Publications : Consumer Culture, Identity, and Well-Being : University of Sussex

Ashikali, E. M., Dittmar, H., & Ayers, S. (2016). Adolescent girls’ views on cosmetic surgery: A focus group study. Journal of health psychology, 21(1), 112-121.

Schaefer, L. M., Burke, N. L., Thompson, J. K., Dedrick, R. F., Heinberg, L. J., Calogero, R. M., ... & Anderson, D. A. (2015). Development and validation of the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4 (SATAQ-4). Psychological assessment, 27(1), 54-67.

Ashikali, E. M., Dittmar, H., & Ayers, S. (2015). The Impact of Cosmetic Surgery Advertising on Women’s Body Image and Attitudes Towards Cosmetic Surgery. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 1-19. Advance online publication.

Dittmar, H., Bond, R., Hurst, M., & Kasser, T. (2014). The relationship between materialism and personal well-being: A meta-analysis. Journal of personality and social psychology, 107(5), 879-924.

Easterbrook, M. J., Wright, M. L., Dittmar, H., & Banerjee, R. (2014). Consumer culture ideals, extrinsic motivations, and well‐being in children. European journal of social psychology, 44(4), 349-359.

Ku, L., Dittmar, H., & Banerjee, R. (2014). To have or to learn? The effects of materialism on British and Chinese children’s learning. Journal of personality and social psychology, 106(5), 803-821.

Unanue, W., Dittmar, H., Vignoles, V. L., & Vansteenkiste, M. (2014). Materialism and Well‐being in the UK and Chile: Basic Need Satisfaction and Basic Need Frustration as Underlying Psychological Processes. European Journal of Personality, 28(6), 569-585.

Ashikali, E. M., Dittmar, H., & Ayers, S. (2014). The effect of cosmetic surgery reality tv shows on adolescent girls’ body image. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3(3), 141-153.

Kasser, T., Rosenblum, K. L., Sameroff, A. J., Deci, E. L., Niemiec, C. P., Ryan, R. M., ... & Hawks, S. (2014). Changes in materialism, changes in psychological well-being: Evidence from three longitudinal studies and an intervention experiment. Motivation and Emotion, 38(1), 1-22.

Hurst, M., Dittmar, H., Bond, R., & Kasser, T. (2013). The relationship between materialistic values and environmental attitudes and behaviors: A meta-analysis. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 36, 257-269.

Ku, L., Dittmar, H., & Banerjee, R. (2012). Are materialistic teenagers less motivated to learn? Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from UK and Hong Kong. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, 74-86.

Garðarsdóttir, R. & Dittmar, H. (2012). The relationship of materialism to debt and financial well-being: The case of Iceland’s perceived prosperity. Journal of Economic Psychology, 33, 471-481.

Graham-Rowe, E., Gardner, B., Abraham, C., Skippon, S., Dittmar, H., Hutchins, R. & Stannard, J. (2012). Mainstream consumers driving plug-in battery-electric and plug-in hybrid electric cars: A qualitative analysis of responses and evaluations. Transportation Research Part A, 46, 140-153.

Brown, R., de Visser, R., Dittmar, H., Drury, J., Farsides, T., Jessop, D., & Sparks, P. (2012). Social psychology and policy-making: Past neglect, future promise. Public Policy Research, 18(4), 227-234.

Dittmar, H. (2012). Dolls and action figures. In T. Cash (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Body Image and Human Appearance. New York: Elsevier.

Dittmar, H. & Kapur, P. (2011). Consumerism and well-being in India and the UK: Identity projection and emotion regulation as underlying psychological processes. Special issue on Self and Identity. Psychological Studies, 65, 71-85.

Ashikali, E.-M. & Dittmar, H. (2011). The effect of priming materialism on women's responses to thin-ideal media. British Journal of Social Psychology.

Dittmar, H. (2011). Material and consumer identities. In S. Schwartz, K. Luyckx, & V. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of Identity Theory and Research (pp. 745-769). Springer.

Bell, B.T. & Dittmar, H. (2011). Does Media Type Matter? The Role of Identification in Adolescent Girls’ Media Consumption and the Impact of Different Thin-Ideal Media on Body image. Sex Roles, 65, 478-490. (Supervised first author).

Dittmar, H. & Bond, R. (2010). I want it and I want it now: Self-discrepancies and materialistic values as predictors of ordinary and compulsive buyers’ temporal discounting of different consumer goods. British Journal of Psychology, 101, 751-776.

Benson, A., Dittmar, H., & Wolfsohn, R. (2010). Compulsive buying: Cultural contributors and consequences. In E. Aboujaoude & L.M. Koran (Eds.), Impulse Control Disorders (pp. 23-33). Cambridge University Press.

Ashikali, E. M. & Dittmar, H. (2010). Body Image and Restrained Eating in Blind and Sighted Women: A Preliminary Study. Body Image, 7, 172-175.

Dittmar, H., Halliwell, E. & Stirling, E. (2009). Understanding the impact of thin media models on women’s body-focused affect: The roles of thin-ideal internalization and weight-related self-discrepancy activation in experimental exposure effects. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 28, 43-72.

Garðarsdóttir, R., Dittmar, H., & Aspinall, C. (2009). 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. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 28, 1100-1127.

Dittmar, H. (2009). How do ‘body perfect’ ideals in the media have a negative impact on body image and behaviours? Factors and processes related to self and identity. Editorial for special issue on Mass media, body image and eating behaviours. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 28, 1-8.

Polley, S., Dittmar, H., Hutton, S. (2009). Using eye-tracking to measure the impact of individual differences in materialism on advertising effectiveness. P. De Pelsmacker & N. Dens (Eds), [Book details to be added] .

Garðarsdóttir, R.B. & Dittmar, H. (2009). Sálfræðileg forspá um skuldir (Predictors of personal debt). In Gunnar Þór Jóhannesson & Helga Björnsdóttir (Eds.), Rannsóknir í Félagsvísindum X (pp. 813-826). Reykjavík: Félagsvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands.

Árnadóttir, Ö. & Dittmar, H. (2009). Ádur vildum við vera útrásarvíkingar en nú viljum við ekki vera feik hedur gódar manneskjur: Efnishyggia, gildisbreything og velliðan í kreppu (Once we were entrepreneurs, now we just want to be good people: Value shift and well-being in recession). In Gunnar Þór Jóhannesson & Helga Björnsdóttir (Eds.), Rannsóknir í Félagsvísindum X (pp. 827-838). Reykjavík: Félagsvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands.

Banerjee, R. & Dittmar, H. (2008). Individual differences in children’s materialism: The role of peer relations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 17-31.

Dittmar, H. (2007). The costs of consumer culture and the ‘cage within’: The impact of the material ‘good life’ and ‘body perfect’ ideals on individuals’ identity and well-being. Commentary on Kasser, T. Cohn, S., Kanner, A. D., & Ryan, R. M. (2006). Some costs of American corporate capitalism: A psychological exploration of value and goal conflicts. Psychological Inquiry, 18, 1-9.

Bell, B. T., Lawson, R., & Dittmar, H. (2007). The impact of thin models in music videos on adolescent girls’ body dissatisfaction. Body Image, 4, 137-145.

Halliwell, E., Dittmar, H., & Orsborn, A. (2007). The effects of exposure to muscular male models amongst men who use the gym and non-exercisers: The moderating role of exercising to increase muscle strength. Body Image, 4, 278-287.

Dittmar, H., Long, K. & Bond, R. (2007). When a better self is only a button click away: Associations between materialistic values, emotional and identity-related buying motives, and compulsive buying tendency online. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 26, 334-361.

Dittmar, H., Halliwell, E., & Ive, S. (2006). Does Barbie make girls want to be thin? The effect of experimental exposure to images of dolls on the body image of 5-8-year-old girls. Developmental Psychology, 42, 283-292.

Halliwell, E., & Dittmar, H. (2006). Associations between appearance-related self-discrepancies and young women’s and men’s affect, body image, and emotional eating: A comparison of fixed-item and respondent-generated self-discrepancy measures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 447-458.

Jankovic, J. & Dittmar, H. (2006). The componential nature of materialistic values and subjective well-being: A comparison of students in Croatia, Germany and the UK. In A. Delle Fave, (Ed.), Dimensions of well-being: Research and intervention (pp. 34-52). Milano: Franco Angeli.

Dittmar, H. (2005). Compulsive buying behaviour – a growing concern? An empirical exploration of the role of gender, age, and materialism. British Journal of Psychology, 96, 467-491.

Halliwell, E., Dittmar, H. & Howe, J. (2005). The impact of ideal media images on advertising effectiveness and body-focused anxiety in women with an eating disorder history. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 15, 406-413.

Halliwell, E. & Dittmar, H. (2005). The role of self-improvement and self-evaluation motives in social comparisons with idealised female bodies in the media. Body Image, 2, 249-261.

Dittmar, H. (2005). Vulnerability Factors and Processes Linking Sociocultural Pressures and Body Dissatisfaction: An Introduction to the Second Special Issue on Body Image. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24, 1081-1087.

Dittmar, H. (2005). A new look at “compulsive buying”: Self-discrepancies and materialistic values as predictors of compulsive buying tendency. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24, 806-833.

Clay, D., Vignoles, V. & Dittmar, H. (2005). Body-image and self-esteem among adolescent females: Testing the influence of sociocultural factors. Journal for Research on Adolescence, 15, 451-477.

Brown, A. & Dittmar, H. (2005). Think 'thin' and feel bad: The role of appearance schema activation, attention level, and thin-ideal internalisation for young women's responses to ultra-thin media ideals. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24, 1088-1113.

Dittmar, H. & Howard, S. (2004a). Ideal-body internalization and social comparison tendency as moderators of thin media models’ impact on women’s body-focused anxiety. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23, 768-791.

Dittmar, H. (2004). Are you what you have? Consumer society and our sense of identity. Psychologist, 17, 206-210.

Dittmar, H. & Howard, S. (2004b). Professional hazards? The impact of model’s body size on advertising effectiveness and women’s body-focused anxiety in professions that do and do not emphasize the cultural ideal of thinness. British Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 1-33.

Halliwell, E. & Dittmar, H. (2004). Does size matter? The impact of model’s body size on advertising effectiveness and women’s body-focused anxiety. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23, 105-132. Special issue on Media and Body Image.

Dittmar, H., Long, K. & Meek, R. (2004). Buying on the internet: Gender differences in online and conventional buying motivations. Sex Roles, 50(5/6), 423-444.

Dittmar, H. (2004). Understanding and diagnosing compulsive buying. In R. Coombs (Ed.), Handbook of Addictive Disorders: A Practical Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment (pp. 411-450). New York: Wiley.

Halliwell, E. & Dittmar, H. (2003). A qualitative investigation of women’s and men’s body image concerns and their attitudes toward aging. Sex Roles, 49, 675-685.

Dittmar, H. (2003). The psychology of buying and selling in the home. Published by Office of Fair Trading in 2004 at http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/consumer_protection/oft716f.pdf

Dittmar, H. (2002). I shop therefore I am: Excessive buying and the self for self. In Garcia Ureta, I. & Olabarri Fernandez, E. (Eds.), El Consumo y la Adiccion a las Compras: Diferentes Perspectivas (Consumption and Addictive Buying: Different Perspectives), pp. 47-63. University of the Basque Country.

Dittmar, H. (2001). Impulse buying in ordinary and “compulsive” consumers. In E. Weber, J. Baron & G. Loomes (Eds.), Conflicts and Tradeoffs in Decision Making, pp. 110-135. Cambridge Series on Judgment and Decision Making. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Dittmar, H. & Drury, J. (2000). Self-image – is it in the bag? A qualitative comparison between ordinary and “excessive” consumers. Journal of Economic Psychology, 21.

Dittmar, H., Lloyd, B., Dugan, S., Halliwell, E., Jacobs, N. & Cramer, H. (2000). The “body beautiful”: English adolescents’ images of ideal bodies. Sex Roles, 42, 887-915.

Dittmar, H. (2000). The role of self-image in excessive buying. In A. Benson (ed), I shop, therefore I am: “Compulsive” buying and the search for self, pp. 105-132. New York: Aronson.

Stammers, N., Dittmar, H. & Henney, J. (1999). Teaching and learning politics: A survey of practices and change in UK universities. Political Studies, 47, 114-126.

Dittmar, H., Beattie, J. & Friese, S. (1998). Impulsive and excessive buying behaviour. In P. Taylor-Gooby (ed), Choice and Public Policy: The New Welfare Consumers, pp. 123-144. London: Macmillan.

Dittmar, H, (1997). Summary of “Meaning of Material Possessions as Reflections of Identity”. In N. R. Goodwin, F. Ackerman & D. Kiron (eds), The Consumer Society, Volume II in the Frontiers in Economic Thought Series, (pp. 97-101). Covelo, CA: Island Press.

Dittmar, H., Beattie, J. & Friese, S. (1996). Objects, decision considerations and self-image in men's and women's impulse purchases. Acta Psychologica (special issue on Decision-making and Emotions), 93, 187-206. (Also available on the world-wide web: http://www.ukc.ac.uk/ESRC).

Dittmar, H. & Blayney, M. (1996). Women's self-reported eating behaviours and their responses to food and non-food TV advertisements. European Eating Disorders Review, 4, 217-231.

Dittmar, H. (1996). Social psychology of economic and consumer behaviour. In G. R. Semin & K. Fiedler (eds), Applied Social Psychology, pp. 145-172. London: Sage.

Dittmar, H. (1996). Adolescents' economic beliefs and social class . In A. Furnham & P. Lunt (eds), Economic Socialization: The Economic Beliefs and Behaviours of Young People, pp. 69-92. London: Elgar.

Dittmar, H., Beattie, J. and Friese, S. (1996) The Role of Self-Discrepancies in Normal and Compulsive Shopping. International Journal of Psychology, 31, 3816-3816. Special issue report of the 26th International Congress of Psychology.

Dittmar, H., Beattie, J. & Friese, S. (1996). Objects, decision considerations and self-image in men's and women's impulse purchases. In P. Ayton, J. Beattie, R. Beyth-Marom & P. Koele (eds), Contributions in Decision-Making: II. North Holland.

Cox, J. & Dittmar, H. (1995). The functions of clothes and clothing (dis)satisfaction: A gender analysis among British students. Journal of Consumer Policy, 18, 237-265.

Dittmar, H., Beattie, J. & Friese, S. (1995). Gender identity and material symbols: Objects and decision considerations in impulse purchases. Journal of Economic Psychology, 16, 491-511. (Also available on the world-wide web: http://www.ukc.ac.uk/ESRC).

Tomas, A. & Dittmar, H. (1995). The experience of homeless women: An exploration of housing histories and the meaning of home. Housing Studies, 10, 493-515.

Dittmar, H. & Pepper, L. (1994). To have is to be: Materialism and person perception in working-class and middle-class British adolescents. Journal of Economic Psychology, 15, 233-251.

Dittmar, H. (1994). Material possessions as stereotypes: Material images of different socio-economic groups. Journal of Economic Psychology, 15, 561-585.

Schruijer, S., Blanz, M., Mummendey, A., Tedeschi, J., Banfai, B., Dittmar, H., Kleibaumhuter, P., Mahjoub, A. Mondroszwrobelwska, J., Molinari, L. & Petillon, X. (1994). The group-serving bias in evaluating and explaining harmful behavior. Journal of Social Psychology, 134, 47-53.

Dittmar, H. & Dickinson, J. (1993). The perceived relationship between the belief in a 'Just world' and sociopolitical ideology. Social Justice Research, 6, 257-271.

Dittmar, H. (1992). The Social Psychology of Material Possessions: To Have is To Be. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf & New York: St. Martin's Press.

Dittmar, H. (1992). Perceived material wealth and first impressions. British Journal of Social Psychology, 31, 379-392.

Dittmar, H. (1991). Meanings of material possessions as reflections of identity: Gender and social-material position in society. In F. W. Rudmin (Ed.), To Have Possessions: A Handbook on Ownership and Property. Special issue of Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6, 165-186.

Dittmar, H. (1990). Material wealth and perceived identity: Impressions of adolescents from different socio-economic backgrounds. In S. E. G. Lea, P. Webley & B. M. Young (Eds.), Applied Economic Psychology in the 1990s, Vol. 2, pp. 800-812. Exeter: Washington Singer.

Dittmar, H. (1989). Gender identity-related meanings of personal possessions. British Journal of Social Psychology, 28, 159-171.

Dittmar, H., Mannetti, L. & Semin, G. (1989). Fine feathers make fine birds: A comparative study of the impact of material wealth on perceived identities in England and Italy. Social Behaviour, 4, 195-200.

Dittmar, H. & Bates, B. (1987). Humanistic approaches to the understanding and treatment of anorexia nervosa. Journal of Adolescence, 10, 57-69.