The effect of individual differences on adolescents' impulsive buying behavior

This study posits a relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Impulsive Buying Tendency (IBT). A survey of 574 adolescents found that high-EI adolescents manifested less impulsive behavior than did low-EI adolescents, and high-IBT adolescents were more likely to engage in more impulsive buying behavior than were low-IBT adolescents. Finally, possible extensions of the research to the area of adolescents' impulsive buying are suggested.     

The role of perceived social support and dysfunctional attitudes in predicting Taiwanese adolescents' depressive tendency

This study examined the moderating effect of perceived social support on the association of dysfunctional attitudes with depression among Taiwanese adolescents. Seventh graders (N = 458) completed the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (Weisman & Beck, 1978), Perceived Social Support from Family and Friends (Procidano & Heller, 1983), Stressful Life Events (Chiu, 1988), and Children's Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1981). The results indicated that perceived social support from friends moderates the relationship between dysfunctional attitudes and depression, implying that as peer support increases, the positive relationship between dysfunctional attitudes and depression weakens.     

消费者的权力感与冲动购买

本文探究消费者的权力感对冲动购买的影响。通过3组实验研究发现,权力感影响人们对不同类型产品的冲动购买意愿,其机制在于高(低)权力感的人面对实用品(享乐品)有更高的信息加工流畅性;进一步,当高权力感的人具有享乐目标时,他们反而在享乐品上表现出更高的冲动购买意愿。最后,本文就研究结果的理论贡献及管理启示进行了探讨,并提出了本研究的局限性和未来研究的方向。     

An investigation of Taiwanese early adolescents' views about the nature of science

This study developed a Pupils' Nature of Science Scale, including the subscales of the invented and changing nature of science, the role of social negotiation on science, and cultural context on science, to assess early adolescents' views about the nature of science. More than 6,000 fifth and sixth graders in Taiwan responded to the Scale. The study revealed that the adolescents had quite different perspectives toward different subscales of the nature of science. Moreover, male adolescents tended to express more constructivist-oriented views toward the nature of science than did their female counterparts. The adolescents of different grades and races also displayed varying views toward the nature of science.     

An investigation of Taiwanese early adolescents' self-evaluations concerning the Big 6 information problem-solving approach

The study developed a Big 6 Information Problem-Solving Scale (B61PS), including the subscales of task definition and information-seeking strategies, information access and synthesis, and evaluation. More than 1,500 fifth and sixth graders in Taiwan responded. The study revealed that the scale showed adequate reliability in assessing the adolescents' perceptions about the Big 6 information problem-solving approach. In addition, the adolescents had quite different responses toward different subscales of the approach. Moreover, females tended to have higher quality information-searching skills than their male counterparts. The adolescents of different grades also displayed varying views toward the approach. Other results are also provided.     

The mood effect in relation to impulsive online buying behavior

This article analyzes impulsive buying behavior in scenarios where the consumer's negative or positive mood, oriented by emotional situations, stimulates an uncontrolled instinct in relation to the purchase. Four experimental studies were carried out to evaluate the influence of the mood state on impulsivity in different scenarios of consumption: online versus face-to-face shopping (Study 1); product characteristics – hedonic versus utilitarian product types in online environments (Study 2); the individual characteristic of self-control in relation to the online purchase (Study 3a); and the individual characteristic of social value in relation to online consumption (Study 3b). The results demonstrate that consumers have greater impulsiveness within the online environment when they are in a positive mood, and that the positive mood maintains greater purchasing impulsiveness when the product is utilitarian, and when the consumer has low self-control and/or high social value individually.     

结伴购物情境下消费者冲动购买行为发生机理

冲动性购买是生活中的常见现象, 也是消费者行为研究的重要子领域。围绕单人购物情境下的冲动购买研究成果较多, 而对结伴购物情境下的冲动购买行为研究明显不足。聚焦结伴购物情境下消费者的冲动购买现象, 基于“欲望-意志力”模型, 在情绪感染理论、归因理论等理论基础之上, 采用焦点访谈法、实验法、问卷调查法等研究方法, 从欲望和意志力两个方面, 深入探讨结伴购物消费者冲动购买行为发生的内部决策机理。研究结论将丰富现有结伴购物情境下的冲动购买行为研究内容, 也为企业营销实践、个人冲动购买行为管理以及政府部门开展消费者教育提供理论指导。     

Consumer style and health: The role of impulsive buying in unhealthy eating

Health psychologists have given surprisingly little attention to consumer behavior. This study focuses on the relationship between an impulsive consumer style and unhealthy eating. In a survey, moderate to strong correlations were found between low self-esteem, dispositional negative affect, impulse buying tendency, snacking habit, and eating disturbance propensity. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model of relations between these variables. Impulse buying tendency was strongly associated with snacking habit, which in turn was related to eating disturbance propensity. Impulse buying, though in itself a pleasurable activity, seemed driven by feelings of low self-esteem and dispositional negative affect. Low self-esteem had a direct link to eating disturbance propensity. The data fit a self-regulation explanation. The study demonstrates the relevance of consumer style for health-related behaviors.     

Taiwanese adolescents' perceptions and attitudes regarding the internet: exploring gender differences

The purpose of this study was to explore adolescents' perceptions and attitudes regarding the Internet, by gender. Data were collected from 636 high school students in Taiwan. It was found that male adolescents perceived the Internet more as a "toy," while female adolescents perceived the Internet more as a "technology," "tool" or "tour." Results indicated that females held more pragmatic views of the Internet, whereas males believed they could obtain more enjoyment from the Internet. In addition, males expressed significantly more positive attitudes than did females on two aspects of the Internet: usefulness and perceived control. However, no significant gender differences were found in terms of the affection and behavior aspects of using the Internet. More importantly, females tended to show higher Internet self-efficacy than did males. It is suggested that gender differences regarding the Internet might be narrowing because female adolescents are acquiring more experience with it.     

Antecedents of Taiwanese adolescents' purchase intention toward the merchandise of a celebrity: the moderating effect of celebrity adoration

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relative importance of adolescents' attitude toward an act (the degree to which the person had a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of the act's behavior in question), perceived norm, and perceived behavioral control in predicting Taiwanese adolescents' intention to purchase the merchandise of a celebrity when they had different levels of celebrity adoration. The present results showed that the relative strengths of attitude toward the act and the perception of behavioral control in predicting purchase intention toward the merchandise of a celebrity were stronger for adolescents in the celebrity adoration group than for adolescents in the celebrity nonadoration group. On the other hand, the relative importance of the perceived norm in predicting the attitude toward the act and the purchase intention was stronger for adolescents in the celebrity nonadoration group than for adolescents in the celebrity adoration group.     

An Investigation of Taiwanese Female College Students' Sexist Attitudes

This study is an investigation of sexist attitudes of 940 Taiwanese female college students. Participants completed a Chinese version of the Sexist Attitudes Toward Women Scale (SATWS) as part of a larger study. Twelve women with the highest sexist attitude scores and 12 women with the lowest scores were interviewed individually. Results showed significant main effects due to age and grade point average (GPA) for responses to the SATWS. Students majoring in musicand interior design had higher mean scores than did students in four other majors. To examine differences further, items rated highest and lowest by students in four other academic major groups were identified and compared. Implications and research recommendations are presented.     

How values of individualism and collectivism influence impulsive buying and money budgeting: the mediating role of acculturation to global consumer culture

This study examined the effects of individual‐level cultural values of individualism and collectivism on impulsive buying and money budgeting and the mediating role of acculturation to global consumer culture. By applying the person‐environment fit theory and acculturation theory, we argue that people who hold cultural values congruent with the culture they come into contact with are more likely to acculturate to it, and that those who acculturate to global consumer culture (GCC) are more likely to display consumption behaviors stimulated by GCC, namely impulsive buying and poor money budgeting. The findings show that consumers acculturated to GCC report higher impulsive buying and lower money budgeting, and that it is not the distinction between individualism and collectivism, but rather between the vertical and horizontal values that determines the acceptance of GCC and the studied consumption behaviors. Results revealed that vertical individualists (those who believe in competition between individuals and who prioritize their needs over the needs of others) and vertical collectivists (those who believe in the subordination of individuals to groups) were more likely to be acculturated to GCC. Thus, the acceptance of inequality between individuals among other individuals, or within groups, is related to the acceptance of GCC and impulsive buying and money budgeting. The level of acculturation to GCC mediates the relations between vertical individualism and collectivism values and impulsive buying and money budgeting. Theoretical contributions to the research on horizontal/vertical individualism/collectivism, acculturation to GCC, and person‐environment fit theory, as well as practical implications for marketers are discussed.     

Compulsive buying and life aspirations: An analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic goals

This study intends to gain better insight into the role the life aspirations described in the framework of Self-determination theory play in compulsive buying. Profiles based on the importance and likelihood for extrinsic and intrinsic personal goals in three groups with low, moderate, and high compulsive buying propensities from a general population representative sample (N = 2159) were initially established. Moreover, results from MANCOVA analyses showed that the high propensity group obtained significantly higher scores on the importance placed on each and every one of the extrinsic goals of financial success, image, popularity, and conformity, and on the likelihood of attainment of image and conformity. As for the intrinsic aspirations, it was confirmed that while the high risk group presented similar or significantly higher scores on the importance placed to them, they obtained significantly lower scores for the likelihood of attaining all the intrinsic goals of self-acceptance, affiliation, community feeling, physical health, and safety. Accordingly, interventions focused on the potentiation of the perceived likelihood of attainment of intrinsic goals, jointly with the reduction of the importance ascribed to extrinsic aspirations, may contribute to the effective treatment and prevention of compulsive buying.     

An exploration of the Pulfrich effect

Abstract.— The existence of a Pulfrich effect based on ocular convergence was demonstrated by having subjects with a neutral density filter over one eye observe a moving rod in a homogeneous environment. This effect was found to have a smailer magnitude than a Pulfrich effect that was obtained when the rod moved optically in the plane of a dot pattern and thus formed the central equivalents of retinal disparities with the dots of the pattern. Under the latter condition, the latency of subjects' reporting the depth effect was shorter when one end of the rod was visible than when both ends of the rod were concealed. This latency difference occurred because the visible end of the rod formed the equivalent of transverse disparities with the dots surrounding it. The presence of real transverse disparities is known to shorten latencies.     

An exploration of the Indian mindset

Eight hundred and twenty-nine adults, drawn from 12 locations in all four parts of India, participated in a study that explored the joint effects of Indians’ discrepant mindset, context sensitivity, and quality of environment on their modes of behavior. Respondents also predicted how a person is likely to change his behavior when the conditions in which he works change from disabling to enabling. The findings showed that the two most dominant modes of behavior-self-serving calculative and achieving high positive goal — coexisted, but were differently caused. Context sensitivity facilitated both modes of behavior; but adequate infrastructure and friendly and helpful people in the neighborhood encouraged only achieving high positive goal behavior. On the contrary, duplicity in professing desirable but acting under realistic compulsions, poor quality of environment, and low levels of development were conducive to self-serving calculative behavior. As a situation changed from disabling to enabling, a person was likely to shift towards more positive behavior.     

Agency and pain: An exploration

The notion of agency has become particularly prominent in social‐science writing. This article identifies some of the weaknesses in the ways it has been employed in contemporary anthropology. It criticises the assumptions of self‐empowerment, responsibility, and constructivism that are held to be essential to moral agency in much of that usage. Present‐day conceptions of agency in this literature introduce—whether intentionally or not—a triumphalist vision of history. Drawing on recent neuro‐physiological research, religious history and ethnography, it focuses on pain in order to think about agency in other than triumphalist terms. Triumphalist versions of agency, the article argues, are not only inherently questionable, they also distract our attention away from the need to understand how different traditions articulate the idea of living sanely in a world that is inevitably painful.     

An exploration of courage in Chinese individuals

Definitional studies of courage have been performed by Western psychologists, but little research has examined Chinese folk courage. Two studies examined conceptions of courage in Chinese culture. In Study 1, the definitions, forms, inner traits, and reactions of courage were described by 307 individuals in China. A content analysis revealed that courage was divided into two forms: individually oriented and socially oriented; and the virtue was composed of persistence, responsibility, and breakthrough. Study 2 conducted in-depth interviews with 27 Chinese participants to explore the nature of courage further. The results suggested similar components; anger, self-confidence, support network, and social atmosphere were most likely to inspire courage; and trying something difficult was the most frequently experienced courageous event. Collectively, persistence and breakthrough were common components of both the current studies and the existing Western literature on courage, while responsibility may be more uniquely Chinese. Implications for prospective training programs are discussed.