Compulsive Buying: The Role of Earlier-in-Life Events and Experiences - Article Review

Running Head: ARTICLE REVIEW 1
Article Review

Article Review 2
Introduction
In the present paper, an article review has been conducted to analyze the findings and the
research methods, used in the paper. The primary aim of the article review is to summarize the
findings of the article rather than reporting new facts or analysis. The review article is written for
the audience, who are knowledgeable of the subject area. It means that the article is not meant
for the general audience. It summarizes the main ideas, shows the arguments, position of the
author and the contribution of the author to the research field. In this essence, the article,
“compulsive buying: the role of earlier-in-life events and experiences” is taken for the review.
Thus research article sheds light on the compulsive behavior of the buyers, while making the
purchase decisions. The article has been written by Grougiou, Moschis and Kapoutsis (2015) and
published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing. The research article is based on the primary
findings, based on the survey administrated in Greece.
The article has discussed the phenomenon of compulsive consumer behavior on the purchase
decision of the consumers. The demonstration of compulsive behavior is a psychological issue,
which can occur due to some kind of trauma. This habit can cause serious negative impact on the
psychological, social and financial terms. It can be stated that the recent economic crisis. In 2008
has been the effect of consumerism and irrational spending. As a result, the government agencies
and the public entities are urging their citizens to control their expenses and thoughtfully used
the easily available credit. These actions will not only protect the consumers, but also protect the
market from the high credit financial risk.
Therefore, it is important that the government and the scholars understand the mechanism and
the situations, which promote compulsive behavior in the society. These factors can protect the
society from the personal and the social cause. There are several studies, which states that the
compulsive purchase behavior is linked with the demographic and psychological factors of the
people. The compulsive purchase behavior is demonstrated by the people, who glorify the
consumption of the luxury products. These people have lack of self-control, have an orientation
towards material goods and are concerned about their social status. They have low self-esteem
and issues in money management problem (Joireman, Kees, & Sprott, 2010). The literature has
highlighted that a large number of women falls under this category.
Several studies have been conducted regarding the issues and the consequences of the
compulsive behavior in humans. There is consensus that there are several dire consequences of
excessive and undesirable maladaptive behavior. However, there is still very less knowledge
about the situations, which onset the development of such personality traits in the human
behavior. There have been studies, which have suggested that compulsive behavior, may not rise
from any traumatic behavior from the past; however, it can be a result of biological and social
behavior.

Article Review 3
Other than that, the critical life events can impact the human purchase behavior. These events are
encountered at certain point at adolescent life. These life events can impact in the personal
consumer behavior. It is human psychology, that when an individual encounter certain situation,
he responds and adapts to it. This adaptation encompasses different activities for controlling and
coping stress arisen from the issue.
In the human psychological behavior, it is stated that there are certain life events, which creates
stressful impacts. Men take different strategies to cope with these issues. The underlying phases
of all of these life events are socialization development or decline of the growth. All these
changes can be categorized in three widely accepted lie events, namely, stress perspective,
normative perspective and human capital perspective. The stress perspective of psychology states
that there are certain life events, which can create stressful psychological imbalance for the
employees. Different individuals use different stress coping strategies to handle emotional
turbulence (Roberts & Jones, 2001). Initially, these efforts to reduce the negative emotions are
high in magnitude; however, gradually, they develop into a condition of unique behavioral and
attitude orientation. These changes become a part of the personality and might lead to
orientations with compulsive buying disorder.
The stressful events have a severe negative impact on the emotional well-being of the children. It
results in different feelings insecurity, tension and low self-esteem. It results in obsessive and
compulsive activities so that the individual can cope up with the psychological discomfort. Most
common compulsive behavior, as a result of stressful events are shopping and overeating
(Billieux, Rochat,Rebetez & Van der Linden, 2008). When these stressful events are endured over a
specific time, they result in compulsive and uncontrollable buying habits.
The children in single-parent families also suffer from compulsive shopping disorder as their
parents use coercive techniques to exercise a high level of control over the behavior of the
children. Some parenting styles have a negative impact on the emotional security and the self-
esteem of the people. It increases the probability of using social interaction to handle the stressful
events in the life. In the adolescent age, peers and friends provide a relieving environment so that
the individual can forget the family issues.
The normative is another perspective to handle the stressful events. It states that the young or
adolescent individuals acquire socially desirable norms and behavior and use them to socialize
with others. Different age groups have different sub-cultures and their behavior reflect their age
group. Adolescent people rely on their peers, which is a result of immaturity. Due to this
immaturity, the adolescents take risks to garner attention of their peers and seek their attention
through different means. The adolescents with sexually active peers exhibit the same behavior, in
contrast to the adolescents with sexually inactive peers do not show such activities. Therefore,
this theory is proven as the peers have a strong impact on the behavior of the individuals (Shaffer,
LaPlante, LaBrie, Kidman, Donato, & Stanton, 2004). The deviant consumer behavior of an
adolescent can be adopted through compulsive buying behavior.