people are obsessed by money, thinking about it all the time, & of money being a powerful source of mainly negative emotions.
(CHART : Correlations between money attitude & money sanity factors)

EXP : re. Worried Spenders –  while some of the 20 items of the money insanity scale showed floor** effects (around 5 % or less of the sample said “yes” to the item),  a large number of studies endorse this particular money madness.
Over 40 % of respondents said they worried about spending money all the time (item 1), & half agreed they resent paying the full price in shops.  Nearly half – that they were flooded with guilt & anxiety when asking for money, over 1/3  felt anxious in spending money on themself, & 1/3 thought about money all the time.
** In psychological research,”floor effects = too hard” & “ceiling effects = too easy” refer to a large proportion of participants scoring at the absolutely lowest OR highest possible value on a scale.

NEXT : MM – Autonomy Worshipers, #1