Materialistic Teenagers Are Materialistic Teenagers Less Motivated

Materialistic Teenagers Are Materialistic Teenagers Less Motivated to Learn? Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Evidence from the United Kingdom and Hong Kong The paper will analyze a paper that focuses on the behavior of materialistic teenagers, as the findings and the conclusion of the paper will help in adding knowledge in the field of clinical psychology.

The study "Are Materialistic Teenagers Less Motivated to Learn? Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Evidence From the United Kingdom and Hong Kong" written by Lisbeth Ku, Helga Dittmar and Robin Banerjee in the year 2012 has focused on the behaviors of materialistic teenagers and the effects of materialism on the learning behavior. Beginning of the study is strong as many facts in relation to the topic have been given.

It has been reported that within the period of three decades, there has been an increase of more than 20% students from UK and Hong Kong who believe that the university education can help in increasing earning capacity of the individuals. This fact seems to be favored and supported at the government level as well. UK government released a report on higher education where the ability of universities in increasing earning power was discussed.

The second important fact that has been mentioned in the study is that with the belief that the university education increases earning power decreases their interest in learning. Thereby here it can be added that materialistic orientations of the students is negatively related to the learning outcomes. The beginning of the study has many questions that are to be answered in the coming sections. Firstly, if the relationship between materialistic orientation of the students and learning outcomes can be applied on students of all educational levels.

Second, if there is any involvement of psychologies in relationship between materialism and learning orientation of the students. Third important question is in relation to the factors that are involved in reduced performance of materialistic students in the schools. Fourth important question is in relation to the direction of linkage between materialistic orientation and lesser educational performance of the materialistic students in schools (Watson, 2003, p. 723).

An important fact that needs to be mentioned here is that theoretical approach has been used in the paper that discusses the given issue in more detail. The study has firstly defined in detail the term materialism, In reference to many authors who have conducted studies on the same topic. The section has mentioned that there are two main modes with the help of which the questions in the study are to be answered.

These include social motives and materialistic motives involved in reduced educational performance of the students (Watson, 2003, p. 730). Social motives in these cases have been defined by the presence of materialistic cues and money that can define and enhance status and reputation of a student. Materialism on the other hand has been defined as an important aim and goal in life that can help in getting other life goals. The second important theoretical concept has given in the paper is that of achievement goals.

The achievement goals have been linked with the development of competence. Two kinds of goals have been mentioned in the study, intrinsic and extrinsic. In these cases, money is the extrinsic goal while learning is an intrinsic goal. Money being an extrinsic goal can negatively affect the learning outcomes in the students. With reference to previous studies, it has been mentioned that materialistic students worry more about social issues and their social status.

While, students having performance goals are the ones that compare their learning abilities with their peers thus trying to perform better with coming time. Age has been counted as one factor of materialism. Comparison of 10, 14 and 17-year-old students has been studied showing the fact that 14-year-old teenagers are more materialistic as compared to the rest. Mastery has been defined as increased engagement in learning. The third important section is in relation to the methodology used. Cross section and longitudinal findings have been used for the study.

A total of 577 teenagers were distributed the questionnaires. The students belonged to four different schools in UK and Hong Kong. Some of the main sections of the questionnaires included performance approach, achievement goals, Performance-Avoidance and socio-economic status. The results gathered from the first study indicated that materialism negatively affected mastery goals. It had positive effects on performance avoidance and performance approach goals in the students from UK and Hong Kong. Follow up study was the second study in which after a period of one year, 228 students were contacted.

The second study showed that materialism has negative effects on the learning outcomes. One of.