Release Date: January 20, 2006

MONMOUTH, Ill. — Psychology professor and author Tim Kasser will deliver a lecture at Monmouth College on Jan. 27 at 12 noon in the Whiteman-McMillan Highlander Room of the college’s Stockdale Center.

Entitled, “Materialism and Its Alternatives,” the talk is free and open to the public.

An associate professor of psychology at Knox College, where he has taught since 1995, Kasser has conducted extensive research into materialism and quality-of-life-issues.

Kasser’s book, “The High Price of Materialism,” was published in 2002 by MIT Press. It argues that materialism – a consumer culture built on ever-increasing consumption and ever-present advertising – “does a poor job of satisfying people’s needs, and thus contributes even more to people’s misery.”

He wrote, “As with other coping strategies that may make people feel good in the short term... materialistic pursuits may in the long term actually maintain and deepen feelings of insecurity.”

Kasser, who was invited to speak at Monmouth by Psi Chi, the psychology honorary society, received his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and his doctorate from the University of Rochester.

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