American materialism, consumerism and social values : a sociologial analysis of social issues and value priorities

American materialism is a concept put forth globally as a widely known "social fact"/stereotype (Roberts, 2004; Fox, 2001). However, little sociological research operationalizes materialism, or explores whether social-psychological attitudes of “self” affect materialistic values in the construction of a consumerist identity. Classical sociological and contemporary socio-political theory of culture and values (Baudrillard, 1981) are used to analyze qualitative and quantitative survey data obtained from an exploratory sample of 43 rural American young adults in mid-2001. To examine what socio-cultural values are embedded in consumption, indexes of materialism / consumerism, self-esteem and depression are correlated with the identification and prioritization of social issues, leisure pursuit activities and career aspirations, along with demographic variables such as class, gender, ethnicity and religion. Findings are contextualized within the larger social structural environment and recommendations for future cross-cultural research involving an Australian sample are proposed.