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Your Money or Your Life: Behavioral and Emotional Predictors of Money Pathology

Department of Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1 OAP, England.

Ryo Okamura

Department of Psychology, University College London, London WC1 OAP, England.

This study sought to examine self-reported emotional and behavioral correlates of money pathology, defined as inappropriate behavior with respect to money and associated material goods. In all, 267 British adult subjects completed a battery of questionnaires including Rubinstein's (1981) extensive Psychology Today survey on money and Forman's ipsative measures that describe five Money Pathology Scales (miser, spendthrift, tycoon, bargain hunter, gambler), an overall pathology scale combining the five and his short moneysanity measure. The former measure was factor analyzed and selected factor scores regressed on to the moneysanity measure along with demographic measures in order to attempt to establish which individual difference factors best predicted the different types of money pathology. Thus females were more extravagant, prone to depression, but less likely to take moral risks for money, while richer, more right-wing people tended to be more materialistic. Those with overall less "money sanity" tended more to believe luck and dishonesty were more important in making money; were self-denying and economically pessimistic, and had powerful negative emotions like anger and anxiety around money. Multiple regressions on to the money types showed that between 15 and 30% of the variance could be explained and accounted for, by the selected independent variables (demographic, religious and political belief, illness, and more general attitudes toward wealth). Demographic variables like age, and negative emotions about money were consistent predictors of money pathology. Results are discussed in terms of the small, but growing literature on the psychology of money (Furnham, 1997; Furnham & Argyle, 1998).

Key Words: money • materialism • pathology • money madness • coins

Human Relations, Vol. 52, No. 9, 1157-1177 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/001872679905200903


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