2q03

Psychological needs VS pursuit of money

Name : Jiaqi Ren

Student number: 1069667

Course code : SOCSCI 2Q03

Professor : David Penner

Date : 2014/3/17

Psychological needs VS pursuit of money

There are two definitions of being rich in my point of view; one of which is that a person feels the fulfillment of his or her psychological needs, and the other can be described as the willingness to pursue a good deal of money and asset. (Oxford dictionaries) These two definitions are of equal importance, but because of my personal experiences, I give more credit to having psychological needs fulfilled as being rich than the material part of being rich. In my opinion, the fulfillment of people’s psychological needs is meaningful and it is all that matters to make a person feel alive because psychological needs are endless; people can have the freedom to pursue anything they want which makes the feel powerful; unlike the pursuit of money, if a man’s dream is to buy a big house; his destiny is more likely to be approached after making the purchase. My life would be better when my psychological needs are being fulfilled and the quality of my life has nothing to do with money.

I was growing up in a poor family; my family did not have a lot of money until my father started to build his own business. I will share my story with you in two parts. The first part is when my family was poor, and the second part is when my family gets a lot of money. My family is made up of three people, my mother, my father, and I. All of us lived in a 30 meter squared apartment in Beijing for 15 years. I was really jealous of those who lived in big houses and of those who had pretty clothes to be worn on at age of 6. I was sad and had the feeling of inferiority. I...