Personality, Lifestyles, and The Self-Concept

6
Personality,
Lifestyles,
and The
Self-Concept
Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1 Define personality and know how various

approaches to studying personality can be
applied to consumer behavior
2 Discuss major traits that have been
examined in consumer research
3 Understand why lifestyles, psychographics,
and demographics are important to the study
of consumer behavior
Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly acce ssible website, in whole or in part. CB7 | CH3 2
LEARNING OUTCOMES
4 Comprehend the role of self-concept in

consumer behavior
5 Understand the concept of self-congruency
and how it applies to consumer behavior
issues
Personality
Totality of thoughts, emotions, intentions,

tendencies, and behaviors
Consistently exhibited by people as they adapt
to the environment
Unique to an individual
Combination of specific traits or
characteristics
Interacts with situations to influence
behavior
Specific behaviors varying across time
Approaches to Personality
Psychoanalytic approach: Suggests

personality results from a struggle between
inner motives and societal pressures to
follow rules and expectations
Applicable to motivation and personality inquiry
Highlights the importance of unconscious
mental processes in influencing behavior
Components of human personality include id,
superego, and ego
Trait approach: Focuses on specific

consumer traits as motivators of various
consumer behaviors
Nomothetic perspective: Focuses on particular
traits that exist across a number of people
- Aims to find common personality traits that
can be studied across people
Idiographic perspective: Focuses on
understanding the complexity of each individual
consumer
Single-trait approach: Approach in trait

research wherein the focus is on one particular
trait
Multiple-trait approach: Approach in trait
research wherein the focus remains on
combinations of traits
Major Traits Examined in Consumer Research
Value consciousness
Extent to which consumers tend to maximize what they receive
from a transaction as compared to what they give
Materialism
Extent to which material goods have importance in a consumers
life
Innovativeness
Degree to which an individual is open to new ideas and tends to be
relatively early in adopting new products, services, or experiences
Major Traits Examined in Consumer Research
Need for cognition

Degree to which consumers enjoy engaging in effortful
cognitive information processing
Competitiveness
Enduring tendency to strive to be better than others
Productivity orientation
Tendency for consumers to focus on being productive,
making progress, and accomplishing more in less time
Five-Factor Model Approach
Multiple-trait perspective
Proposes that the human personality
consists of other traits like:
Agreeableness
Extroversion
Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Neuroticism
Consumer Lifestyles, Psychographics, and
Demographics
Lifestyles: The way consumers live and

spend their time and money
Referred as context-specific personality traits
Influence purchase patterns of consumers
Useful in identifying viable market segments
Psychographics: The way consumer
lifestyles are measured
Quantitative investigation of consumer lifestyles
Involves surveying consumers using AIO
statements
Consumer Lifestyles, Psychographics, and
Demographics
- AIO statements: Activity, interest, and

opinion statements used in lifestyle
Demographics: Observable, statistical
aspects of populations such as age, gender,
or income
Used in conjunction with psychographic analysis
Helps locate and understand lifestyle segments
Role of Self-Concept in Consumer
Self-concept: Totality of thoughts and

feelings that an individual has about himself
or herself
Consumers are motivated to act in accordance
with their self-concepts
Self-concept and body presentation
Self-esteem: Positivity of self-concept that one
holds
Body esteem: Positivity with which people hold
their body image
Self-Congruency Theory
Consumer behavior can be explained by
congruence of a consumers self-concept with
the image of typical users of a focal product
Segmentation and self-congruency
Consumer identity and product ownership
- Researchers suggest that brands are used to
express and validate consumer identity
Organizational identification
- Exists when consumers feel close to
organizations
SUMMARY
Personality refers to the totality of thoughts,
emotions, intentions, tendencies, and behaviors
and can be studied using psychoanalytic and trait
approach
Major traits in consumer research include value
consciousness materialism, innovativeness, need
for cognition, competitiveness, and productivity
orientation
Consumer lifestyles, psychographics, and
demographics are all important variables that
highlight differences between consumers
SUMMARY
Self-concept is the totality of thoughts and

feelings that an individual has about himself or
herself
Self-congruency theory states that consumer
behavior can be explained by the congruence of a
consumers self-concept with the image of typical
users of a focal product
KEY TERMS
Individual difference Reality
variable Principle
Personality Motivational
Aggregation approach research era
Psychoanalytic Trait approach to
approach to personality
personality Trait
Pleasure principle Nomothetic
Id perspective
Superego Idiographic
Ego perspective
KEY TERMS
Single-trait approach Five-factor

Multiple-trait model(FFM)
approach Hierarchical
Value consciousness approaches to
Materialism personality
Brand personality
Innovativeness
Personality appeal
Need for cognition
Competitiveness Lifestyles
Psychographics
Productivity
orientation AIO statements
KEY TERMS
VALS
Geodemographic techniques
PRIZM
Demographics
Self-concept
Symbolic interactionism
Semiotics
Self-esteem
Body esteem
Self-congruency theory

Personality, Lifestyles, and The Self-Concept

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6

1 Define personality and know how various

4 Comprehend the role of self-concept in

Totality of thoughts, emotions, intentions,

Psychoanalytic approach: Suggests

Trait approach: Focuses on specific

Single-trait approach: Approach in trait

Need for cognition

Lifestyles: The way consumers live and

- AIO statements: Activity, interest, and

Self-concept: Totality of thoughts and

Self-concept is the totality of thoughts and

Single-trait approach Five-factor

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