Ghanaian attitudes towards money in consumer culture

The globalization of American-style consumer culture has invited transformations in attitudes towards money in many societies around the world, rich and poor. However, the majority of research in this area has focused on affluent countries. Towards redress, I report on a study that examined the psychometric properties of Yamauchi and Templer's (1982) money attitude scale (MAS) using a sample drawn from Ghana, West Africa. The findings suggest that although the MAS needs to be reconfigured for effective use in Ghana, Ghanaians have attitudes towards money that are similar in most respects to what has been observed in wealthier countries, which suggests the global reach of consumer culture. Limitations and future research are proposed.