Beyond the Extended Self: Loved Objects and Consumers’ Identity Narratives

Abstract

This article investigates the possessions and activities that consumers love and their role in the construction of a coherent identity narrative. In the face of social forces pushing toward identity fragmentation, interviews reveal three different strat-egies, labeled “demarcating, ” “compromising, ” and “synthesizing ” solutions, for cre-ating a coherent self-narrative. Findings are compared to Belk’s “Possessions and the Extended Self. ” Most claims from Belk are supported, but the notion of a core versus extended self is critiqued as a potentially confusing metaphor. The roles of loved objects and activities in structuring social relationships and in consumer well-being are also explored. In all probability, the word “love ” is used as often withobjects and activities as with people. We hear it all the time, from “I love skiing ” to “I love your new dress. ” In Sherry and McGrath’s (1989, 163) study of a gift store, they note that “not only do our respondents ‘love to shop ’... but they also ‘fall in love ’ with the items they select. ” In the use of products, Richins (1997) finds that love is a