Psychological Need to Create and Maintain Self-Concept - Coursework Example

Ways in Which Consumer Choice is Influenced by Our Psychological Need to Create and Maintain Both Our Personal and Social Self-Concept. Affiliation Date Introduction Christmas is a term that gets known by any individuals that have been in the Christmas-celebrating society in the month of December. From the Christianity roots, the festival takes place annually on 25th December, commemorating Jesus Christ birth. This report examines how the consumer choice of non-believers reflects, and gets used to develop and maintain, both social and personal self-concept. The report begins by introducing the typical traditions and describes the used terms. It then examines why non-believers can celebrate Christmas and the behaviors they tend to show when developing and marinating their social and personal self-concept. The report concludes with short notes on the significance of the report to the marketers. How is Christmas Celebrated? According to Carton (2013), Christmas is a ritual occasion that is vigorous, which includes both rituals symbols and exchange rituals. There are various consumption rituals that get observed in UK during the period of Christmas.13 In the table below, numerous examples get presented on the regular Christian traditions. Appendix 1 examines the origin of every tradition. Gift Giving Erection of Christmas Tree with decorations Pulling Crackers Kissing under mistletoe Feasting Advent calendars Father Christmas Carol singing Giving cards Hanging stockings Charitable giving Making a nativity scene Family sociability Sixpence hidden in the pudding Hanging a wreath Attending a church service The above traditions get presented and used as the consumer behaviors base to explore the formation and maintenance of the social and personal self in the primary research that will get discussed with secondary research. Carton (2013) says that rituals enactment can either be limited, extensive or non-consistent. It seen in this essay that an atheist can shun any of this kind of rituals though it is very complex than just having a decision not to. Amusingly, gift giving is the only modern ritual that is presented in the holy bible:…”they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh” (Matthew 2:11, Revised Standard Edition). Additionally, most of the traditions do not have Christian origin that can have an impact on the perception of an atheist on the way Christian Christmas is: it will be examined later in the report. The personal self In this case, the personal self that get explored will be that of the non-believer. In the report, the word atheist refers to any individual that do not believe in any religion that includes humanists and agnostics. Thus, the a believer of another religion will be a non-believer of the other religion, in this case, the non-believer can, not believe the origins of Christians. The report will not comprise this group in the research because the brief confines do not permit that big of a scope. The formation of the non-belief may get discussed lengthily. Regardless, the choice of the consumer can get used in the creation of atheists of personal self-concept. For instance, they can move to great lengths to make sure they do not imitate the point of view of any religion or carry out religious rituals, and they can purchase atheist publications for themselves. Their choice of consumer would also reflect on their personal self-concept such that they may not think about performing confession, going to church communion or observing the Sabbath. How the atheist upholds, their personal self in Christianity face gets discussed below. Term (date of first use) Definition Agnostic (1870) “one who holds that the existence of anything beyond material phenomena … cannot be known” pp.39 Atheist (1571) “one who denies or disbelieves the existence of a God” pp.124 Antitheist (1860) “one opposed to belief in existence of a God” pp.83 Humanism (1860) “Any system of thought or action which is concerned with merely human interests … the ‘Religion of Humanity’” pp.995 Based on the above definition, the core identity of an atheist is an individual who does not believe in God. Psychologically, Hogg & Vaughan (2011) describes atheism as a three-component attitude that is also known as the ABC model (Solomon, et, al., 2013). Thus, an atheist feels negatively or indifferently towards God’s existence; do not have any belief in God and behave like non-believer. Also, (Solomon et, al., 2013) adds that the religious belief will get termed as an internalized attitude. Thus, if the above examination gets accepted, and Christmas gets considered as a Christian festival in the base of face value, then it will be expected that the atheist will not be supposed to celebrate Christmas. Carton (2013) adds that, the expectation will be out of respect to the Christians. However, the graph below shows that the atheist also take part in the traditions of Christians. Why can an atheist tend to celebrated Christmas? It is evident that there is a change from the expected behavior from the personal self and core intent of the atheist. But why can this possibly occur? Christmas is one of the Christian festivals that represents the birth of Jesus Christ. In a period of 1300 years, England was a Christendom society that ended during the 17th century and the heresy execution got abolished in 1677 (Carton, 2013). Having this in mind, it is not amazing that the Christian celebrations and values got engrained in our culture. In addition, having 59.38% of the English population comprising of Christians in 2011, the Christianity religions remains to be prevalent in the English society. Hitchens (2007) argues that the Christians celebration should not enjoy the public subsidy or preference though he admits that it is hard to escape (wall street journal, 2011). In addition, having the consumer spend over $70 billion during Christmas in the year 2012; hence, shows that it is not a small event. Most of the high street get mostly decorated for the season of Christmas that most towns mark the occasion with a ceremony light switch.12 According to Solomon (2013), the retailers from environments that maximize the customer’s likelihood of buying the goods. Many of the retailer’s managers make use of Christmas music and decorations to attempt to have shoppers to ingress in their stores. Though, its effectiveness is arguable as Carton (2013) adds that it increases the Christian’s inescapability. As the ceremony of Christmas is practically unavoidable, atheist can likely suffer as a result of FOMO or missing out fear.9 Hence, if the atheist does not take part in the Christmas festivals, they will miss out the amazing experiences that other people will have. It is the main domain of the Bear and the hare’s plot; the gift of Hare to Bear is the ability of being part of something that they usually miss. Having 12,300,000 You Tube (Dec 2013) views and get presented at the best advertisement times, it will not be amazing if the John Lewis’s 2013 advert reinforce an FOMO of a person. Stories such as Dr. Suess’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas!”(1957) And Dickens’ A Chrismas Carol (1843) are likely to enhance the necessity culture to celebrate the Christmas. They enhance through illustrating individuals that do not celebrate as cruel and unpleasant. Scrooge became the colloquial derogatory term that represents someone who does not celebrate Christmas. Cooley (1902) adds that likely, these effects get enforced through the looking-glass self-theory. If an individual believes that they are being or will be, scrutinized by others due to, not celebrating Christmas, the image and the self-concept they form tends to be like that who adore celebrating Christmas. It gets perfectly reflected in the statements in primary research such as “I would be seen very negatively if I did not celebrate Christmas … And known as a Scrooge”. In addition, “It’s expected to join in at work because I would not want to get termed as a Scrooge.” On the other hand, an atheist can question themselves: Should I clinch to my values and avoid celebrating with anyone else? This individual’s internal debate on what role to take, whether to develop a situational identity or whether to maintain their core values and identity.15 An individual can have this debate because of normative social influence; they tend to feel that they are supposed to adjust with the people around them.4 But should be an atheist dismisses one from Christmas? Should an individual have the feeling that they are intruding on another’s festival? One of the surveys discovered that 46% of the individuals take the birth of Jesus as being insignificant to their Christmas. In addition, it is also discovered that some individuals think that Christmas is becoming commercialized and argue that the traditional meaning of Chrismas is getting lost.13 In the US, Christmas is becoming the key subject to the debate that is turning to be both commercialized and secularized. It could be because atheist does not have a strong association link between Christianity and Christmas, as it gets explained by Hogg and Vaughan (2011). Hence, the atheist tend to celebrate Christmas because they felt that it was not Christian. The key theme that comes up from the primary research is that an atheist does not take Christmas as a Christian festival anymore. Many pointed out that in the first place, many traditions do not originate from Christianity. The graph below shows the Christians response to their feeling to what every tradition mean. As a result, the atheist can tend not to have consideration on the motion that they tend to act like Christian through celebrating Christmas even though they are atheist. This section has explored on the reasons of why atheist may celebrate Christmas. It is discovered that Christmas come along with cultural pressures, big group size, and deviance fears that contribute to the conformity likelihood as Solomon explains it, et al., (2013). Thus, helps in explaining the one form to another of the observed atheist’s consumption behavior. The graph below shows that atheists know that it is unlikely to carry out the traditions of Christmas without family and friends. However, this do not explore on how atheist behaves, nor does it examine how their behavior can reflect their social or personal self; it will get examined in the next segment. How is consumer behavior influenced? As discussed above, a lot of pressure exists on atheist to develop a social self during the Christmas period. The main way to develop a social self is through the rituals form that is heavily on consumption behavior and social time. Primary research shows that the fact that most atheists do Christmas solely or mostly for the sake of family and friends, who tend to be acting as the reference groups. One of the respondent state that “I celebrate Christmas holiday strictly for friends and family. If it were not for them, I would not bother” another writes “It would not be Christmas without friends and family. If I were alone during the Christmas holiday likely would not do anything.” Nine of the ten individuals interviewed said that they would not engage anything on Christmas if they were alone, having one add “is that not sad?”. Figure 1 demonstrates what traditions that atheist individual engage themselves in, as it gets discovered that Christmas is an atheist’s social event in most parts. It is very reasonable to assume that the participation level that is in the graph reflects the consumer choices made to develop social self. Though, in spite of Christmas being a great social event it is not the argument that the personal self gets not preserved. Some individuals decide to eliminate religion from traditions. For instance, one individual surveyed wrote, "I do not make use of the symbols of religion in my wrapping of gifts including the Christmas word”. Other respondent said, “the cards are often of a non-religious persuasion, for this reason, instead of having the Three Kings it will say Happy Holiday."In explaining why he chose the Pot Noddle instead of having a meal with his family one individual said “it was purposeful a Pot Noddle to make it an anti-Christmas meal as possible." Though, some individuals choose not to engage with any traditions entirely. Explaining why she does not hang decoration one respondent remarked “I do not see any appeal in making my house as if an elf vomited in there." These examples clearly show individuals upholding their personal self by the use of symbolic consumption as Wattanasuwan (2005) describes it. Richard Dawkins (2007), anti-theist, however still celebrates Christmas, even though he do not dress like a Father Christmas, do not have a tree and do not go to the church. As a result, not only the atheist but also some Christians have are to decide their stand on the Christmas festivities. Jonathan Romain explains that he does not take part in the traditions of Christmas, but he gets to enjoy the spirit of Christmas and get to spend the holiday with his friends and family. In the same article, a Muslim and a Hindu explain how their families celebrate the rituals of Christmas so that their children do not feel out of place at school. One of their children say, “you tend to feel like Scrooge if one does not get involved in the festivals”.1 These examples explain how individuals have changed their consumption behavior from the core values expectations to developing a social self. The Muslim and Hindu have embraced the Christmas traditions due to the reference groups their children get involved. Thus, Park and Lessig (1977) argue that the children of other people experience the utilitarian influence on their consumer behavior. Dawkins (2007) links his Christmas celebration with culture as mentioned earlier and history; refereeing himself as a “cultural Christian”.2 It gets certainly seen that the atheist are likely to keep enjoying and celebrating Christmas because in it get seen that atheist in most part take Christmas and transfer it their own. Some two interviewees when they got asked if they had any additional point, they remarked, “I think it is significant to remember Christmas is not owned by Christians anymore." The other said, “I wish for a time when individuals will do their things for the Christmas festivals that mean something to them." What does this mean for marketers? In this case, the marketers should be able to understand the base of their consumer to sell them better their products. This essay has explained how atheist act and felt during the Christmas festivals. The main points for the marketers include; Mostly the atheist will consume though they avoid messages and products with religious imagery and words. In addition, atheist consume almost everything due to their family; thus it is advisable to make use of imagery and messages having this in mind. Conclusion From the discussion, it is evident that atheist do celebrate the Christmas festivals and do so very widely. Many of the atheists do not take Christmas as Christian festival anymore; thus do not hesitate in joining with Christians in the festival celebrations. But there are a lot of pressures for the atheists to join affecting atheists sub-consciously. It gets also seen that Christmas has get ingrained in our culture and to some extent it is unavoidable. The missing out fear or the fear of being termed as a “Scrooge” has likely had a real impact on atheists. Thus, it is essential for an atheist to develop and uphold a social self. However, atheist tends to uphold their personal self, often through symbolic consumption of avoiding activities or products with religious meaning. Lastly, marketers get advised to contemplate how this data should get used when developing communication and marketing plans in the future years. REFERENCES . BBC. (2005). Religions - Christianity: A British Christmas. Retrieved 12 03, 2013, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/christmas/nonchristian.shtml BBC. (2007). Dawkins: Im a cultural Christian. Retrieved 12 08, 2013, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7136682.stm Belk, R. (1989). Materialism with the modern U.S. Christmas. In E. C. Hirschman (Ed.), Interpretive Consumer Research (pp. 75-104). Provo: Association for Consumer Research. Burnkrant, R. E., & Cousineau, A. (1975). Informational and normative social influence in buyer behaviour. Journal of Consumer Research, 2(3), 206-215. Canton, N. (2013). The Psychology of Shopping. Retrieved 02 06, 2014, from http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/features/psychology-shopping CNN. (2013). Holidays, minus God. Retrieved 12 03, 2013, from http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/atheist.holidays.irpt/ Cooley, C. H. (1902). Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Scribners. Dawkins, R. (2007). The God Delusion (Second ed.). London: Blackswan. Grohol, J. M. (2013). FOMO Addiction: The Fear of Missing Out. Retrieved 02 06, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/04/14/fomo-addiction-the-fear-of-missing-out/ Hitchens, C. (2007). Christopher Hitchens on Christmas. Retrieved 12 03, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXDX966pnRU Hogg, M. A., & Vaughan, G. m. (2011). Social Psychology (Sixth ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd. International Business Times. (2013). UK Christmas Lights Switch-On 2013: Where to Watch the Most Magical Xmas Moments. Retrieved 02 06, 2014, from http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/christmas-lights-switch-2013-ceremony-where-london-520696 McKechnie, S., & Tynan, C. (2006). Social meanings in Christmas consumption: an exploratory study of UK celebrants consumption rituals. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 5(2), 130-144. Park, C. W., & Lessig, V. P. (1977). Students and housewives: Differences in susceptibility to reference group influence. Journal of Concumer Research, 4(2), 102-110. Solomon, M. R., Bamossy, G. J., Askegaard, S. T., & Hogg, M. K. (2013). Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective (Fifth ed.). Essex: Pearson Education Ltd Wattanasuwan, K. (2005). The Self and Symbolic Consumption. Journal of Amercian Academy of Business, 6(1), 179-184. APPENDIXES Appendix 1 – Origin of Traditions Tradition (Ritual) First Observed Gift Giving Exists in the bible1, practiced in Early Roman version of festival.2 Erection of Christmas Tree with decorations Old German tradition3, first recorded in England in 1800.4 Pulling Crackers Invented in Wales as a product to sell sweets, 1847.5 Kissing under mistletoe Mentioned in 18866, though may have been an early Pagan marriage ritual.7 Feasting Existed in early Roman versions of the festival.8 Advent calendars First printed in Germany, 1902.9 Father Christmas First personification of Christmas was in the mid-1400s, and he was associated with gift bringing in the 1870s.10 Carol singing First used in association with religion since 1300s, but not adopted in aristocracy until the 19th Century.5 Giving cards The earliest known Christmas card was printed in 1843.11 Hanging stockings Part of Father Christmas’ gift giving.10 Charitable giving Existed in early Roman versions of the festival.2 Making a nativity scene First known to be done by St Francis of Assisi, estimated 1220.12 Family sociability Existed in early Roman version of the festival.2 Sixpence hidden in the pudding This tradition started in the 1420s 13 Hanging a wreath The origin is debated, but is likely to originate from ancient Greek and Rome, if not before 14 Attending a church service From the earliest known celebrations15 Though the ‘church’ was likely different to modern churches. 1(Matthew 2:11, Revised Standard Edition) 2 (Encyclopaedia Brittannica, 2013a) 3(McGrath, 1997) 4(Watkins, 1819) 5(Baker, 1992) 6(Irving, 1886) 7(BBC, 2013) 8(Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2013b) 9(Knauf-Museum, 2007) 10(Simpson & Roud, 2000) 11(BBC, 2001) 12(Robinson, 1999) 13 (Broomfield, 2007) 14 (Hager, 2013) 15 (Ancient Romans, 345) Long references are included in the main reference list. Appendix 2 – Methodology The primary research carried out for this essay explored two key areas. The first was to explore the validity of what the secondary research suggested, the second was to test the following two hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: The less ‘Christian’ the respondent perceives the tradition to be, the more they take part in each ritual Hypothesis 2: The more influence the respondent’s reference groups have on them, the more they take part in each ritual Two types of research will be carried out; a series of interviews and an online survey. Interviews The interviews will provide qualitative insight into how consumer behaviour is reflected by an atheist’s need to maintain both a personal and social self. The interview will explore the extent to which the respondent takes part in a variety of traditions identified by the researcher and why they think they do take part to that extent. This will establish the consumer behaviour they adopt. The respondents will then be asked questions to explore how much influence their reference groups have on their consumer choice. Then if they would still take part if there were none of their reference groups around them, but the culture was still present. The interviewer will allow some digression but will steer the interviewee back to the questions. The interviewer will be aware that rapport building is essential to receive the best and most honest responses, however will not lead the interviewee and will not respond to answers in a way that could lead to positive or negative reinforcement. The sample will be taken randomly and will include respondents known and unknown to the researcher. The sample will include male and female respondents from a variety of ages and religious backgrounds (ie from both people who had faith and lost it, and people who have never had faith). It is hoped that this will give a rounded analysis, and provide a valid and accurate representation of the population. The interviews will be transcribed and a discourse analysis will then be carried out on the transcripts to establish there is there are any central themes. A copy of the interview questions can be found in Appendix 3. Online Survey The survey will include both quantitative and qualitative questions to measure what the consumer behaviour of atheists is, what behaviour is carried as part of the social self as opposed to the personal self and how atheists feel about the influence those around them play on their behaviour. Furthermore a combination of questions will be used to measure the hypotheses proposed above. The survey will end with demographic questions. The sample will be taken randomly. A key assumption being made is that results will be the same across age and genders, so quota sampling is not being used. The survey will use the online software SurveyMonkey, allowing for easy distribution and the data recorded in a digital format to negate possible errors in manual data entry. The survey will be distributed through social media, both personally by the researcher but also by contacting key atheist group and forum administrators to request the survey be shared. The survey will use mainly Likert scales to measure atheists’ views and behaviours. To discourage respondents from not using the whole of the scale (ie marking only near the middle of the scale) clear and precise labels will be used. Kissing under the mistletoe will not be included as there are factors other than their beliefs that could affect how much someone participates. The data from the survey will be analysed in a variety of ways, which will be covered fully in the results section. Appendix 3 – Interview Questions As an atheist, how do you feel about the celebration of Christmas? Tradition (Ritual) How much do you take part in the tradition? Why do you think participate to the extent you do? (If respondent doesn’t take part, is there something they do instead) Gift Giving Erection of Christmas Tree with decorations Pulling Crackers Kissing under mistletoe Feasting Advent calendars Father Christmas Carol singing Giving cards Hanging stockings Charitable giving Making a nativity scene Family sociability Sixpence hidden in the pudding Mulled wine Hanging a wreath Attending a church service From the traditions above, do you think that your friends or family have an influence on the amount in which you take part? Imagine you were in a situation where no-one around you knew you one Christmas, all other things unchanged, would you still do the traditions you mentioned you did above? (If needed give following example: You moved to a new country on the 20th December and don’t start work until the New Year, the country’s inhabitants celebrate Christmas the same way as in England) If respondent says they would not do the traditions: Is this because of the lack of religious beliefs? Appendix 4 – Survey Questions Appendix 5 – Results This section will look at the results from the primary research. Surveys The surveys received a response rate that would provide reliable analysis (n=256). 197 completed the survey to the end, which is where the demographic questions were positioned. It is therefore not possible to know the age or gender of 57 respondents. The known demographics are presented in a graph below: Individual Question Results All the graphs shown below have a y-axis starting at 1 and ending at 11, this is because of the weightings assigned to each question. Each question had a Likert scale with eleven options, hence ratings from 1 to 11. If a respondent answered “N/A” they we assigned a rating of 0, these were removed from the data set so not to skew the results. The following graph shows the mean of the responses to Question 1 “How much do you to take part in following Christmas traditions:” Read More