Collecting must be one of the most varied of human activities, and it's one that many of us psychologists find fascinating. Many forms of collecting have been dignified with a technical name: an archtophilist collects teddy bears, a philatelist collects postage stamps, and a deltiologist collects postcards. Amassing hundreds or even thousands of postcards, chocolate wrappers or whatever, takes time, energy and money that could surely be put to much more productive use. And yet there are millions of collectors around the world. Why do they do it?

收藏一定是人类活动中最多样化的行为之一，许多心理学家认为这种收藏行为极具吸引力。很多种收藏都被冠以学名:收藏泰迪熊的被称为archtophilist，集邮的被称为phialtelist，而收集明信片的则被称为deltiologist。收集成百甚至上千的明信片、巧克力包装纸或其他任何东西都会耗费时间、精力和财力，这些原本肯定能用于更有用的方面。但世界上仍有数百万的收藏家，他们为何这么做呢 ?

一些人收藏是为了赚钱——这可以被称作收藏的功利性;也就是说，收藏是达成目的的一种手段。比如，他们会寻找可以低价购入的古董，期望能借此获利。但这也可能带有心理因素——低价买入然后高价卖出能给收藏者带来成就感。而且由于网络销售如此简单， 越来越多的人进入这个领域。

There are the people who collect because they want to make money - this could be called an instrumental reason for collecting; that is, collecting as a means to an end. They' ll look for, say, antiques that they can buy cheaply and expect to be able to sell at a profit. But there may well be a psychological element, too - buying cheap and selling dear can give the collector a sense of triumph. And as selling online is so easy, more and more people are joining in.

很多收藏者想通过参加小组交流会和交换物品信息来拓展自己的杜交生活，这是参加桥牌俱乐部或健身房的一种变体形式，同样可以使他们接触到志趣相投的人群 。

收藏的另一项动机是想要发现一些特别的事物，或所收藏物中一个特殊的样品，比如某位歌手罕见的早期唱片。

Many collectors collect to develop their social life, attending meetings of a group of collectors and exchanging information on items. This is a variant on joining a bridge club or a gym, and similarly brings them into contact with like-minded people.

一些人可能会穷尽一生去寻找。从心理学角度而言，这可以赋予他们生命的意义，否则他们就会感到漫无目的。尽管如此，这也存在一种风险——如果他们足够幸运找到了所追寻的东西，他们不会去庆祝成功，反而会感到十分空虚，因为那种驱使自己前进的目标已然消失 。

如果你想一想集邮，这一行为的另一项潜在原因或可能的结果是它的教育价值。集邮打开了一扇窗户，让人们了解其他国家、植物、动物以及上面的名人。同样，在19世纪，很多收藏家从全世界收集化石、动物和植物，他们的收藏品提供了关于自然界的大量信息。倘若没有这些收藏品，我们对于自然界的了解将是远远不够的。

Another motive for collecting is the desire to find something special, or a particular example of the collected item, such as a rare early recording by a particular singer.

过去——如今也是，只是程度稍弱——猜火车是一种广受欢迎的收藏形式，尤其是在男性群体之间。这主要是去看每种特定类型的火车机车，借助公开数据辨识每种机车，并说出所见火车的名字，如今，爱好猜火车的人会互相交流信息，如今多是通过手机，这样他们可以确定去哪里可以看到一种特定的火车机车。随之而来的是，很多爱好者非常了解铁路的运作，或是不同机车类型的技术规格 。

同样，收藏玩偶的人也不仅仅是为了扩充自己的收藏，而是为了培养如何制作玩偶或使用何种材料的兴趣，几个世纪以来在这方面发生了一些变化;16世纪的欧洲采用木材作为标准材料，之后几个世纪采用了蜡和陶瓷，而如今则采用塑料制作玩偶，还有收藏家会受到启发去研究一下玩偶所反应的儿童偏好，或儿童该喜欢什么。

Some may spend their whole lives in a hunt for this. Psychologically, this can give a purpose to a life that otherwise feels aimless. There is a danger, though, that if the individual is ever lucky enough to find what they're looking for, rather than celebrating their success, they may feel empty, now that the goal that drove them on has gone.

尽管如此，并非所有的收藏者都喜欢从收藏中有所学，因此或许我们能将收藏行为的这种心理因素称作需求控制，这也许是一种应对不安全感的方式，例如，集邮者通常将邮票非常整齐地收集到邮册中，根据某种普遍性的原则排列他们的收藏品——或是以国家按照其字母顺序，或是按照它们描述的内容(如人物、鸟类、地图等)对邮票进行分门别类。

无论是否意识得到，某人选择收藏某种物品的一个原因是为了表现自己的个性。例如，他(或她)决定收集一些出人意料的东西，如狗的项圈，这或许在传达一种自信，即收藏者本人一定十分有趣，不管你信不信，至少真的存在一家狗项圈博物馆，而且它来自个人收藏。

If you think about collecting postage stamps, another potential reason for it - or, perhaps, a result of collecting - is its educational value. Stamp collecting opens a window to other countries, and to the plants, animals, or famous people shown on their stamps. Similarly, in the 19th century, many collectors amassed fossils, animals and plants from around the globe, and their collections provided natural world. Without those collections, our understanding would be greatly inferior to what it is.

当然，一切兴趣都会带来乐趣，但收藏行为的普遍因素通常是热情：说成乐趣实在是太客气了。比起其他大多数的爱好，收藏可以使人全情投入，并带来强烈的个人满足感。对于非收藏者而言，收藏谈不上有害，但至少是一种奇怪的打发时间的方式，但其实收藏可能大有可为。

In the past - and nowadays, too ,though to a lesser extent - a popular form of collecting, particularly among boys and men, was trainspotting. This might involve trying to see every locomotive of a particular type, using published data that identifies each one, and ticking off each engine as it is seen. Trainspotters exchange information, these days often by mobile phone, so they can work out where to go to, to see a particular engine.As a by - product, many practitioners of the hobby become very knowledge about railway operations, or the technical specifications of different engine types.

Similarly, people who collect dolls may go beyond simply enlarging their collection, and develop an interest in the way that dolls are made, or the materials that are used. These have changed over the centuries from the wood that was standard in 16th century Europe, through the wax and porcelain of later centuries, to the plastics of today`s to study how dolls reflect notions of what children like, or ought to like.

Not all collectors are interested in learning from their hobby, though , so what we might call a psychological reason of control, perhaps as a way of dealing with insecurity. Stamp collectors, for instance, arrange their stamps in albums, usually very neatly, organising their collection according to certain commonplace principles-Perhaps by country in alphabetical order, or grouping stamps by what they depict - people, birds, maps, and so on.

One reason , conscious or not, for what someone chooses to collect is to show the collector`s individualism. Someone who decides to collect something as unexpected as dog collars, for instance, may be conveying their belief that they must be interesting themselves. And believe it or not, there is at grew out of a personal collection.

Of course, all hobbies give pleasure, but the common factor in collecting is usually passion:pleasure is putting far too mildly. More than most other hobbies, collecting can be totally engrossing, and can give a strong sense of personal fulfilment. To non-collectors it may appear an eccentric, if harmless, way of spending time, but potentially, collecting has a lot going for it.