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
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:AEU.10048/1415 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Schmid, Christian |
| Contributors | Jennifer 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 Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1282842 bytes, application/pdf |
| Relation | Schmid, 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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