It's not the money, it's the quest for a happier self: the role of happiness and success motives in the link between financial goals and subjective well-being

• Main Authors: Ragna B Gardarsdóttir, Helga Dittmar, Catherine Aspinall
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Uncategorised value; Locke; Iceland
• Online Access: https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/It_s_not_the_money_it_s_the_quest_for_a_happier_self_the_role_of_happiness_and_success_motives_in_the_link_between_financial_goals_and_subjective_well-being/23327552

There is consistent evidence for a moderate negative association between the pursuit of financial goals and subjective well-being (SWB; cf. Dittmar, 2008; Kasser & Kanner, 2004). However, there is some evidence to suggest that this negative link may hold only with respect to particular motives for wanting money (Sheldon, Ryan, Deci, & Kasser, 2004; Srivastava, Locke, & Bartol, 2001). We propose the quest for a happier self and success as two additional motives not examined previously, and examine a model in which the financial goal-SWB link is reduced to nonsignificance once money-motives are taken into account. Structural equation modeling in two studies, one with student samples from the United Kingdom and Iceland (N = 145, N = 139) and one with professional employees in the United Kingdom (N = 261), provides empirical support for the model, and demonstrates that the quest for a happier self through money is a particularly negative predictor of well-being.