5.5. The Effect of Money on the Formation of Personality - The Psychology of Money

General psychology studies a person by himself or in interaction with other people. However, in real life, a person is still in at least two areas - the spiritual and the real. It interacts with the object world of things, perceived in the totality of its features and in the minds of people. According to O. Deineka, it reflects the labor invested, price and value, subjective utility, functionality, spirituality, symbolism. The presence of different things among different people establishes between them a certain hierarchy, which they perceive naturally, and either do not oppose it, or try to occupy higher levels in it. Money is a generalized formalized side of the real world.

Children sometimes from 4-6 years old understand the purpose of money, they know that, having them, you can buy something that can change their role among peers. Moreover, they understand those for whom it is important both in childhood and then “to have”, and those for whom it is important to “be.” The stages of forming attitudes toward money were determined in the study of the economic socialization of B. Staci (see Table 4).

Table 4

Stages of formation of attitudes towards money

Ideas about money in children of different countries are formed according to the degree of their involvement in adult life. So, Hong Kong and African kids learn the concept of benefits before, because they are involved in business before . Moreover, in adult life, this experience is realized depending on the “scope” of the business, on the level of the economy and on the inclination of the children themselves. Some may turn into big businessmen, others will remain only small traders.

In the work and . and E. Newsan studied the attitudes of children of different social groups to money.

• Children from working families receive twice as much pocket money as their middle-class peers, but they spend more actively associating with them the enjoyment (52% of them spend money during the week).

• Children from the middle class often save money for future use (even in a bank) or for specific things.

• According to the research of A. Fenham and P. Thomas, parents from the middle class give children a fixed amount of pocket money, starting to do it from an earlier age than in working families.

• Through spending money, children learn the traditional model of class behavior. However, other scholars argue that the understanding of the world of money is more than the parents influenced by the environment - school, peers, and teachers.

The author of the review of Western studies of the economic ideas of children E. V. Shchedrin offers parents a number of recommendations according to which it is rational to give children the opportunity to spend the amounts issued, plan expenses, save and earn money. Many domestic researchers agree with this view, believing that the cash amount will allow the child to harmonize the influence of parents, peers, and schools. True, the economic socialization obtained in the family has a strong influence on the economic behavior of children. They often spend money on the same model as their parents (they buy a lot of cheap things or save for expensive ones, etc.).

In any group, people's relationships are formed according to their position, property, and personal contribution to the existence of the group. Relationships of children are determined by their personal property. The appearance of a new thing changes the position of the owner and the position of the children in the group. Domestic research took place in the mainstream of these studies. It was possible to find out that high school students are more conscious about money than younger students (which is natural with our late economic socialization). Boys more carefully control their budget than girls. New in the economic behavior of young people is to increase the role of monetary motivation. Money became a significant factor when comparing people, frustration appeared with deformation of family financial relations (for example, when one mother works and the father is unemployed).

Using the modified method of R. Kettell, it turned out that children with high self-esteem give less importance to prestige factors, money, and with low self-esteem they hide for money, try to strengthen their position with them, at least in their own eyes. Social courage is manifested in a greater risk appetite, high self-control is expressed in stronger financial self-control. Anxiety is also reflected in concern about spending, saving and a lot of fantasy about money. These results were obtained when testing students who are not yet included in all stages of reproduction. Entering only into separate economic ties, they demonstrate the predominance of personality determinants in monetary behavior. A similar phenomenon is observed in groups of adults. True, adults are in closer economic dependencies, their stereotypes and age characteristics affect their behavior, they are more interested in maintaining their unchanged position, trying to unite into more or less equal in status layers.

Possession of money causes the very different behavior of people in the field of self-affirmation. Sometimes money is the only way to consolidate one’s position, one’s status in society or one’s perception of one’s self, to change the “image of the Self”. Investing in real estate, buying different things reinforces a sense of self-realization. Personal property, prestigious clothing or a car, leisure opportunities, good food leave a certain imprint on the perception of one person by others. Sometimes for the self-satisfaction of the individual the very fact of owning money is important. The phenomenon of a poor millionaire, though infrequently, but still met in old Russia. And Koreiko from the "Golden Calf" I. Ilf and E. Petrov is not a random character. And now, a person who has even small money in stock feels more confident.

Attitude to money is determined by the nature of their use. Money can be a means of expanding production, business, as they serve as an intermediary and incentive in the process of reproduction. In this case, the status of a person is determined by his role in the production process. For self-affirmation of some people the very possibility of earning a large amount of money is important, and for some unknown reason. At the same time, they do not change lifestyle, consumption, and often do not have a family.

Feeling rich or poor has an impact on the formation of orientation and professional choice of the individual. Lack of money from young representatives of poor families encourages them to choose a profession with high wages, to organize commercial or productive activities. Often this is done contrary to inclinations, makings and abilities, and in modern Russia also to family traditions. If they "survive", gain a position in society, then, as a rule, they develop a stern, not prone to sentiment and empathy character. A rich person has a completely different choice of activities. Theoretically, they are more diverse and more related to his personal preferences. The focus on business can be fully manifested (this is how labor dynasties are formed), on the development of economic activity. There may be a refusal to continue the family business, followed by either the position of the rentier, or de-socialization, up to the loss of oneself (some of M. Gorky’s characters), charitable or patronage activities, or a change of profession, the opening of a new business. Naturally, the possibility of variations of choice affects the formation of personality. In any case, according to W. James, personality in the broad sense is the “I” plus capital and cash, the change of which inevitably affects the transformation of the “I.”

Money as an attribute of the market society is involved in the expansion of the material world, forcing people to earn more and replace some things with others. This gives rise, as E. Fromm wrote, to the tendency of plastic, flexible and superficial thinking to prevail, in the world of ideas - of superficial, diverse, but shallow knowledge, in the sphere of personality formation - of plastic, flexible, "market" nature. At the social level - the increasing dominance of fragmented, superficial communication, "mosaic" consciousness of people who are consumers of mass culture products.

When a person gets into a condition of long-term lack of money, lack of it even for food (as a result of unemployment, ruin, natural social or natural disasters), his psyche begins to degrade. First, labor skills and qualifications are often lost, and the way of life is simplified. A person gradually becomes a margin. Secondly, since social space does not tolerate emptiness, it becomes easy for such people to be involved in various kinds of social actions (which has long been noticed by state figures, including Hitler).

In the conditions of economic transformations and the protracted rupture of the functioning of the monetary and commodity elements and the classical commodity-money-commodity and money-commodity-money circulation in modern Russia, there was a shortage of money compensated by barter. It can contribute to the development of the criminal economy, both on a national scale and at the level of individuals. Put in terms of the need to trade goods received by barter from other enterprises or received as remuneration at their enterprise, people are forced to socialize according to a new, unusual, far from always desirable model, fall into unusual groups, subordinate to strange people, etc. Their habitual attitude towards money may change.

An interesting feature of the psyche is the ability to compare the amount of earnings with costs (we are talking about societies in which wages are sufficient for living). Receiving the same salary, some "fit" this amount, while others always lack it - they have to borrow money, earn money, etc. This feature was confirmed by the observations of students of Leningrad universities of the 70s (some had paid a scholarship for a month, others it was not enough for two days), for individuals (there is a case when a geologist, a lone doctor with a salary of 400 rubles regularly borrowed money "before the payday" from his neighbor, who receives a forty-ruble pension).