Psychology of Money - Research Paper Example

From centuries ago, money is one of the factors that have been of prime and significant importance for any individual, regardless of being wealthy or underprivileged. Since time immemorial, the study of humans behavior, perceptions and mindset is of immense concern for the psychologist, therefore, they have been in constant exploration of the functioning of human’s frame of mind towards various perspectives, and psychology of money is one of it. The behaviors and perceptions of an individual may develop from the influence of many facets such as the person’s social environment, surroundings and gatherings, family inheritance, traditions, cultural norms and the economical factors. For several people, certain activities or actions that tend to carry out are without any reason or cause behind it, as they just need to please themselves or feel satisfied, that can also be termed as the self-less acts and do not provide with any justifications for the executed actions. According to some schools of thought, the actions called as selfless acts do not exist, as each activity performed should be justifiable, and has some type of motive behind it to get the advantage from it (Goldberg, Lewis, pp. 75-155). As almost every individual gets the learning from his or her school and families to be accountable for their actions, yet, the people forget it at their juvenile period and give priorities to the people and teachings that persuade them and give unreasonable explanations for all actions due to the reason that they came under learning to do so. While the world has entered the twenty first century, the rising cycle of competition has made the approach and way of thinking of the people fated and condemned. Money, moreover, is now playing a dominant role in the life of a person, as it has become a symbol of class and status for one person. People have forgotten their values, traditions, cultures and moral ethics, and just run in the race to achieve more and move ahead from other people. As an outcome of it, greed and hunger for more enters into the blood of the human beings and humans develop such an attitude that they can go to the extreme level as well in order to get the money or power and to fulfill their hunger. Some people think and believe that money is the ultimate power that facilitates in achieving all their desires and wishes of buying, setting ones’ status and travelling. Money can buy any happiness in this world. When the person becomes gluttonous, he is more likely to perform like an ant who stores more food to their homes as a security and savings for future. Likewise, humans’ believes design their mindsets in such a way that the limit cannot come under definition to what extent it is enough or is a great deal, as whatever the person possess is not enough for them. Greed is one of the gloomy faces of the human nature that even make them perform the most brutal act that is to take others’ life. These kinds of people sometimes even suffer from psychological disorders due to which their brains provoke them to take such steps (Furnham & Аргиле, pp. 129-152). Initially, a person considered himself only as a breadwinner for his family and only thought of earning money so that they can fulfill the basic needs and wants for their families. However, according to the human psychology, the person is always in search for more. As the needs and wants come under fulfillment, the person earns more so that they can have a luxurious life. The luxuries then turn to the value and status for an individual and make extra money to achieve that. The person whether rich or poor, can make himself involve in any kind of crime for his status, power in the society and even for fulfillment of basic needs. With the today’s fast-paced world, everybody is in a hurry of achieving the maximum in the least time. The psychology of money was unrevealed until the last few decades, but the recent studies came to observations that money has left a paranormal and conjuring impact on the minds of the humans. In addition, it has also left an indelible imprint not only on an individual’s emotions, behaviors and attitudes, personalities and everyday lives but also on society as a whole. For a large faction of population the meaning of money comes under the direct relation to security and an approach or a medium through which ones’ aspirations, aims, and dream comes under attainment. Initially, a person’s objective is to provide the basic needs and necessities like shelter, clothing, and food to its family but eventually the person broadens its vision and work for more money to save for future. With the increase in money, the aims rise and a person works to build his status and this process continues (Goldberg, Lewis, pp.221-240). According to psychologists, money has a great deal to do with the emotions, as emotions are directly proportionate to fear and fear is the basis of evading, overlooking and dawdle that creates a evil thought from doing or achieving their goals. Occasionally, it has come under observation that people try to finance their internal needs such as love, family bond, freedom etc. with money but has come under experience that money can only satisfy them but not bring internal happiness with related to their self-esteem needs. With the luxuries or materialistic entities like big mansion, cars etc. people are not able to have enduring happiness; rather they just feel satisfied, as they possess the luxuries and their status in the society when comparing him to others (Coon, Mitterer, pp.319-350). Where people act and perform absurd things such as killings and fraud with others for the sake of money, some people even have faced serious psychological mishaps like depression and kleptomania. Money is the prime aspect, reason, and cause for such enormities. It has come under observation that people splurge the use of money in order to satisfy their feelings of lonesomeness, tediousness, dullness, sorrow, unhappiness, and depression. Due to these psychological disorders, the tendency of people for fulfilling the need of money leads to eccentric and fatuous acts such as robbery (Coon, Mitterer, pp.319-350). The conclusions of some researches also show the findings that money leaves a great impact as people become more selfish and consider to think for themselves and their needs becomes their top most priority. The power of money is also leading to lose the self-control of a person and future savings are less likely to encounter. According to some schools of thought, money and psychology are the two components that interlinks with both, as they are directly in proportion to each other. The inner character, emotions, approach, actions, idea, and conviction formulate and build an immense deal of persuasion on the financial conditions of an individual (Forgas, Baumeister, Tice, pp. 53-72). According to the findings by the studies, it has come under evidence that in today’s era regardless of a person’s age, physical looks, shape and presentation mostly all women search for men that tends to be richer, powerful and well settled in life and vice versa. Money has even have manipulated the sexuality of people but the direct connection has yet not been understood (Forgas, Baumeister, Tice, pp. 53-72). People like Bernie Madoff, who was a well-settled person in respect of his job and his financial conditions, came under involvement in a number of cases of fraud, according to reports. He had multiple assets that included many properties, investments, and hard cash. Despite of being a financially sound person, he made himself engaged in numerous fraud activities. He deceived many people and different companies for billions of dollars. His actions were crazy as nobody can expect a wealthy person like him to perform such actions. People like him may get into these activities due to the hunger of possessing much more than what they have. This psychology of money gives a clear understanding as when a person reaches a high status level, in order to maintain it, he, or she might be involved in activities that may include fraud, deceiving, or murder for money and maintenance of their status. As they want to be financially superior from everyone in their neighborhood or in the society. These kinds of people even suffer from an internal fear of losing the luxuries they are enjoying, for which they can go to any limit or extent (Oppenheimer, pp. 25-150). With the above discussions, it can come under conclusion that the psychology of money has played a great deal of importance for any individual in today’s era. It has transformed the mind, behavior, attitudes, and the personality of a person. As according to a famous saying "Money is the root of all evil," (Goldberg, Lewis, pp. 244) the fact cannot come under denial as it has affected a huge faction of the globe where the traditional beliefs, customs, meaning of relationship, respect has vanished. Works Cited Coon, Dennis, Mitterer, John O. Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior. Cengage Learning, 2008. Forgas, Joseph P, Baumeister, Roy F, Tice, Dianne M. Psychology of Self-Regulation. Taylor & Francis, 2009. Furnham, Adrian. The psychology of money. Routledge, 1998. Goldberg, Herb, Lewis, Robert T. Money Madness: The Psychology of Saving, Spending, Loving, and Hating Money. Wellness Institute, Inc., 2000. Oppenheimer, Jerry. Madoff with the Money. John Wiley and Sons, 2010. Read More