Chapter 6 - The Self Flashcards
Consumers self-concepts
Are reflections of their attitudes towards them selves. Whether these attitudes a positive or negative, they will help to guide many purchase decisions; products can be used to bolster self-esteem or to reward the self.
Many product choices are dictated by the consumers perceived similarity between their personality or gender, and attributes of the product
The symbolic interactionist perspective on the self implies that each of us actually has many selves and a different set of products is required as props to play each role. Many things other than the body can also be viewed as part of the self. Valued objects, cars, homes, and even attachments to sports teams or national monuments, are used to define the self when these are incorporated into the extended self.
Marketers need to understand how families make decisions
Spouses in particular have different priorities and exert varying amounts of influence in terms of effort and power
Self-concept
Self-concept refers to the attitudes that a person holds towards themself. It is a complex set of attitudes based upon such components as individual personality and traits, self-esteem and self consciousness, real and ideal selves, multiple selves, and symbolic interactionism. Self concept influences both the acquisition and the use of products to satisfy personal needs and transfer meaning to the extended self.
Personality
Personality can be defined as the distinctive and consistent patterns of behavior, including thoughts and emotions, that characterize each person’s adaptation to situations in their life
Trait theory
A trait is any behavioral characteristic by which people differ from others in a relatively permanent and consistent way. Trait theory attempts to describe people, using adjectives which describe the predisposition to display certain behavioral characteristics. These behavioral characteristics include such things as the degree of innovativeness or conservatism of a person, or their level of materialism, shyness or self-consciousness.
Self-esteem
This refers to the strength of the positive or negative attitude that person has towards themself. People with high self-esteem a confident of success and respond to persuasive communication messages which offer them a challenge. Persons with low self-esteem expect to perform poorly and are more likely to be persuaded by advertising messages that do not threaten them, or offer products that do not pose a risk. When individuals possess a highly sensitive awareness of them selves, especially with regard to how others may perceive them, they are said to be self-conscious
Multiple selves
The concept of multiple cells suggests that people behave differently, and consequently consume differently, according to the roles they’re required to fill in a given situation. The dramaturgical perspective of consumer behavior of use people as actors using Scripps, props and costumes to act out these different roles.
The use of products of symbols to translate meaning about self-concept others in a society requires that we share a common interpretation of these symbols. This social consensus or shared meanings that determines the relationship between self and symbols is termed symbolic interactionism.
Another concept, termed the looking glass self, suggests that people use reflexive evaluation to define their self in terms of how they believe others see them. We tend to pattern our behavior on the perceived expectations of others
Consumption and self-concept
People use products as symbols to assist in defining the image and self-concept. It has been suggested that people acquire objects and frequent stores which have attributes that match the self image while avoiding objects in stores they believe have an image that does not match their self-concept. People visualize themselves using a particular product and decide whether the image fits their self-concept
Materialism
Russel Belk suggests that what we possess is, in a very real way, part of ourselves. I’ll bodies and especially parts such as our eyes, hair, teeth, hands and legs have been identified as essential to our sense of self. Evidence suggests that these are considered more central to the self concept by women.
Our dwellings, cars and clothing are considered the next most important objects for self-concept and have been described as a type of second skin that we present to others. Individual collections and heirlooms express a persons nostalgic past experiences and fantasies. Belk terms the importance that I can see my attaches to the worldly possessions as materialism. He suggests possessions assume a central place in a persons life providing the greatest source of satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
Russel Belk investigated changes in the materialism values expressed in comic books, which he considered an important socializing agent for children. He found that over 40 years from 1940, the material values portrayed in comics remained relatively unchanged. Wealth was shown as both good and bad. The wealthy would not encourage to flaunt their wealth and when they did so they usually suffered misfortune. The poor were portrayed as honest and intelligent people who simply lacked opportunity to attain wealth through hard work and skill. Belk also distinguished between instrumental materialism which involves acquisition in order to perform some task and terminal materialism which occurs when possession is acquired as an end in itself.
The extended self
The use of external possessions as symbols to transfer meaning and define self identity comprise what Belk terms the extended self. There are four levels of the extended self.
The individual level includes personal possessions such as clothing and other bodily adornments and motor vehicles.
The family level includes the dwelling and furnishings that comprise the home.
The community level involves those objects that make up the neighborhood.
The group level involves attachment to large social groups and includes objects such as monuments, sporting teams, and national flags.
Sex roles
Sexual identity is a very important component of self-concept. Socialization encourages different roles of behavior for men and women. Most societies establishing agentic goalsfor men men stressing self assertion and mastery while women are taught to conform to communal goals such as affiliation and harmony.
Many products are depicted as feminine or masculine while others involved both sexes, such as products for family usage. The response of consumers to persuasive communication often depends upon the depiction of sexuality in the message.
Female sex roles
While the role of women in society has changed your medically in Australia over the last 25 years, there are claims that advertisements still tend to stereotype women as either traditional housewives, or is stupid, submissive or sexual objects from male pleasure.
Male sex rolls
There has also been a corresponding change in the role of men. This is reflected in the trend toward featuring men in expanded social roles. Fatherhood roles depict men as participants in child rearing rather than merely breadwinners.
Body image
Physical appearance is a large part of self-concept and a persons subjective evaluation of the physical self is termed body image. The emotional significance of body image and the personal feelings generated is termed body cathexis. Individuals also relate the body image to an ideal of beauty, which is a socially excepted exemplar of appearance. Many consumers compare their body image to the ideals of beauty and become disappointed with their appearance. In some cases the body image created by an individual does not match reality. If body cathexis is strong this may result in such behaviors as anorexia.
