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Shame-Proneness as a Risk Factor of Compulsive Buying

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Abstract

Although compulsive buying is understood as an attempt to deal with chronic negative affect, the role of self-conscious emotions has not been explicitly theorized nor empirically examined. One objective of this manuscript was to fill this gap by integrating the escape theory account of compulsive buying with the psychological literature on negative self-conscious emotions. Specifically, shame-proneness was posited to be an important risk factor of compulsive buying severity. Another objective of this study was to examine the use of avoidant coping strategies following buying lapses and relate them with dispositional self-conscious emotions. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the use of avoidant coping strategies following buying lapses would be positively influenced by shame-proneness, and that this effect would be partially mediated by compulsive buying. These hypotheses received strong support from two studies, in which compulsive buying was assessed with different self-report instruments.

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Notes

  1. Using existing coping instruments (e.g., Ways of Coping Questionnaire by Folkman and Lazarus; 1988) and COPE inventory by Carver et al. (1989) was not deemed ideal in this study. As existing coping instruments are designed to assess coping with general life stressors, some coping strategies are not relevant in buying lapse context (e.g., “I gave up the attempt to get what I wanted”), and the wording of many items is not specific enough to capture meaningful coping efforts in this context (e.g., “I made a plan of action”).

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  1. Department of Marketing & Consumer Studies, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada

    Sunghwan Yi

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Yi, S. Shame-Proneness as a Risk Factor of Compulsive Buying. J Consum Policy 35, 393–410 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10603-012-9194-9

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