Rebecca Zellner
Professor Joseph Ben-Ur
MKGT 4311-Buyer Behavior
Exercise in Consumer Psychology
1. Describe, define and explain all relationships between all the systems in Freud’s theory.
According to Sigmund Frued analyses, human personality consists of three interacting systems: the id, suger ego, and the ego. These elements of personality work together to create complex human behaviors.
The id consist of primitive and impulsive drives impelled by the pleasure principle consisting of basic physiological needs such as thirst, hunger, and sex which the individual seeks immediate satisfaction without concern for the specific means. For example, an increase in hunger or thirst ...view middle of the document...
One example is an individual fixated at the anal stage, the adult personality may exhibit other traits, such as an extortionate desideratum for cleanliness.
Researchers who apply Frued's psychoanalytic theory to the study of consumer personality believe that human drives are largely insensate and that consumers are primarily incognizant of their true reasons for buying what they buy. These researchers incline to visually perceive consumer purchases and/or consumption situations as a reflection and an extension of the consumer's own personality. In other words, they consider the consumer’s appearance and possessions as reflections of the individual’s personality.
2. Define personality and describe personality traits theory and its use in marketing.
The orientation of trait theory is primarily quantitative or empirical; it fixates on the quantification of personality in terms of categorical psychological characteristics, called traits. A trait is defined in the text as “any distinguishing, relatively enduring way in which one individual differs from another”. In other words, trait theory views personality as revolving around endeavors to identify and label permanent characteristics that describe an individual's behavior. Popular characteristics or traits include shyness, aggressiveness, submissiveness, indolence, zeal, adhesion, and timidity. This distinctiveness, when they are exhibited in an astronomically immense number of situations is called personality traits. The more consistent the characteristic and the more frequently it occurs in diverse situations, the more paramount that trait is in describing the individual. The different combination of traits found an individual makes them unique, therefore traits theory focuses primarily with the differences in people with regards to their own set of personality traits.
Trait researchers conclude that it is generally more realistic that an individual’s personality is linked to how the consumers makes their decision and to the purchase or consumption of a broad product category rather than a specific brand.
3. Define and provide examples for all the different types of selective perception.
The consumer’s “selection” of stimuli from the environment is based on the interaction of expectations and motives with the stimulus itself. These factors pose four important concepts concerning perception; selective exposure, selective attention, and perceptual defense.
Selective exposure is the conscious or unconscious exposure to a limited set of information, messages, or media. It is a process by which a consumer actively seeks out messages that they find pleasant or with which they are sympathetic, and they actively avoid painful or threatening ones. For example a person avoiding stimuli in their environment by leaving the room while commercials are on TV.
Selective attention is when consumers exercise selectivity in terms of the attention they give to commercial stimuli. They have...
