Consumer Behaviour dissonance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Consumer Behaviour dissonance - Essay Example In modern theories of consumer behaviour, much stress is given on this particular sequence of events of first knowing one's self and then proceeding to make a purchase. Experts believe "that people purchase a product or brand only if these things are consistent with, enhance, or in some way fit well with the conception they have of themselves" (Ross, 1971, p. 38). Thus, self-image, or self-concept has found a central place in the works of many modern consumer behaviour theorists. "Any bit of knowledge that a person has about himself or the environment is a "cognition," or "cognitive element."" (Wicklund, and Brehm 1976, 2). Self-cognition is not objective, but the sum total of subjective thoughts one has about one's self. It is taken as "the totality of the individual's thoughts and feelings having reference to him/her self as an object" (Rosenberg, 1979). Modern consumer behaviour theories postulate that a consumer who is not aware of his/her self, and fails to achieve "self-congruity" is bound to suffer in the act of purchasing a product from pre-choice anxiety, and/or post-choice regret arising from cognitive dissonance. In theories that attribute a "brand" with personality (Sirgy, 1985), the same principles can well apply to the development of the brand image of a product, as they apply to the consumer's path to proper purchase. Similar theorists hold that consumers select brands by the same process they select companions; "just as people take care in choosing friends who have a similar personality to themselves, so brands, which are symbolic of particular images, are chosen with the same concern" (De Chernatony and McDonald, 1997, p. 145). In today's marketing theories, products are assumed to have a personality that is not only determined by the product's physical characteristics (actual self), but also by the marketing mix promoting a brand image (ideal self) beyond the functionality of the product. In fact, according to many, self-image/brand-image congruity plays a key factor in driving consumer behaviour, and a brand image or product image, like the human self, can possess " a set of attribut es such as friendly, modern, youthful and traditional" (Sirgy, 1985, p.195). The concept of the self that a person holds has many dimensions, and includes both physical and psychological attributes. Self-concept bases itself upon human self-prototypes and moderates the psychological functioning of an individual to exhibit consistent behavioural patterns in the various social roles that a person has to play. Such self-prototypes or self-schemata control, organize, and influence the information processing function of a person that includes the processing of both self-related and other information (Markus, 1977). The selection, interpretation, filtration, and assimilation of incoming information depend upon the self-schemas possessed by each individual (Kihilstrom, 1981). Absorption, rejection, or alteration of new information is based upon its consistency with the existing self-structure (Snygg and Combs, 1949). Earlier research on measuring and analysing self-images was confined to the domain of psychologists who studied the differences that could be seen between the individual's perceptions of his/her real

DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE - Essay Example Nevertheless, one main issue remains to be satisfactorily resolved and it involves accurate measurement of the occurrence of plagiarism. Scholars have relied on student reporting of their own and their peers’ plagiarising behaviour in obtaining such measures. Although, scholars may obtain useful data this way, the method develops its paradox because it requires survey participants to offer honest reports regarding their dishonesty. Moreover, although self-reporting in any behaviour is problematic, self-reporting of dishonesty behaviour is extremely challenging and studies show that student responses are not congruent to their employed behaviours; nevertheless, the advent of plagiarism detection software made the task easier. The use of software that detect plagiarism by university lecturers enables the lecturers to perform what was previously difficult or impossible namely obtaining a clear picture of the extent of plagiarism in student assignments; moreover, the use of plagia rism software has deterrent effect on plagiarism. Despite the potential usefulness of the various plagiarism software and their unequivocally acceptance by the community of academicians, a backlash against their use seems to be underway as academicians consider the use of such software to control students. The scholar’s goal is to fill the gap between what students actually do instead of what they say they do with regard to plagiarism in assignments. The main strength in the research includes a collection of records on the form and extent of plagiarism over a period of five years in two main university assignments. However, the study had several limitations one of which is over reliance on Turnitin, which only matches material found on the internet. Materials of the university textbooks cannot be matched unless the material gets online in some form like through lodging a student’s assignment in the software’s database. Moreover, the database of Turnitin may be u nable to detect material within invisible web sources like password-protected databases or even customised assignments produced by writing companies. Another disadvantage is that the measurement process relied to a certain extent on the interpretation of the original report in conjunction with checking of the assignment script; hence, absolute objectivity cannot be claimed in the data. The disadvantage of the of a convenient sample like non-randomness and potential absenteeism in generalization are acknowledged; in addition, the study is limited to New Zealand where the data was derived and the findings indicate that they may not be generalised. The findings confirmed the established view that international students have high rate of plagiarism compared to domestic students because they not only topped in rates across students, but also were at the top of rating regarding verbatim plagiarism and were among students with high rate of extensive plagiarism. The notion that students wit hout experience are more prone to plagiarism was not fully supported in the study findings because students in year one submitted the smallest percentage of plagiarised script in the year of enrolment, while students in their fourth year of enrolment plagiarised extensively. From the present6ed data in the study, it is possible to develop a profile of