Towards a Theory of Minimalism and Wellbeing
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Towards a Theory of Minimalism and Wellbeing Kasey Lloyd 1
& William
Pennington 1
Accepted: 30 January 2020/ # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Minimalism is an increasingly popular low-consumption lifestyle whereby people deliberately live with fewer possessions. Proponents of minimalism claim the lifestyle offers a myriad of wellbeing benefits, including happiness, life satisfaction, meaning, and improved personal relationships, however, to date there has been no scientific study examining these claims. The current study aims to take a step towards rectifying this, by exploring the experiences of people living a minimalistic lifestyle. Ten people who identify as minimalists participated in semi-structured interviews to discuss their experience of minimalism and wellbeing. The data was collected and analysed using grounded theory methods. All participants reported that minimalism provided various wellbeing benefits. Five key themes were identified in the study: autonomy, competence, mental space, awareness, and positive emotions. Findings align with previous research examining voluntary simplicity, pro-ecological behaviours, and materialism, and offer new insights into the benefits of low-consumption lifestyles. The results have multidisciplinary implications, from positive psychology to education, business, marketing, economics, conservation and sustainability, with the potential to impact future research, policy, and practice. Keywords Minimalism . Wellbeing . Low-consumption lifestyle . Voluntary simplicity .
Self-determination theory Consumerism and materialistic values have potentially negative repercussions for individuals and for society (Kasser 2002). Studies have shown a connection between materialism and a lack of concern about the environment (Hurst et al. 2013), higher financial debt (Gardarsdóttir and Dittmar 2012), and most pertinent to this study, lower levels of personal wellbeing (Dittmar et al. 2014). Low-consumption lifestyles have surged in popularity over the past decade, as people attempt to compensate for the above. One such lifestyle is minimalism, which is characterised by anti-consumerist
* Kasey Lloyd [email protected]
1
University of East London, London, UK
International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology
attitudes and behaviours, including a conscious decision to live with fewer possessions (Dopierała 2017). Proponents of minimalism suggest the lifestyle leads to “happiness, fulfilment, and freedom” (Fields Milburn and Nicodemus n.d.), however, these claims have not been scientifically validated. Furthermore, studies examining lowconsumption lifestyles and wellbeing are scarce, with few studies providing a meaningful link between them (Rich et al. 2017b). The current study aims to understand minimalism by exploring the experience of ‘minimalists’ or people living a minimalistic lifestyle. The intended outcome of the study is to construct a preliminary theory of minimalism from the perspective of positive psychology. Positive psychology is concerned with ho
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