Confession of an Online Shopaholic - Research Paper Example

Proposal This research examines the concept of a shopaholic. A shopaholic is a slang term for a person who engages in excessive shopping. This problem interferes with individuals’ finances as well as their well-being. The research shall employ secondary data towards assessing multiple perspectives of viewing at the same issue. The problem and the background The problem of this research concerns with over-shopping. Over-shopping, in this sense, is analyzed in the context of consumerism. In the day-to-day culture, there are instances of individuals participating in over-shopping. This has led to the label of some individuals as the shopaholics. Contemporary culture manifests a shopaholic as a maniac whose behavior is irrational. The research seeks to find out whether a shopaholic is really an irrational character. This is possible through examining the factors that re responsible for the making of a shopaholic. Research design Since this is a social issue, the research shall only deal with secondary data. This is because secondary data is highly likely to employ qualitative analysis in assessing such a phenomenon. This occurs because such an issue requires multiple perspectives in drawing a conclusion. Secondary data, in this sense, traverses articles and books assessing the issue in terms of sociological, economical, business, and psychological perspectives. Secondary data will seek to inform the audience whether excessive shopping is a natural behavior or whether the same is an irrational habit. In turn, the data analysis shall occur qualitatively. 1. Bibliography Benson, April L. To buy or not to buy: why we overshop and how to stop. Boston, MA: Trumpeter, 2008. Print. This book seeks to analyze the predispositions for shopping as well as provide solutions for the behavior. In this sense, the author examines compulsive buying as a problem rather than as a mere phenomenon. The author explains shopping mania as a habit that develops to cure a different psychological need rather arise to satisfy the actual need of shopping. The text, therefore, manifests over-shopping as a means of distracting oneself from dealing with an essential emotional need such as love. Alternatively, it could be a means of gaining the attention of others if the involved person feels that others do not care about one. Besides, over-shopping could be a product of low self-esteem if the victim engages in impulsive purchases to feel important about oneself (Benson 14). The book, therefore, recommends mindful shopping as a means of countering this problem. It highlights the essence of financial security as a means of leading an enjoyable life in the end. The book entails the philosophical arguments of merging the mind and the soul as a means of fending off the need to shop impulsively. This book will help the research in examining compulsive buying as a personal problem. The author explains shopping is connected to the making of an individual and highly relates with one’s needs. In this sense, the book helps in highlighting the history and emotions of an individual that explains why such a person develops a shopping mania. In addition, the text is helpful in appealing to the ordinary individual who faces first-hand account of a shopping problem. It accords insight that an ordinary individual can easily apply into one’s life. This is a credible source because of notable reasons. To begin with, the author is a psychologist who specializes in the treatment of compulsive buying disorder. This means the author has an adequate history in handling matters that concern with the shopaholic problem. It is essential to highlight that such history lends credibility to the author’s arguments because he handles the subject in its real-time sense. This also connotes an underlying empirical outlook on the subject of shopping. The text manifests credibility in the fact that it offers both analysis and solutions to the problem of shopping. However, the text may thrive on the prejudice of viewing shopping as a problem rather than as a mere attribute of a person. Besides, since it only characterizes over-shopping as a product of certain psychological disposition, it ignores the fact that such a behavior may be a consequence of the socio-economic system of a society. As a product of the socio-economic system, the individual, therefore, is supposed to have limited control over one’s behavior. Murad, Khairudin and Salleh Shahnon. “Confession of an online shopaholic: teenage youths’ purchasing behavior towards online retailing preferences.” International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 4.1 (2014): 35-38. Print This article centers on the phenomenon of online retailing as an influential and contemporary way of shopping. The text traces this development by analyzing the concept of traditional shopping that has always conferred given advantages to individuals conducting such shopping. Traditional shopping emerges from the need to fulfill contemporary needs that reflect and emanate from the general psychological preferences of individuals living in an area (Murad and Shahnon 35). In this sense, traditional shopping is a reflection and product of the immediate environment that it serves. This explains why shopping malls in communities serve the social purposes of meetings among individuals who take time to participate in activities surpassing the mere act of shopping. Traditional shops provide the opportunity for members of a community to connect. Besides, such shopping centers create the connection between the customers and the products in given purchase centers as they touch and see the actual products they admire. In spite of this perennial value, globalization has created a wave of developments that are even transforming the shopping realm. The article dwells on the essence of online shopping, which helps customers in a variety of ways. The author argues that online shopping provides convenience and efficiency because a customer does not have to travel to a physical shopping center. The study uncovered an interesting fact that youths prefer purchasing clothes and apparel than other of products. This manifests an image-conscious generation, which only over-shops on products that enhance the appearance of the consumer. This book will help the research in significant ways. To begin with, it broadens the scope of understanding a shopaholic. Since the world continually develops, it is erroneous to understand issues in a static sense. This, especially, is essential in a world whereby a person who loves shopping is depicted as addicted to physical malls and outdoor shopping as opposed to virtual shopping that is gradually engorging in most consumers’ psyche. Online shopping is a reality that some schools of thought are denying in spite of its surging presence. Internet development has consequently challenged the traditional thought system. In this capacity, the text offers an insightful and comprehensive view of addressing the shopping phenomenon. For instance, the article highlights the case of discounts that are common in online retail. Such incentives are highly likely to encourage higher amounts of purchases when a person is engaging in online shopping than when the same person is engaging in traditional shopping. It is essential to highlight that this article is a highly credible source. For instance, it highlights forms of shopping that the audience can perceive from one’s immediate environment. The article is a considerably empirical artifact that tests the dependent factor of shopping over the independent factors of shopping such as family friends, and income. The article investigates how these independent factors interact and change to shape the shopping behavior of an individual. The article specifically targeted the youth in this study rather than study the whole population of shoppers. In this view, it captures the technologically adept youth population that is highly likely to use internet services rather than the older shoppers. While investigating the modes of payments that the youth use in making purchases, the study assigns percentages and related frequencies. This mathematical approach accords an accurate representation of the real-time happenings in shopping rather than observations that suffer the errors of subjectivity. Pranistiasari. Erlina. Shopping behavior as the reflection of the hiercahy of human needs on the main character in the film confessions of a shopaholic. A Thesis. 2011. Web. September 26, 2014. This study builds on the Abraham Maslow’s theory of hiercahy of needs. Abraham Maslow’s theory has been articulated to follow a material and intellectual pattern whereby individuals who are very rich pursue needs that surpass their own self. In the same sense, highly intelligent people are highly likely to pursue a certain sense of spirituality that transcends the mere motivation of recognition and physiological needs. The article mainly analyzes the behavior of Rebecca Bloomwood in the movie, Confessions of a Shopaholic. The author identifies the profile of the Rebecca character thereby identifying her possible needs. These needs are essential in rationalizing, if not justifying, the behavior of the main character. Maslow’s needs devolve into the five levels of psychological, safety, love and belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization profiles. In the end, the author identifies that the character’s shopping behavior reflects the needs of esteem and self-actualization ones (Pranistiasari 4). It is crucial to admit that this study will strengthen the research by lending a sociological perspective to the investigation of shopping mania. In this perspective, the author rationalizes rather than condemns the behavior of a shopaholic. It invites the audience to understand the character and indulge in comprehending why a shopaholic behaves in that given way. In this mode, the audience concludes that it is difficult for an individual to detach oneself from the need for esteem and the pride in peer validation. Besides, the text has a positivity that manifests a shopaholic as a natural person whose behavior is a mere reaction to one’s needs. The individual, through shopping, indirectly satisfies needs that are real in one’s life. This credible research uses intensive qualitative analysis in laying bare the conscious and the unconscious of a shopaholic. To begin with, the article narrates the story of Rebecca and her pursuit for glamour that jeopardizes her finances. She sticks to a job that she dislikes because such a career accords her considerable money. The author analyzes the Rebecca’s character as a person who lacks belonging and love thereby pursuing primary needs through superficial things. She also seeks validation in spite of having a job that does not pay her as much as she wishes. When the character refuses her dream job at a fashion magazine, it reveals that the character is at the beginning of fulfilling her intrinsic needs by refusing things that only accords her external validation. Hoyer, Wayne, Deborah MacInnis, and Rik Pieters. Consumer behavior. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2012. Print. This book analyzes compulsive buying from the business perspective. In a subtle sense, the author unknowingly argues that shopping is a world phenomenon rather than a characteristic of certain individuals (Hoyer, MacInnis, and Pieters 297). Although the book is rooted in commerce, it lends the economic reasoning that consumers are always rational. For instance, a consumer chooses a bundle of goods that will attain the highest satisfaction, but such a bundle of goods does not surpass the budget limit of the given individual. In this frame, a consumer’s impulse at buying preferred goods does not override one’s conscience in judging the particular income that can actually afford such goods. This book highlights the evolution of modern business as a marketing driven element rather a capital-dependent thing. This means that marketing is influential in drawing consumers to particular products. In the real world, the successful marketing campaigns of brands such as Rolex have led consumers in buying such products. This book will provide a business perspective of analyzing a shopaholic. This means that the shopping individual is a creation of unique forms of business that occur in the contemporary society. In this sense, the individual’s needs are consequences of superimposed images on the consumer’s psyche. In turn, a consumer can simply buy a given product due to the social value that such a good entails. It is essential to highlight that this is a credible source since the Cengage publishers have specialized in high quality business texts. The book uses academic economic and commerce arguments in explaining the concept of impulse buying. The only shortcoming of this book lies in the idea that it ends up ignoring shopping mania as a problem that the society ought to tackle. Abramowitz, Jonathan, and Arthur Houts. Concepts and controversies in obsessive-compulsive disorder. New York, NY: Springer, 2005. Print. This text only deals with the psychological perspective in defining and analyzing compulsive buying disorder. The arguments are intensively academic as they strike out the differences between impulsive and compulsive disorders (Abramowitz and Houts 185). In essence, the book argues that a shopaholic may be a person who faces an impulsive problem rather than a compulsive problem. This is because a compulsive problem infuses with depression and other personality problems. This book is helpful in analyzing shopping mania as mainly a psychological problem. Seeking out solutions for such an individual, therefore, demands the study of history that may have helped shape such a behavior. The book diverges from the business and sociological definitions by explaining how a person facing a compulsive disorder might have an intense underlying need for recognition and acceptance. This credible source traces its arguments from the DSM categorization. The book does not specifically deal with the compulsive buying disorder as it lists it as one of the classifications that deserve verification. The book refers from empirical studies and employs the scholarly authority from influential academics. 2. Essay Shopaholic A shopaholic is a slang term for a person who faces regular impulse towards shopping. Shopping, in this sense, becomes an addictive experience that the affected individual cannot resist once the impulse appears. Psychology defines this condition as compulsive buying disorder. In business, a shopaholic is assessed in less intense terms than the psychological definition. Other schools of thought digress from the psychological explanation and assess a shopaholic as a person who is the product of a certain socio-economic setup. The person, therefore, is created from circumstances that one does not choose. In spite of the common vilification of shopaholics, the behavior of a shopaholic is natural. Modern businesses have evolved into a stage whereby marketing is more essential than capital in determining profitability. In this sense, companies have hugely invested in marketing as a way of attracting and retaining customers. This, especially, is evident in advertizing. Firms have directed their energies towards advertising since it helps draw customers to products that they otherwise would not have bought. Since many companies are competing for the same pool of customers, and they offer quality goods, the art of amplifying the value of their goods serves in attracting a larger customer base. This phenomenon creates pressure among consumers who believe that buying such products contribute towards their happiness. This is evident in advertising that espouses the exquisite image of happy families. Other values and images that advertising commonly espouses include sexual power, masculinity, enhanced femininity, affluence, and sophistication. Consumers, in striving after these values, end up purchasing such products in the belief that they acquire the status connoted in the images. Marketing, therefore, hypnotizes consumers and creates a consumerism culture. In a culture whereby individuals are increasingly bored, people look for an outlet that calms their zealous nature. Advertising creates the immediate platform whereby individuals satisfy their fantasies. Since every company invests in sophisticated marketing, the consumer becomes vulnerable to the immense power of firms. Such a capitalistic society makes consumers buy products that, sometimes, they do not need. The customer finds oneself at the confluence of a sea of products, which continually attract the individual. A shopaholic, therefore, is a person created by modern marketing. In a world of limited marketing, such an individual would not probably be existing. An increasingly materialistic culture is responsible for consumerism and the creation of the shopaholic. This means that the society only values a person according to the amount of wealth that one owns. Such a culture creates a limited capacity for a person to gain value in anything other than wealth. The pressure influences the individual to buy as much products as possible in order to gain the socially prescribed value. In turn, most people live beyond their income in order to impress other people. In this sense, a shopaholic is a product of the sociological order in a community. It is crucial to highlight that certain psychological dispositions could be responsible for the making of a shopaholic. An individual who suffers from limited attention is highly likely to seek that attention elsewhere. In the shopaholic movie, the Rebecca character lives in a society whereby pursuit of wealth is a primary concern of individuals. Rebecca is an employee in the lower cadre of the company. In addition, she earns limited income that cannot meet her needs. She has to live beyond her means in order to attain peer recognition. This suggests that she has to create an impression that she does not possess in order to attain the status she craves. Rebecca lacks love in her personal life and she fills that gap through over-shopping. In essence, a shopaholic is a person who is created by circumstances. To begin with, the consumerism culture creates pressure for people to attain value through material wealth. In addition, marketing induces individuals to buy goods that they do not need. This creates unnecessary impulse that induces people to participate in mass purchases. Advertising creates images of life that are mostly out of reach for ordinary people. Besides, individuals who suffer from limited peer recognition are predisposed to mass purchases in order to gain a prescribed social value. Works cited Abramowitz, Jonathan S, and Arthur C. Houts. Concepts and controversies in obsessive-compulsive disorder. New York, NY: Springer, 2005. Print. Benson, April L. To buy or not to buy: why we overshop and how to stop. Boston, MA: Trumpeter, 2008. Print. Hoyer, Wayne, Deborah MacInnis, and Rik Pieters. Consumer behavior. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2012. Print. Murad, Khairudin and Salleh Shahnon. “Confession of an online shopaholic: teenage youths’ purchasing behavior towards online retailing preferences.” International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 4.1 (2014): 35-38. Print Pranistiasari. Erlina. Shopping behavior as the reflection of the hiercahy of human needs on the main character in the film confessions of a shopaholic. A Thesis. 2011. Web. September 26, 2014. Read More