The article entitled “The Silver Lining of Materialism” by Hudders & Pandelaere elaborates on materialism and the manner in which individuals are continuously in pursuit of possession and material wealth. One of the main aspects that are considered as facilitating this continued pursuit is luxury consumption as opined by the authors. The main objective of the study is to illustrate the level of influence luxury consumption has the pursuit of possessions and wealth. On analyzing the paper, the primary aspect that is considered is the structural equations which depict the strengths and weaknesses are pointed noted and their applicability to the said literature. Structural equations comprise of computer algorithms, mathematic models and statistical techniques that are employed in fitting networks that are imperative in constructing data. Some of the models created as structural equations include latent growth modeling, LISREL, confirmatory factor analysis and partial least squares.
The effectiveness of these models is assessing unnoticeable latent constructs that invokes the measurement of these variables. The structural equation employed in the study elaborated in the article is known as confirmatory factor analysis. There are several features in the study that support this claim. Firstly, this analysis is employed in social studies which, is the category that the subject topic is placed in. Secondly, it is utilized to evaluate the consistency of a construct as opined by the specific researcher in questions and which aligns with his comprehension on the nature of the factor. Case in point, the authors in this study have narrowed down to luxury consumption which represents the construct of interest in facilitating pursuit of materialistic possessions and wealth.
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The first strength that is applicable to the study and its employment of confirmatory factor analysis is that it will allow the researchers to test the validity of the hypotheses formulated to illustrate the correlation between the latent construct and the existing variables. The second strength is that through the employment of the CFA , the researchers are able to identify the concise number of latent variables that are existent in the study and determine the primary ones that should be focused on. The weaknesses of this model that is applicable to the study is that the CFA cannot be considered quite unbiased. This is because there are varied variables within the research that can create a stronger covariance as opposed to the primary variable. Additionally, it also fails to elaborate on the reasons for the covariance and its development.
The methodology used in the research to study the correlation between luxury consumer and materialism is multivariate outlier analysis. In simple definition, a multivariate outlier analysis can be described a statistical scoring technique which evaluates data derived from experiments with a minimum of two variables. It is important to understand that this analysis typically has a great influence on the outcome of the analysis conducted. The applicability of this method in the research is evident. This is primarily because there are more than one constructs. These constructs as further verified include luxury consumption, materialism, negative and positive effects , life continent and subjective wellbeing. This type of outlier is also applied and fits in the study because it allows for the researcher to identify the correlation relationships that exists between the stated constructs. One of the main issues that arise with studies that have more than one constructs is results indicating extreme distributions which surpass the normal expectations. With this in mind, the applicability and perfect fit of the multivariate outlier in this study is that it assists in the leveling out of the distribution to indicate expected or unexpected result that indicate normalcy and authenticity of the study.
The first result indicates that there is a short term sense of wellbeing derived from luxury consumption. According to the result deduced, this claim is valid because it indicates that this consumption leads development of a positive effect in an individual’s life and wellbeing. The second results points out that luxury consumption has been observed to have a positive effect on individuals’ moods over and extended amount of time. This does not mean there is long term effect on determining the general happiness of an individual; however, it does indicate that it contributes to a fraction of life satisfaction which can be determined by the moods experienced over an extended period.
The third result that was deduced and justified is luxury consumption serves as a reinforcing factor that prompts high materialistic individuals to pursue luxury lifestyles as compared to their counterparts. Hence, basing on this finding, it is therefore obvious that the highly materialistic population is likely to benefit from this form of consumption. Additionally, with regards to the benefiting aspect, it is imperative to understand that cognitive wellbeing has a significant role in determining the impact of luxury lifestyles. Based on this, it is valid to mention that low materialistic consumers, owing to the fact that they are less inclined to pursue materialistic possessions and wealth, they are likely to experience this impact at a greater extent as compared to their counterparts.
