Psychology of Consumer Behavior Over the last several years, the issue of compulsive buying has been increasingly brought to the forefront. This is because a number of individuals are making decisions that are not considered to be financially prudent. Instead, they are based the person feeling good about their purchase in the short-term. This is giving them a sense of emotional satisfaction. However, in the longer periods of time, is when these kinds of decisions can lead to varying financial consequences. As a result, marketers are more likely to target specific segments that are considered to be impulsive.

Two specific groups that were often perused include women and younger adults. This is because a number of studies were indicating, how these two segments are more than likely to engage in compulsive shopping. The main reason why is because women and young adults were often the focus of their surveys. This made the results favor this belief based on the high number of participants from these demographics. ("Men, Women have Similar Rates," 2006)

However, new research has been introduced indicating how these studies are wrong. A good example of this can be seen with a survey conducted by the Stanford School of Medicine. They found that men are just as likely to engage in compulsive buying based on predetermined psychological conditions. What is happening is certain men and women, will often make these kinds of purchases to address some kind emotional issue they are dealing with. This is important, because it is showing how new research must be conducted that will focus on what population groups will more than likely become compulsive buyers. To determine this requires conducting a research study that will collect data and corroborate the findings with the underlying trends. This will be accomplished by looking at: the method, analysis and conclusion. Together,...

("Men, Women have Similar Rates," 2006)
Method

The method that researchers will be using is to the mixed approach. This is when actuaries will be looking at previous studies that were conducted and will compare them with the most recent surveys. This will assist them in searching for possible issues that could highlight how specific segments were under represented. Then, examine the information from the more recent surveys that were conducted. This will help researchers to identify what kinds of problems were taking place. At the same time, it will establish new trends about compulsive buyers. During this process is when actuaries will use a number of different resources to include: studies, journals, books and web based information. (Beazely, 2002)

Once this takes place, is when actuaries will focus on conducting their own survey. This will occur using the quantitative approach. This is when researchers will create a survey and select respondents from different segments of the population. In this particular case, the survey will subdivided into several different groups called the dependent variable. What actuaries are looking for are those individuals that will have specific attributes that are in line with the most common groups. (Beazely, 2002)

Using the study that was conducted by Stanford University, this will be divided into different segments. To include: men 16 -- 35, men 36 -- 60, women 16 -- 35, women 36 -- 60, anyone who has large credit card debt and individuals making less than $50 thousand per year. These different groups will severe as the dependent variables of the study. This is the specific segments that are being examined during the course of the project. To improve the accuracy of the research, a…