eLearning Session

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Know the characteristics of self-concept and understand more about how you characterize yourself and how others are likely to describe you.
2. Recognize the I-self, the me-self, and the looking glass self.
3. Explain how self-concept affects intrapersonal processes such as self-narrative, information processing of self-relevant information, and the regulation of affect.
4. Describe how self-concept affects interpersonal processes such as lifestyle, interaction strategy and interpersonal influence.
5. Discuss the relationship between people's self-concepts and their consumption behavior, including relating self-concept to the circle of consumption.
6. Recognize how the self-concept varies cross-culturally.
7. Explain the relationship between personality traits and self-concept and discuss applications of personality theory to consumer behavior.

• Understanding perceptions of the self, the social world, and relationships between the self and others is among the most central concerns in consumer behavior. Self-concept organizes the wants and goals of individuals. Consumption and ideas, like self-concept, self-image and self-presentation, are closely intertwined.
• Self-concept is a complex topic because of competing definitions, and cross-cultural and historical variations in concepts of the self.
• The definition of self-concept we will use in this chapter is an organized configuration of perceptions of the self, which are available to awareness. In other words, self-concepts are perceptions we have about ourselves.
• Self-concept is an active configuration that influences many interpersonal or inner processes including motivation and information processing.
• Perhaps the most important thing to be said about self-concept is that it is not distinct from society and culture.
• The sense of self grows out of interactions with three aspects of one's environment. First, individuals with whom we interact in various roles are crucial to forming the self. Second, materials and objects (including the physical environment) that support and intervene in our social relations affect the development of the self. Third, ideas, beliefs and values, also including spiritual ideas, influence the way we perceive and respond to our environment. Individuals develop a concept of self though interaction with all three elements, which are themselves related to each other.
• A basic relational approach to how self-concepts develop is depicted in Exhibit 7.1. When there is a major change in any of the three elements-in significant others, the material environment, or the ideas and beliefs surrounding the individual-we can expect change to take place in the self, and in consumer behavior.

Exhibit 7.1: The Relational Self (50.0K)

• A role transition is a major change in the rights, duties, and responsibilities expected of an individual by a social group. Consequently, role transitions are likely to influence self-image and, consequently, purchase and consumption behavior. Of course, many other factors (beyond the self) influence consumption behavior, including culture, social class, peer groups, and lifestyles.

• One way to begin thinking about self-concept is to respond to this request: "Tell me about yourself."
• A normal and important aspect of social exchanges is a sharing of information about selves. You may notice several interesting things about your own responses to this question.

1. Self-concept Is Multi-Faceted
• You might observe that your own self-conceptismulti-faceted. It includes a collection of images, activities, goals, feelings, roles, traits and values.
• Social scientists now refer to the "multiplicity" of identity, indicating that selfhood is a collection of diverse but related self-perceptions. In fact, the self includes a multiplicity of things that we are to ourselves and to one another.
• Consumer researchers want to know which aspects of the self are most relevant in marketing communications, and how these aspects are linked to products and product images.
• The multiple nature of the self has long been recognized in psychology. Psychologists recognize the I-self, the active observer, the knower, or the information processor. The I-self attends to matters of importance to us and helps us maintain our self-esteem. The I-self may come into play when consumers are choosing inconspicuous products like many shopping goods or products without a well-developed product image.
• Psychologists also recognize the Me-self, that is the known, observed, and constructed self-image. One influential formulation of the idea of the me-self concept is the looking glass self. In this view, the me-self concept is formed as we gather the reflected opinions of significant other people towards us. These others' opinions are gradually incorporated into the me-self concept. The looking glass self may come into play when consumers are choosing status goods, conspicuous products, or heavily advertised products with a well-developed product image that incorporates the opinions of others.
• Individual consumer behavior is often directed toward enhancing self-concept through the consumption of goods as symbols. Self-concept is enhanced through the transfer of socially accepted meanings of the product or brand to oneself. This then enhances the value of the self. Interaction with others, as well as the products and brands, is also required since social recognition provides meaning to products and brands. In short, individual consumers use products and brands to express something about themselves, and self-concept is reinforced as positive responses from others support their consumption behaviors. This is called the image congruence hypothesis. For marketers this means that consumers evaluate brands in part in terms of their self-image enhancement potential and that self-enhancement meanings should be built into marketing communications.
• External objects to which we are emotionally attached, and that weconsider a part of ourselves comprisethe extended self.
• Dwellings, automobiles and favorite clothes are among the material possessions found most closely related to self.
• Most work on the extended self has been conducted with people in the U.S. For example, people may live vicariously through things incorporated into the extended self. Pets are a good example. North Americans spend $23 billion a year on pet food and supplies and over $2 billion on pet goodies. As another example, the accompanying advertisement for the Jaguar XK8 invites consumers to live vicariously through this automobile

An Appeal to Consumers to Live Vacriously Through a Jaguar Sports Car (50.0K)

2. Self-concept Depends On Situations and Movies
• You might observe that your response to the invitation, "Tell me about yourself,"depends on situations and motives. Some research suggests that individuals focus on whatever aspects of him or herself that are most relevant in a particular social setting or situation. Consumer researchers term this idea our working or activated, self-concept. Culture, gender, ethnic and other characteristics of identity become significant to consumers in particular circumstances. For example, when marketers invite consumers to attend to them as in the ads that focus on African-American pride, or when we find ourselves in a consumption context that brings them into view.
• Marketers and policy makers should be sensitive to how different self-concepts get activated in social situations. In some university communities, not drinking alcohol is a distinctive consumer behavior, and thus becomes a relevant dimension of self-concept.
• We selectively retrieve different aspects of our self-concept depending on goals and motives.
• During a single day, as situations change a consumer may desire to represent self either publicity or privately in a variety of different ways through consumption. Fashion offers a way to express different aspects of the self and helps us create and represent different identities.
• Depending on the situation, consumption may activate different aspects of the self. Setting out the crystal wine glasses for a dinner party may activate self-schemas of pride and competence, creating both memories and expectations. Sometimes consumers may contrive to use products to trigger aspects of the self. For example, you may have noticed that the clothes you wear subtly change your body language. Marketers position products to take advantage of the power of products to activate aspects of the self.
3. Behavioral Constraints and Possible Selves
• When you think about your response to the request, "Tell me about yourself" you might observe that your own behavior is constrained by factors other than your self-concept. For example, you may describe yourself as fun loving and carefree, but have trouble (especially during exams) remembering the last time those self-qualities were reflected in your behavior.
• As a consequence of restrictions on our behavior, self-concept will not always be directly revealed in behavior. Its impact may be revealed more indirectly in mood changes, in what aspects of self-concept are dominant and accessible, in the nature of self-presentation, and the choice of social setting.
• Thus, one way of thinking about self-concept is that it is composed of self-representations or self-schemas, each consisting of a system of knowledge structures organized in memory and consisting of self-relevant information, including ideas and information about others and things. Some representations are positive, some negative. Consumers are aware of some self-representations while they are unaware of others either because they are fairly automatic or because they are repressed in daily life. For marketers, these constraints on self-expression may modify the relationships between expressions of self and consumption behaviors. By identifying barriers to self-expression marketers can develop or position products and services to alleviate them.
• Self-representations may refer to actual I-selves and also to possible selves-selves we could be, would like to be, or are afraid of becoming. Possible selves consist of self-schemas created for domains of activity that give personal meaning to the past and the future. People are likely to attribute certain consumption behaviors to these possible selves, both positive and negative.
• Possible selves may refer to past, present or future views of self.
• Some self-schemas refer to the "ought" self-the self we think that we should be. Diet, self-help, and exercise products and services often appeal to this "ought" self.
• Because of the existence of possible selves and different working selves, consumers may have conflicted self-conceptions. Some research suggests that conflicted self-representations can cause emotional disorders, anxiety and depression. However, other research suggests that complex self-conceptions and multiple identities can lead to better mental health. Part of the key seems to be whether or not the identities can be successfully integrated with each other. Often purchases and possessions can help facilitate and integrate different aspects of the self.
• Marketers can develop new product positioning by identifying key problems of self-integration and designing products that help consumers do this. An example is high quality packaged convience foods that integrate a woman's self as nurturing mother and self as high achieving corporate executive.
4. Self-concept is Changeable
• When you think about your response to: "Tell me about yourself," you might recognize that your self-concept is flexible andchangeable, not only between situations but also in a more enduring way. New self-conceptions are added to the set, self-conceptions change in meaning and the relationship among self-conception changes. In Consumer Chronicles 7.2, one young woman describes the discovery of new self-aspects.

Consumer Chronicles 7.2: The Self is Dynamic (50.0K)

• Consumers' self-concepts are particularly dynamic during certain roletransitions, such as between secondary school and university, when changing jobs, or after a divorce. Role transitions are often accompanied by changing consumption patterns that reflect changing conceptions of the self.
• Some very interesting research has been conducted with consumers who have undergone plastic surgery. Patients seem to seek plastic surgery during role transitions. Plastic surgery allows these consumers to take greater control of their bodies and their appearance. As a result of the surgery, their self-esteem-or degree to which they have a positive attitude towards themselves-improves substantially. Plastic surgery has many elements of a rite of passage, including separation from old roles, considerable pain (both physical and mental), and a period of isolation (convalescence), before the new self emerges.
• Many products are designed to facilitate role transitions, and role transitions are often marked by changes in consumption patterns. Weddings and baby showers typically incorporate products that mark role transitions.

• Exhibit 7.2 illustrates a dynamic model of self-concept that summarizes a lot of what we have described above. The currently active set of dynamic self-representations is the working self-concept, which regulates both intrapersonal and interpersonal processes.

Exhibit 7.2: A Dynamic Model of Self-Concept (50.0K)

1. Intrapersonal Processes
• The working self-concept regulates intrapersonal processes in several important ways. First, the self-concept integrates and organizes an individual's self-relevant experiences into a self-narrative. Self-narratives consistof stories that are coherent, context sensitive accounts of experiences that provide a sense of personal continuity in time and space. These stories often refer to events past, present and future; they contain a judgmental or evaluative component, and are woven together to appear coherent to the storyteller. Often people use consumption to give coherence to their stories about self.
• Often people use consumption to give coherence to their stories about the self.
• Consumers also may use consumption to create new self-narratives and change self-concept. A tattoo artist describing his clients' motivations for getting tattoos in Consumer Chronicles 7.4 provides one example of the relationship between using consumption and self-narrative to change self-concept during a role transition.

Consumer Chronicles 7.4: Tattooing and a New Sense of Self (50.0K)

• Second, self-concept influences the processing of self-relevantinformation. Self-relevant information is defined in terms of internalized self-schemas that represent a reference value or standard of comparison for new information from the environment. Consumers' attention to self-relevant information is guided by the need for self-consistency, or the need to maintain a balance between self-image and behaviors ascribed to the self. In other words, people pay attention to information including marketing communications that reinforces self-concept. Individuals are more sensitive to information that is self-relevant. Self-relevant information is more efficiently processed; and people remember and recognize self-relevant information better. Finally, consumers are resistant to information that is incongruent with their self-representations.
• It is important for marketers to understand the effect of product self-relevance on self-concept and processing of information. Any kind of brand or product category that becomes a widely recognized symbol of particular kinds of people, say Tommy Hilgfiger fashions and hip hop stars or Hickey Freeman suits and business executives, leads people to adopt such product symbols as a vehicle to create their own possible selves.
• Self-relevance is likely to be an important determinant of consumer involvement with, and processing of, marketing communications. Because people attend to self-relevant information, many studies suggest that a personalized advertising approach should attract subscribers' attention.
• Self-concept influences the regulation of affect. Individuals defend their self-concepts against negative emotional states and interact with others and interpret events in ways that enhance and promote their self-concept. Many studies have documented self-serving biases in how individuals interpret events. One way that people regulate negative affect is by reducing self-awareness.
• Some related recent research has focused on self-gifts. Many Euro-Americans give themselves presents, that is, they think of certain purchases or consumption activities as "gifts for me." Often, these presents help people regulate their emotional balance.
• Self-concept has important effects on motivation. In considering the effect of self-concept on motivation, recall that self-concept includes many images of possible selves (feared and desired). A particularly important subset of a person's possible selves is desired selves-what the person would like to be and thinks he or she really can be. Depending on the importance and commitment to these self-definitions desired selves could define goals and move individuals to action.
• Oftentimes, advertising appeals to a consumer's desired self-concept; thus, an ad for a Piaget gold watch might appeal to a consumer's desire to appear wealthy or chic. Exhibit 7.3 shows a decision process that advertisers might use to create effective advertising.

Exhibit 7.3: Self-Concept and Advertising Effectiveness (50.0K)

2. Interpersonal Processes
• Working self-concept provides a guide for interpreting social experiences. We use self as a reference point for evaluating other people, selecting friends, and directing our interactions with other people.
• Just as individuals use products as symbols of various aspects of the self or as vehicles to create a self, simultaneously those same products present identity externally to others. Consumer goods used to convey meaning to others vary cross-culturally.
• Because of the link between self-concept and consumption, audiences infer characteristics of self by using consumption as a reference point. Consumer goods thus help create elaborate communication systems of socially shared meanings about identity. Researchers have examined whether and how consumers attribute characteristics to others on the basis of their clothing choices, preferred possessions, and lifestyle choices.
• Adopting shared consumption patterns enables a group to construct and maintain simultaneously a sense of personal and group identities, and so to derive significant psychological benefits from shared consumption.
• Some research on interpersonal self-processes has studied self-presentation, or impression management. The tendency to manage self-presentation to fit the social situation through consumption differs between people. Some people are called high self-monitors; they are concerned with being consistent with their conception of how people behave in a particular situation. Other people are called low-selfmonitors; they are more concerned with being themselves invarious situations, and less concerned with whether their behavior matches how other people look and act. Degree of self-monitoring varies over the life cycle, between cultures and individuals, and between situations.
• How is self-monitoring relevant to consumer behavior? Many teenagers in consumer society tend to be both high self-monitors and concerned with defining their self-concepts. As a result, marketing communications that invite members of this market segment to be themselves, while at the same time promoting brands that symbolize simple group identities, tend to be highly effective.
• Regardless of whether we are high or low self-monitors, we all present various identities to different audiences. Sometimes the audiences are internalized others; other times the audiences are external. Advertising commonly appeals to consumers' internalized audiences.
• People infer characteristics of the self from the sets or patterns of consumer goods others consume. By observing consumption constellations believed to express identity, strangers are able to accurately match the owner's own reported personality profile.
• Exhibit 7.4 summarizes some of the ways that consumer behaviors are linked to self-concept.

Exhibit 7.4: Consumer Goods and Consumption Behavior (50.0K)

• Consumers may also use goods to close the gap between actual and possible selves, or to experiment with desired selves. Finally, consumption behaviors often make evident a change in self-concept during role transitions.
3. Self-concept and the Circle of Consumption
• Self-concept affects consumption patterns during each phase of the circle of consumption.
• Production. An important segment for marketers of high-end kitchen products are people who are into cooking (e.g., the production of "gourmet" meals). For these customers, the production of elegant meals is used to make a statement about who they are. Men and women have different notions of what types of meal production are consistent with self-image.
• Acquisition. Consider how self-image enters into decisions about how to redesign a kitchen. At a time when household size is declining, consumers in the U.S. spent $88 billion is 1991 alone to remodel their kitchens. Research suggests that these decisions have more to do with self-image than with food. For example, men want a high-tech look where everything is flush and sleek, so as to convey the feeling that there is a professional in charge (although they are rarely in charge). By contrast, women see the kitchen as the heart of the home, the nerve center of the household. For them, the kitchen is about nurturing, and it is likely to be a more significant element of their extended self-a reflection of their care and nurturing of the family. Often, the desired self enters into kitchen remolding decisions.
• Consumption.In the U.S. we think of kitchens as a place for consuming food, but many more important things get consumed in the kitchen. People use their kitchen for family socializing, entertaining, study or work, and as a place for solitude and relaxation. Family socializing in the kitchen is tied to self-concepts of warmth and nurturing. Quiet appliances become a priority, because families want to be able to have household conversations in the kitchen. Thus, if you go to the GE website you can find out all about the Triton dishwasher, advertised as "The Cleanest You Never Heard."

www.geappliances.com/triton

• Disposal.Concern with caring for the environment is a much more important self-aspect than it was in the past. Fifteen years ago, few families recycled or needed storage areas for recyclable materials. Now more than half of all U.S. households recycle cans, bottles or newspapers and recycling rates are much higher in some European countries. Self-concepts have changed to include the belief "I care about the environment," and that change is reflected in recycling behaviors. Consequently, kitchens must change to include strorage areas for recycled materials. So if you go to the Real Goods website you can find out about products designed to make recycling in the kitchen easier.

www.realgoods.com

• In 1938, anthropologist Marcel Mauss wrote that the self is primarily a product of social factors, and remains an imprecise, delicate and "fragile" category. His essay and much subsequent work shows that the self varies substantially across cultures.
• We know that the self is configured differently in different cultures.
• Role relations may be primarily oriented toward the individual (self) or toward significant others. Or cultural ideas or materials and objects may be the primary basis for defining self-other relations. Or cultural ideas or materials and objects may be the primary basis for defining self-other relations. As different aspects of the relational self are emphasized in different cultural contexts, the self and associated consumer wants are likely to vary.
• Individualism, autonomy, and self-assertion-doing your own thing-rather than accommodation of others characterize the Euro-American self. The Euro-American self strives for a high degree of self-reliance and independence. Materials and objects play an important role in self-realization and in defining relationships with others.
• The traditional Chinese self, by contrast, is more oriented toward significant others rather than toward the individual. Even among the most rapidly modernizing segments of the Chinese population, people tend to act primarily in accordance with the anticipated expectations of others and social norms rather than with internal wishes or personal attributes. The traditional Chinese self like the self in other Asian societies (and societies of the LAW), is a relational self built on enduring social relations and cultural ideas. Differences in the traditional Chinese and Euro-American self have broad implications for consumer behavior.
• Proper role behavior and behaviors that convey identification with the needs of others and contribute to relationship harmony, rather than a constant sense of self, are dominant components of the Japanese self.
• In Japan, "belonging" is often cemented with material objects. For example, lapel pins and company shirts and baseball caps are popular ways of signaling belonging and memberships.
• Japanese are not as satisfied with their lives as Americans. One explanation is that learning to be content was a necessity in post World War II Japan. However, today's economic success makes self-denial more difficult. As more Japanese travel abroad, they learn that their material possessions do not measure up to those of people in many Western countries. Perhaps this explanation accounts in part for the popularity in today's Japan of designer products, which provide a globally recognized standard of quality.
• We summarize some contrasts between self-concepts in the Triad nations of the West with those in Japan, China, and the NICs of east Asiain Exhibit 7.5.

Exhibit 7.5: Key Differences Between an Independent and Interdependent Self-Concept (50.0K)

• Next, consider the self-proposed by Hinduism, an important tradition among the 1.5 billion of India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. The Hindu self-concept is part of religious doctrine dating to at least 700 BC (the ideas and beliefs component of the relational self). The Hindu conception of self is that there is one and only one being in existence, the absolute. This absolute (brahman) is without form. The goal of individual human life is to break through this delusion of multiplicity and achieve identity with the One. Also, the apparent self (which is part of the delusion of multiplicity) is not sovereign and infinitely varied, but is ill defined and weak in the Hindu conception. The person is not viewed as individual but as 'dividual' or divisible-made up of varied substances, which may reproduce in others something of persons from whom they have originated. Thus, similar to East Asian cultures, family and lineage is a more prominent aspect of self than it is for an American or European.
• The ways in which this self-concept resonates across South Asian societies are complex and well beyond the scope of this e-Learning format, but they have profound implications for how South Asians think about what is self and not self. Concepts of self and non-self in South Asian thought influences intrapersonal information processing as well. Indian movies produced by a very successful studio system based in Bombay, India always depict stereotyped personages.
• Other conceptions of self could be discussed such as an African conception. Africa is characterized by great diversity, but some common characteristics can be identified. First, while practical, the African self is simultaneously spiritual. Second is the idea that persons are part of an all-encompassing, vital life force. Third, the self is not a bounded entity as in Western notions, but a permeable one subject to the influence of many faces. Fourth, the African self is an interdependent self linked to his or her kin group, and often to ancestral spirits. As a result, one may identify a socially orientedachievement motivation amongst many Africans. A socially oriented achievement motivation means an individual's striving for success is bound up with the success of others, as for example in a tendency for small-scale marketers to prefer to "accumulate together" rather than through purely individual initiative.
• The consumer consequences of such conceptions are many although very little research has been conducted on the relationship between the self and consumption on the African continent.

• Personality is best understood as a different idea about the person than the self. We define personality as the distinctive and enduring patterns of thoughts, emotions and behaviors that characterize each individual's adaptation to the situations of his or her life. An individual's consistent self-representations form the basis for what we understand as personality.
• The study of personality addresses a question critical to all of us: How can we best judge other people's characters and know what to expect of them? Early Egyptian, Chinese, and Greek efforts to understand personality relied on astrology.
• Contemporary interest in personality dates from the 20^th century founder of modern psychology, Sigmund Frued, and his populizers in marketing, the so-called motivation researchers who were prominent in marketing research after World War II.
• The long-standing desire to predict behavior based on character traits endures in personality theory and its consumer behavior applications.

1. Traits
• Personality traits are characteristics in which one person differs from another in a relatively permanent and consistent way. That is, personality traits are supposed to endure over time (and over situations). Tests of personality based on measuring so-called personality traits were initiated during World War I (1914-1918).
• Relative stability is a key aspect of personality traits. In marketing research, personality is frequently measured with respect to specific traits such as the Social Character Scale that comes from a study relating the traits of introversion and extroversion to mass media preferences.
• Recently, a book of consumer behavior scales has been compiled that includes numerous individual differences shown to affect consumer behavior. Among the scales represented in this book are: social character, (i.e., inner- and other-directedness), self-concepts, need for cognition, consumer ethnocentrism, and the sexual identity scale.
• Inner-directed consumers look to their own inner values and standards for guiding their behavior. In contrast, other-directed consumers depend upon the people around them to provide direction for their actions. Thus, inner-directedness is similar to the trait of introversion (looking internally for motivation), while other-directedness is similar to extroversion (looking externally for sources of inspiration).
• Marketers' interest in traits is practical. Do personality traits predict consumer behavior? One review across numerous studies found that personality traits only explain about 10% of the variation in consumers' purchase, product preference, and innovation behaviors. This suggests that trait-based approaches should be combined with other variables to improve predictions.
• The development of the Five Factor Personality Structures, consisting of five clusters of traits recently reinvigorated the trait literature. Research over several decades indicates that the dimensions of Emotional Stability (or Neuroticism), Extraversion (or outgoingness), Openness to Exercise, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness provide a good catalogue of personality.
• Overall across dozens of studies, the results of trying to relate personality traits to consumer behaviors have been mixed at best.
• Some approaches for measuring personality traits allow individuals more leeway to describe themselves in their own ways on dimensions of their own choosing.
• One innovative tool for studying personality is the personal project. A personal project is "a set of interrelated acts extending over time which is intended to maintain or attain a state of affairs foreseen by the individual. A wide range of related, goal-driven activities might constitute a personal project. For example, learning to ski, graduating from university, achieving a career goal, or building a house, are examples of personal projects.
2. Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy
• Self-evaluation, how you feel about yourself, is an important aspect of personality. Self-evaluations affect the goals you set, your motives, the anxiety, stress and depression you experience in various situations, and your selection of preferred environments. Self-esteem is one way of talking about self-evaluation. Self-esteem is the positivity of a person's attitude towards him/herself. Self-esteem has been linked to consumer behavior in a number of important ways.
• Low self-esteem is related to exaggerated concerns with the looking glass self, the self as viewed through the opinions of others. Quite a bit of research suggests that consumer culture with its exaggerated emphasis on the beauty of the physical self may lead to lower self-esteem among consumers. Low self-esteem in turn is related to compulsive gambling, television addiction, shoplifting and compulsive buying.
• In contrast to the large numbers of social science research on compulsive gambling or eating disorders, the investigation of compulsive buyingbehavior is relatively new. We can define compulsive buying behavior as the inability to restrain the impulse to buy. Reports estimate that 10 percent of the U.S. population and up to 7 percent of the Mexican population may be considered compulsive shoppers.
• By contrast, another series of studies show high self-esteem is related to certain types of spending (not compulsive, however).
• Another way of talking about self-evaluation is self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is defined as people's beliefs about their capabilities to exercise control over events that affect their lives.
• Perceived self-efficacy has been linked to numerous cognitive, affective, and motivational processes. Self-efficacy is also related to affect. Individuals who do not believe they can exercise control over potential threats experience high levels of stress and anxiety arousal. Dwelling on these negative and anxiety arousing images, people low in self-efficacy avoid activities and social relationships that can then lead to bouts of depression.
• Some research has related self-efficacy to consumer behavior. Several researchers have suggested that self-efficacy influences decisions involving technological innovations.
• Self-efficacy should vary cross-culturally.
3. Applications to Consumer Behavior Research
• Consumer behavior research is filled with examples of personality trait, or what are also called individual difference measures. Motivation research conducted in the 1950's and 1960's examined the relationship between consumers' perceptions of products and actual or ideal personality traits using self-administrated questionnaires. In general, it proved difficult to predict consumer brand choices based on personality traits alone.
• Going beyond the realm of brand choice, personality variables are related to consumption behaviors. For instance, materialism is related both to impulsive and compulsive buying behavior. Similarly, self-esteem, need for cognition, and locus of control are related to the likelihood that a buyer might consult a friend or expert prior to making a purchase. Self-efficacy is related to belief in the influence of buying power on social change. Advertisers often use such personality traits to segment markets.
• Although it may be difficult to predict single instances of behavior with very much accuracy from personality measures, it may be possible to predict behavior averaged over a sample of situations and/or occasions. For example, we cannot predict whether the novelty-seeking trait will lead an individual consumer to seek out information about a particular new product, but we might predict that a high level of novelty seeking would lead to higher levels of new product awareness when averaged over a sample of new products. Following this approach, advertisers can use personality traits to segment markets and target their market offerings.