ASSIGNMENT: PSY382 CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

The purpose of the assignment is to get you to think about the psychology of consumer behavior
by applying it to your own life. The theories or concepts that you apply are basically up to your
own perception of your own behavior. However, these must be theories grounded in the text and
classroom discussion (i.e. I don’t want off the wall theories like aliens made you buy Tide rather
than Cheer). The journal will have three goals: understanding the influences behind your
purchases, understanding the consequences of your purchases, and giving you a chance to
reassess and change your purchase patterns.

The method is as follows:

1. For a FOUR WEEK period, you must keep a diary of the products you purchase. This is
simply a listing of the products, when, and where you made the purchase. Do this on a
daily basis.

2. At the end of each week, look for 3 products you seem to “consume” most regularly or
consistently, then think back on that week and analyze:

a. why you bought that product over another

b. what advantages or disadvantages resulted from purchasing that product over
others
c. your satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the purchase
d. your intent to continue that purchase (or note if you decided to change your
purchase pattern & why)

3. At the end of the four weeks, choose 3 key products and consider the one major
psychological factor or process for each separate product (e.g. peer pressure, learning,
subliminal messages etc.) that contributed most to your consumption pattern (i.e. one
different process for each of the 3 products).

I want you to be very specific to both the psychological processes and its application to your
specific purchase pattern. I want to see specific reasons for why you think it was that process
that was most influential on that product.

The maximum length of each paper should be six (6) pages double spaced, with 1 inch
margins and 12 point Times New Roman font.

Your grade will be based on three main criteria:

1) your ability to briefly summarize the psychological process
• you must show that you understood what the process involves, how it works, how it
influences consumer behavior in general
2) your ability to effectively communicate its application to your life
• you have to then take the theory one step further to show specifically how it applies to
your particular consumer behavior and why it is the major reason behind your
purchase pattern
3) the clarity and effectiveness of your communication compared to others in the class
• in this respect, writing style does matter because it is part of effective communication
• the key is to convey your point simply and clearly (BIG WORDS do not impress, but
clarity does)

It is important to note that your grade will also depend on your ability to clearly show how the
SPECIFIC aspect of the psychological processes apply to your consumer behavior. This needs
to be clearly linked in the application.

Everyone will begin their journal February 18

You must hand in your journal every Monday. This must include the analysis of your purchases
and reasons etc (see #2 of Method). THIS MUST BE TYPED OR I WILL NOT ACCEPT IT.
FAILURE TO HAND IN A WEEKLY JOURNAL WILL RESULT IN A LETTER GRADE
REDUCTION FROM THE FINAL PAPER. Your final paper must include your complete 4
week journal.

NOTE: Weekly journals and the final assignment will be collected at THE BEGINNING OF CLASS.
Anything handed in after I begin the class will be considered late and receive a grade of zero.
You have plenty of warning.

FINAL ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE April 30th at the beginning of class.

Presentation:
The last two classes will be dedicated to presentations of your assignment. You will select one
of the products in your assignment (whichever you choose is up to you) and discuss very briefly
– 3 to 4 minutes maximum – how the psychological process had and influence on your consumer
behavior and why you think it had an influence.

The presentation will be graded on your understanding of the concept, your ability to briefly
summarize the process, and your ability to clearly communicate the application of the chosen
process in a brief time period.

IF YOU MISS YOUR PRESENTATION WITHOUT A VALID REASON, YOU WILL

RECEIVE A ZERO ON YOUR PAPER AND THE PRESENTATION.

The order of presentations will be selected at a later date in the class.

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is using any work, idea, thought, etc. of someone else (from books, articles,
television, conversations, the internet etc.) and present it as your own. In essence this represents
cheating. I realize that the ideas you will be basing your paper on will be from the work of
others. This is common practice in scientific writing. When you do so you must give them
credit for their ideas or work by giving them a citation along with their idea (see the examples
below). By citing them, you are saying that the idea is their and not yours. Your ideas can flow
around theirs, but you must give credit where it is due. The most common form of plagiarism at
the undergraduate level is REWORDING. This is plagiarism because you didn’t do any work
(cognitive or otherwise) in rewording.

Another method of avoiding plagiarism is to quote the original sources. Quotes are used when
the wording of the source is reported verbatim. FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS ASSIGNMENT I DON’T WANT
YOU TO USE QUOTES. I would rather you tell in your words what you think the author meant. Don’t
be confused, however, into thinking that if you aren’t using a direct quote that the idea is yours.
If you paraphrase or summarize the ideas of someone else, it is still their idea and you must give
them a proper citation.

You might be surprised, but it is typically evident when plagiarism has occurred. Avoid the
temptation because I will deal with such dishonesty harshly and assign a grade of zero and report
your actions to the chair.

Citations and References in APA style:

If you cite it, you have to have it in a reference section. Further, only use a reference for work
that is cited (if you have a reference but no citation then it appears that you used someone’s ideas
but didn’t give a citation). Don’t copy references from the articles or books either, because many
non-APA journals have different reference formats.

Citations:

Individuals who describe driving as highly stressful have been found to report a higher incidence
of speeding violations (Matthews, Dorn, & Glendon, 1991) and minor traffic accidents (Gulian,
Glendon, Matthews, Davies, & Debney, 1990; Selzer & Vinoker, 1974).

According to Matthews et al. (1991), there is a strong correlation between ….. Further, Selzer
and Vinokur (1974) believe that traffic accidents …….

Simulated driving tasks have been shown to …… (Evans, 1991; Evans & Kohn, 1989; Matthews
et al., 1991). In this respect …….
___________________________________________________________________________
 References

Evans, L. (1991). Traffic safety and the driver. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Evans, L., & Kohn, S. (1989). Traffic congestion, perceived control, and the psychological

stress among urban bus drivers. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 658-663.

Matthews, G., Dorn, L., & Glendon, A. I. (1991). Personality correlates of driver stress.

Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 535-549.

Selzer, M. L., & Vinokur, A. (1974). Life events, subjective stress and traffic accidents.

American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 903-906.

The references should be on a separate page, with the title (References) centered at the top of the
page (not underlined or bold or italics & using the same font as the rest of the paper). All
references should be double spaced.