Gratifications in change of privacy? The response of four consumers' generational cohorts toward facial recognition technology in retail settings

New technologies enable retailers to collect large amounts of information about consumers, which might lead to ethical issues and risks of individuals' privacy loss. However, consumers might choose to disclose information to retailers when they perceive that the information would generate more benefits for themselves rather than for the retailer. Since little research has been done to explain the role of age in disclosing personal information to third parties, the present study investigates the difference in the perception of one's own control when it comes to the usage of privacy-threatening technology depending on respondents' age. Drawing upon uses and gratification theory, the present study explores the response of consumers from four generational cohorts towards the facial recognition technology in retailing. Results reveal that the locus of control over information collected by the technology is neither related to the age of consumers nor to their knowledge of a specific technology used to collect their personal data. Instead, consumers' expected gratifications (in terms of economic and utilitarian) vary across different age groups. Implications for practitioners are discussed.     

Framework analysis: a worked example of a study exploring young people’s experiences of depression

Framework analysis is an approach to qualitative research that is increasingly used across multiple disciplines, including psychology, social policy, and nursing research. The stages of framework analysis have been described in published work, but the literature is lacking in articles describing how to conduct it in practice, particularly in the field of psychology, where researchers may be working as part of a team. Having used framework analysis on a study exploring adolescents’ experiences of depression, we faced various challenges along the way and learned from experience how to use this approach to qualitative analysis. In this reflective article, we describe a worked example of using framework, which we hope will assist other researchers in deciding if this approach is suitable for their own research, and will provide guidance on how one might go about conducting framework analysis when working as part of a research team. We conclude that framework is a valuable contribution to qualitative methods in psychology, offering a pragmatic, flexible and rigorous approach to data analysis.