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To Be, Or To Be Another Me: An Investigation Of Self-Concept Change In Consumers

In two essays I investigate two antecedents of self-concept change in consumers: Threats to the self and the activated self-construal and its effect on goal conflict resolution.
In the first essay, I explore identity strictly as consumers define themselves in terms of the possessions with which they associate. I argue that ironically the very effort to maintain self-consistency through living up to the value of materialism after facing a mortality salience threat can actually undermine consistency on the level of the extended self of highly materialistic consumers. Specifically, when faced with a mortality salience threat, the consistency of highly materialistic consumers self-concept is disrupted in which they not only detach from formerly intrinsic possessions, but also make formerly extrinsic possessions a more central part of the extended self-concept. I further argue that consumers can be protected from a disruption to self-concept consistency through the process of self-affirmation.
In the second essay, I explore how the activated self-construal impacts whether consumers maximize pleasure or engage in self-presentational behavior after they have been invited to choose a gift for themselves. I demonstrate that consumers with an independent (interdependent) self-construal make more indulgent (modest) gift choices for themselves, and that this effect is driven by the activation of a goal to maximize pleasure (behave normatively appropriate). I also identify a boundary condition: When consumers are able to satisfy their activated goal before selecting a gift, the effects cease to exist. / Marketing

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:AEU.10048/1415
Date11 1900
CreatorsSchmid, Christian
ContributorsJennifer J. Argo, Marketing, Business Economics, & Law, Gerald Hubl, Marketing, Business Economics, & Law, Robert J. Fisher, Marketing, Business Economics, & Law, Sarah Moore, Marketing, Business Economics, & Law, Jeff Schimel, Psychology, Naomi Mandel, Marketing, Arizona State University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format1282842 bytes, application/pdf
RelationSchmid, Christian and Jennifer Argo (2009), Association for Consumer Research, Schmid, Christian and Jennifer Argo (2007), Association for Consumer Research, Schmid, Christian and Jennifer Argo (2007), European Association for Consumer Research

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