"Lost in a shopping mall" -- a breach of professional ethics

The "lost in a shopping mall" study has been cited to support claims that psychotherapists can implant memories of false autobiographical information of childhood trauma in their patients. The mall study originated in 1991 as 5 pilot experiments involving 3 children and 2 adult participants. The University of Washington Human Subjects Committee granted approval for the mall study on August 10, 1992. The preliminary results with the 5 pilot subjects were announced 4 days laters. An analysis of the mall study shows that beyond the external misrepresentions, internal scientific methodological errors cast doubt on the validity of the claims that have been attributed to the mall study within scholarly and legal arenas. The minimal involvement -- or, in some cases, negative impact -- of collegial consultation, acadmic supervision, and peer review throughout the evolution of the mall study are reviewed.     

Online shopping experience in an emerging e‐retailing market: Towards a conceptual model

We develop a comprehensive and integrated framework of online shopping experience (hereafter OSE) from an emerging market perspective. Using a netnographic research method, we content analysed 284 experiential reviews of 2 leading Nigerian e‐retailers. Augmented by the theory of customer engagement, we identify 8 dimensions of OSE that activate shoppers' affective and cognitive states, which consequently lead to 4 behavioural outcomes, namely, internal responses to service experience, external responses to service experience, repurchase intentions, and word of mouth intentions. The proposed dynamic and comprehensive framework reflects all phases of the consumer decision‐making process and demonstrates that OSE has both perceptual and behavioural components. We make 3 important contributions. First, the paper provides a comprehensive and dynamic model of customer experience that encompasses all the stages in the customer decision‐making process by drawing on a new theoretical perspective to demonstrate how the unique attributes of OSE contribute to extant customer experience research. Second, we advance experiential consumption theory by incorporating attributes of OSE evolved through a unique qualitative research method into existing frameworks of customer experience. Third, we compare and contrast findings from an emerging market with research from more mature markets, when they were undergoing similar development patterns. From a managerial perspective, we illustrate how online retailers operating in emerging markets can draw from the experiences of mature markets and understand the key differences between markets so that they can develop customer experience management strategies by concentrating on the most important components of customer experience.     

Capturing the multiple facets of mall experience: Developing and validating a scale

Many constructs have been tied to the customer experience in shopping malls, including hedonic shopping motivations, activities, excitement, and emotional and cognitive reactions. Yet the literature has not addressed the notion of the mall experience as a construct in and of itself. The current research aim is to conceptualize the mall experience through the development and validation of a measurement scale. We present a four‐stage process of scale development and validation, based on three studies with four separate samples of mall shoppers, in which the final stage employs the scale to predict mall equity and loyalty. The suggested scale offers a quantitative measurement of four different mall experiences—seductive, functional, social recreation, and social scene—which differ in their components. This work extends theory in understanding, conceptualizing, and measuring the customer experience in the retail space. On the practical level, the developed scale can serve as a means for planning a mall's marketing mix and launching marketing campaigns in order to attract various groups of customers. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rats and bunnies: core kids in an American mall

Although adolescents use shopping malls as important places of congregation, very little attention has been paid to this phenomenon by social scientists. This paper reports on a qualitative, interview-based study of adolescents in a New England shopping mall. Regular, day-to-day frequenters (N = 23) were identified and interviewed extensively over a six-week period in 1988. These "core kids" exhibited a good deal of alienation from both family and school, and used the mall as a neutral ground on which to create a fragile but mutually supportive community of kind.     

Sex differences in online shopping: an exploratory study

Empirically, predictors of purchasing an item (among 15) online in a sample of 365 undergraduates were dependent upon the sex of the purchaser and the particular item purchased.     

Measurement of self-evaluative motives: a shopping scenario

To develop measures of consumers' self-evaluative motives of Self-verification, Self-enhancement, and Self-improvement within the context of a mall shopping environment, an initial set of 49 items was generated by conducting three focus-group sessions. These items were subsequently converted into shopping-dependent motive statements. 250 undergraduate college students responded on a 7-point scale to each statement as these related to the acquisition of recent personal shopping goods. An exploratory factor analysis yielded five factors, accounting for 57.7% of the variance, three of which corresponded to the Self-verification motive (five items), Self-enhancement motive (three items), and Self-improvement motive (six items). These 14 items, along with 9 reconstructed items, yielded 23 items retained and subjected to additional testing. In a final round of data collection, 169 college students provided data for exploratory factor analysis. 11 items were used in confirmatory factor analysis. Analysis indicated that the 11-item scale adequately captured measures of the three self-evaluative motives. However, further data reduction produced a 9-item scale with marked improvement in statistical fit over the 11-item scale.     

Attitudes toward online shopping: a follow-up study

From 2001 to 2005, students showed an increase in the range of purchases made online, and their attitudes toward online shopping became more positive.     

Explaining own and others' behavior in a controversial issue: animal experimentation

The authors investigated how 2 groups with different attitudes toward animal experimentation-researchers who conducted animal experiments and members of animal welfare organizations who protested against animal experiments--made attributions for the behavior of the opposing group. The 2 groups showed an actor--observer effect, mentioning more internal causes for the opponents' behavior and more external causes for their own behavior. Both groups were able to take the other's perspective, resulting in a reversed actor-observer effect. The less involved participants followed the pattern of ratings of the group whose attitudes corresponded to their own. In particular, the participants with a negative attitude toward animal experimentation rated researchers' behavior as more internally caused than did those with a positive attitude. The results illustrated how the participants formed and defended attitudes in a social context.     

Critical factors in consumer supermarket shopping behaviour: a neural network approach

This paper studies UK supermarket shopping behaviour, by analysing the antecedent variables of three critical factors: overall levels of customer satisfaction, number of trips to the supermarket, and amount spent. A neural network approach predicts these factors using ten input variables and three hidden nodes. Results show that the most satisfied and high‐spending customers tend to be those who have the income to take full advantage of the choice and quality offered. Other customers are more concerned with prices being reasonable and discounts available, but the satisfaction of these shoppers is also linked with store atmosphere. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Patently controversial: markets,morals, and the President's proposal for embryonic stem cell research

This essay considers the implications of President George W. Bush's proposal for human embryonic stem cell research. Through the perspective of patent law, privacy, and informed consent, we elucidate the ongoing controversy about the moral standing of human embryonic stem cells and their derivatives and consider how the inconsistencies in the president's proposal will affect clinical practice and research.     

Choosing an mft internship: Ingredients of a successful experience

Abstract

Although internships are now required for MFT doctoral students, little has been written about internships. This article outlines key factors doctoral students need to consider when selecting an internship site.     

Web metrics: measuring patterns in online shopping

The Web has become a primary source of product information for online consumers. As such, basic questions regarding how consumers approach the search process need to be understood and measured if marketers and website developers are to identify patterns or trends in consumer information search strategies. To observe and measure changes in consumer search behaviour, it is necessary to establish benchmarks that can, at a later date, be compared with subsequent observation measurements. This study recorded the search activities of 37 subjects as they searched for information regarding the purchase of two products: one where they had expert product knowledge and one where they had novice product knowledge. Significance was found for particular site types used and, more importantly, in patterns of site type usage. The methodology and benchmarks offer researchers a means of tracking changes in consumer search behaviour on the Web. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Lost in a Shopping Mall: An Experience With Controversial Research

In the 16th century Bruno asserted that the earth revolves around the sun. This notion violated the Catholic Church's teaching that the earth was the center of the universe, and his suggestion proved he was a heretic. He was promptly burned at the stake. One hundred years later Galileo said the same thing, and provided evidence. He was forced to recant his views, but he gave the world telescopes so that people could learn for themselves. Today, his assertion is held to be fact with little excitement. Many academics live with a myth of protection; that the pursuit of science, conducted ethically and with methodological rigor, is protected from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Jim Coan's perspective on his experience while an undergraduate student at the University of Washington is important because it sheds light on an unsettling reality; Scientists pursuing unpopular science are no more shielded from attack from scientists and academicians than anyone else. It is particularly worth noting how unpopular science can be attacked in the name of ethics. Although we may be no more enthusiastic about the specific content of the findings than others, ethical academicians and scientists defend unpopular scientific endeavors from attacks leveled on ethical grounds.