In an economically developing world, the process of modernization has been proven to change people’s cultural and political values. Political scientists Ronald Inglehart and Christian Wetzel’s revised theory of modernization shows evidence that people’s political and cultural values move along two dimensions in a predictable pattern. Economic development shift people’s values from traditional and survival toward more secular-rational and self- expressive. This rise in post-material values has unknown effects on people’s mental health. Using Esping-Andersen’s theory on welfare state regimes the aim of this study is to both examine what effect post-material values have on mental health and, furthermore, if this effect plays out differently in different welfare state regimes. This was done using regression analysis based on data from a large number of countries from all over the world. The results of the analysis show that a rise in post-material values is positively correlated with worse mental health. But when welfare state regimes were brought into the model the relationship between post-material values and mental health did not stay the same but varied in its effect across the different regimes. The conservative welfare state regime stood out as the regime in which post-material values generated the worst mental health. On the whole, results indicate that the relationship between post-material values, welfare state regimes and mental health is a very complex relationship that is in need of further examination.

Direct care worker turnover and shortages plague long-term care, weakening its quality, heightening costs for governments and employers, and cyclically breeding further turnover and shortages of workers. To address these issues, I investigate why direct care workers chose employment in long-term care (LTC), assisted living (AL) and specific AL facilities. Data come from a mixed-methods study of 45 AL facilities in Georgia, including interviews with 400 direct care workers. Findings include qualitative data analyzed using a grounded theory approach and descriptive quantitative data. Care workers’ motivations for employment in LTC, AL, and specific AL facilities reflect a split between moral and material values for care work, and care workers’ motivations illustrate a process of reconciling moral and material values. Individuals become care workers for reasons that are both materialistic, like earning a living wage, and moralistic, like the desire to care for others. They take employment expecting it to be consistent with their moral ideals and to satisfy their economic needs. Various individual, facility, industry, and community level factors influence workers’ motivations, and these factors reinforce the inconsistency between moral and material values for care work. Considering the heightening demand for LTC and short supply of care workers, as well as the deindustrialization of the economy, several recommendations are made for policies and practices that would support workers’ motivations for employment in LTC. Areas for future research also are highlighted.

The aim of the present study was to explore the associations between different types of orientations toward materialism, and to investigate the relationship between materialistic orientations and different self-construal types as suggested by the Balanced Integration and Differentiation (BID) Model (imamoglu, 1998, 2003). The sample was consisted of 335 Middle East Technical University students (168 females, 167 males) with a mean age of 21.34. The questionnaire consisted of eight scales that were used to measure materialism, self-construals, family environment, attachment, and self and family satisfaction. The scales were Material Values Scale (Richins &amp / Dawson, 1992), Aspiration Index (Kasser &amp / Ryan, 1996), the New Materialism Scale which was developed for the current study, Balanced Integration and Differentiation Scale (BIDS, Imamoglu, 1998), Perceived Family Atmosphere Scale (Imamoglu, 2001), Family Satisfaction Index, and Self Satisfaction Index (Imamoglu, 2001) as well as the Relationship Questionnaire (Bartholomew &amp / Horowitz, 1991). Through the analyses on the data from the New Materialism scale, that had acceptable psychometric qualities, four sub-constructs of materialism were found that are extrinsic orientations, acquisitiveness, attachment to possessions, and sharing. Both MANOVA and regression analyses were performed and it was seen that respondents with related-individuated and separated-patterned self-types, proposed by the BID Model to represent the most balanced and unbalanced self-types, respectively, significantly differed from each other in terms of materialism score ratings measured by Material Values Scale and New Materialism scale. The people with the unbalanced type seemed to be more oriented towards materialism compared to the ones with the balanced type. While lower levels of individuation predicted higher levels of materialism for all materialism measures except attachment to possessions, the lower levels of relatedness predicted higher levels of materialism in terms of happiness, the belief that happiness can be gained through possessions, and sharing, the degree of unwillingness to share one&rsquo / s possessions with other people. Considering gender, women are found to be more acquisitive, giving a central importance to possessions and more interested in image as an aspiration. Through the analysis of the relationship patterns using SEM, a model was proposed for the relationships between different types of materialism, self orientations, and gender. Three different types of materialism, i.e. existential materialism, relational materialism, and indulgent materialism, were generated. Low levels of individuation predicted all three types of materialism. Low levels of relatedness predicted only relational materialism, whereas being woman predicted indulgent materialism. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed in the framework of the BID Model.

This master's thesis is about the success of sharing economy in the accommodation segment in Prague. The thesis is based on theories conceptualizing sharing economy as a result of social and value change, not only as technological one. Using online review data, the user experience of shared accommodation via Airbnb and traditional via Booking are compared. Analysis is conducted with focus on users' satisfied needs and fulfilled values. For processing the data, text mining techniques (topic modelling and sentiment analysis) were employed. The major result is that in Prague the models of sharing economy accommodation meets the growing need in society to fulfil post-material values in the market much better than the models of traditional accommodation (hotels, hostels, boarding houses). In their experiences, Airbnb users reflect social and emotional values more often, even though most sharing economy accommodations in Prague do not involve any physical sharing with the host. The thesis thus brings a unique perspective on the Airbnb phenomenon in the Czech context and contributes to the discussion of why the market share of the sharing economy in the accommodation segment in Prague has been growing, while traditional models stagnated.