Money is often considered one and the most important factor of social position and status. In spite of great social and ideological changes in the modern era, money still plays a dominant role in views of people (Frisby 101). Two attitudes toward money involve negative perception of money as universal evil and positive perception of money as source of good life and prosperity. The impersonal meanings of money are changed from personal meaning and far from neutral to subjective social meaning.
The negative perception of money is associated with their influence an impact on people and their attitudes. The main argument is that money for many people is found to be as a potential source of degradation and awkwardness, of worry and nervousness; an interpretation that is independent of actual income. In contrast to this view, money understood as gentle, good and socially desirable issue comes only second in this ranking, and the practical value of money (calm and safety) comes fifth out of the seven points. While the sample is perhaps unusual, again there is predominance of negative emotions and feelings money. Critics admit that the main emotions and characterization of money as a negative issue involve ‘anxiety’, ‘depression’, ‘anger’ and ‘helplessness’. Negative perception of wealth and money is found among poor and low class people (Frisby 87).
Positive perception of money is typical for people with high income citizens and wealthy individuals. These people associate money with aspects of power (of social status, social comparison, respect, control) and of freedom and liberation). For many people with high income, material comfort and safety receive less emphasis, perhaps assumed within notions of power and autonomy. The behavioral issues, the domain in which ‘official’ objective opinions of money holds sway, seem roughly a postscript, an secondary aspect of money-meanings when explored from a social perspective. Two different attitudes towards money are stipulated by social position and personal beliefs of a person. Negativity is prevalent among those people who suffer poverty and were poor in childhood. Extensive negativity is uncovered and recognized but not explained (Frisby 43).
Two different attitudes towards money are related to understanding the function and appropriateness of money in some situations. Some individuals tend to think that money is not suitable for certain dealings, such as gifts, because it is too impersonal. The embarrassment stems, though, from the fact that money is, in another sense, too private. Money is so imbued with complex psychological structures, meanings held deliberately and automatically by both giver and receiver — and these concepts may not match — that to give money as a gift is burdened with difficulty. Money can be a token of comparative status and value and this makes it complex enough in dealings with others. In addition, the reminiscences of money from infancy have shown that money stories and life stories are linked. Critics agree that personal money attitudes are usually kept secret and that they this situation can be a source of negativity and anxiety (Frisby 23).
Positive and optimistic attitudes towards money depend on several factors. The first, and most significant, of these is the basic tendency or orientation developed in early infancy. Other more external or social factors will influence that fundamental orientation, encouraging it, locking it in, or disappointing, pushing it in other directions. The level of worry people fell about money is based on the extent to which their views and opinions are being threatened or subverted by parents. So am individual predisposed to holding in will feel far more nervous about new money into their savings than will individual who basically feels money is for spending, the individual who lets it go more easily.
Thos who have negative attitudes towards money may be anxious about taxation compliance, for instance; individuals may have money worries and feel negative; the wealthy may want to be diplomatic and consequently secretive. Negativity comes from the well-off as from the poor. Confidentiality is as common among the poor people as among the wealthy. Confidentiality and negativity go beyond income levels. The connections which exist between the two attitudes towards money or interest in money, which seem so different, come into view to be the most far-reaching.’ For with positive attitudes towards money is more typical to see money as a link between possessions-savings-money-power. For people with negative attitudes towards money, it is more natural to perceive money as morry-anziety -stress order. Some individuals want dependency; they seem unable to grasp a sense of themselves as independent, self-governing beings, preferring to let others take the lead. This approach to diminish personal value can also lead to self-defeating in financial behavior (Frisby 54).
In sum, two different and opposite attitudes towards money are created in yearly childhood and influence a person all his life. The children of wealthy parents usually create positive attitude towards money as source of freedom and material prosperity. Poor people usually develop a sense of anxiety connected with lack of financial resources and worries about future, job and security issues. In both cases, personal control is the input to understanding money attitudes.
Works Cited
Frisby, D. The Philosophy of Money. Routledge; 2 edition, 2002.