three types of value from objects instrumental, which is based on functionality symbolic, which is based on your identity hedonic, which is based on the pleasure it gives you personally [[Consumerism]] heavily emphasizes hedonic and symbolic ## Signals The meaning of things: > "If the only goal mentioned was travel, or some form of consumption or pleasure, we coded the answer escape. If the goals included any mention of improving the lot of the respondent or of someone else, the answer was called productive" (p. 149). They go on further to say "The total sample was almost evenly divided into halves in terms of escapist and productive goals; 36 people only mentioned the former, 39 also mentioned the latter. (In three interviews this question was not answered). But the two groups of families differed significantly: 35 percent of the members of the warm families held escape goals only, whereas in the cool families the proportion was 60 percent (chi square 3.84, = .05). This difference suggests that when the members of a family share positive emotions about their home, they develop aspirations that lead beyond immediate gratification to some productive outcome" (p. 150).