Interdiscuplinary Study in Consumer Behaviour Essay Example for Free

Interdiscuplinary Study in Consumer Behaviour Essay With the development of a consumer society, increasing consumer power in the market place, the growth in marketing, advertising, sophisticated consumers, ethical consumption etc, consumption is recognized as central to modern life. Thus it entails to go into a depth of the different approaches to consumer behaviour. Many human sciences give a variety of reasons to explain why a consumer behaves in a particular way in a given situation. Studies of consumption investigate how and why society and individuals consume goods and services, and how this affects society and human relationships. These are found in many social sciences such as economics, psychology, sociology, etc. The present study tries to investigate these theories based on consumption and consumer behaviour and how far these are interlinked as well as different from one another. It is also aimed at studying the relevance of these theories with the help of primary data and research. The purpose of this study is to find out whether there is some interlink between the various theories and approaches given by different economists, psychologists and sociologists. The hypothesis framed for the research is that Consumption is greatly influenced by the income factor. The data used in the study was mostly secondary in nature from the internet and reference to several books. The theories of consumption studied for this purpose are the demand theory, indifference curve analysis, revealed preference theory, Keynes’ consumption theory, permanent income hypothesis, relative income hypothesis, life-cycle hypothesis, Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, the sociological theories of consumption given by G. Katona, Ruby Turner Norris and the theory of Conspicuous consumption given by Veblen. An attempt has been made to study consumer behaviour with the help of primary data collected from a sample of 40 people from 4 categories namely, students, housewives, employees and businessmen. They were asked to rank the different factors that influence their buying behaviour. The influential factors given in the questionnaire were taken from the consumption theories given in economics, sociology as well as psychology as given above. From the analysis of both primary as well as secondary data, it was found that majority of people give importance to their income level. However, it is also found that, besides income factor, people also think about sociological and psychological factors while purchasing a commodity such as security, safety, fashion, advertising, comforts and prestige issues. As given in the Sociological theories of G. Katona and Norris, it was seen after the primary data analysis that the economic theory of consumption lacks such social structural variables. Thus it is concluded that in the construction of any consumption function or theory – for a particular product, for a particular class of products, or for consumption in general – not either economic or sociological or psychological variable is to be regarded as the key determinant. Different combinations of all these three enter into different statements of consumption functions at different situations and time periods according to the necessity or urgency of the wants.

Psychological Intervention and Schizophrenia Essay -- Disorder Schizop

Psychological Intervention and Schizophrenia There are perhaps two main prongs to the development of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as an intervention for schizophrenia, the first being based upon the sizable research that centre on family interventions, which have been successful in reducing patient relapse in schizophrenic families (Pilling et al., 2002). Family interventions are important to consider as they became established treatments during a phase where drug treatments were the main focus of attention in this field and so opened the area of non biological treatment for schizophrenia. And as I will touch upon later drug therapies are frequently used to reduce psychotic symptoms and relapse but these treatments rarely provide the answer, with as many as 50% of patients suffering from persistent psychotic symptoms when adhering to pharmacological treatments (Dickerson, 2000). The other aspect that has seen CBT be considered as a treatment for schizophrenia is that it has been effective in treating a range of non-psychotic disorders both mild and more serious (e.g., Hawton, Salkovskis, Kirk, & Clark, 1989; Clark & Fairburn, 1997). The range of effective CB therapies stem from early studies where depression and anxiety disorders were the subject of interest (Beck et al., 1979; Barlow, 1988) to more serious psychotic disorders, such as bipolar disorder (Basco, Rush, 1995; Perry et al, 1999) and personality disorders (Beck et al, 1990). While the success of family intervention, a non drug related therapy, and CBT’s success in treating various disorders provide evidence for the potential of CBT in treating schizophrenia they have been developed amid a backdrop in which drug therapy has been extensively explored, but has failed to produce a whole solution to the complexities exhibited by schizophrenia sufferers. It is likely then that as an intervention for schizophrenia CBT will provide a part solution rather than an all-encompassing answer. Detailed study of patients’ experiences has led to a greater understanding of the stress suffered by patients who go on to develop coping mechanisms, which can be treated using CBT, to deal with the symptoms of their illness (Mcnally, Goldberg, 1997). The fact then that there are so many aspects to this disease means that it would be impossible to provide a comprehensive review in this paper but I will discuss... ..., Tarrier, N., Morriss, R., McCarthy, E., & Limb, K. (1999). A randomised controlled trial of teaching bipolar disorder patients to identify early symptoms of relapse and obtain early treatment. British Medical Journal, 318, 149–153. Pilling, S., Bebbington, P., Kuipers, E., Garety, P., Geddes, J., Orbach, G. et al. (2002). Psychological treatments in schizophrenia: I. Meta-analysis of family interventions and cognitive behaviour therapy. Psychological Medicine, 32, 763–782. Sensky T., Turkington D., Kingdon D., Scott J. L., Scott J., Siddle R., O'Carroll M. & Barnes T. (2000). A randomised controlled trial of cognitive-behavioural therapy for persistent symptoms in schizophrenia resistant to medication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 57: 165-172 Watts FN, Powell GE, Austin SV. 1973. The modification of abnormal beliefs. British Journal of Medical Psychology 46: 359–363. Wiersma D., Jenner J. A., van de Willige G., Spakman M., Nienhuis F. J. (2001) Cognitive behaviour therapy with coping training for persistent auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia: a naturalistic follow-up study of the durability of effects. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 103 (5): 393-399

Medicalisation of Childbirth

The concept of medicalisation Originally, the concept of medicalisation was strongly associated with medical dominance, involving the extension of medicine's jurisdiction over erstwhile ‘normal’ life events and experiences. More recently, however, this view of a docile lay populace, in thrall to expansionist medicine, has been challenged. Thus, as we enter a post-modern era, with increased concerns over risk and a decline in the trust of expert authority, many sociologists argue that the modern day ‘consumer’ of healthcare plays an active role in bringing about or resisting medicalisation.Such participation, however, can be problematic as healthcare consumers become increasingly aware of the risks and uncertainty surrounding many medical choices. The emergence of the modern day consumer not only raises questions about the notion of medicalisation as a uni-dimensional concept, but also requires consideration of the specific social contexts in which medicalisa tion occurs. In this paper, we describe how the concept of medicalisation is presented in the literature, outlining different accounts of agency that shape the process.We suggest that some earlier accounts of medicalisation over-emphasized the medical profession's imperialistic tendencies and often underplayed the benefits of medicine. With consideration of the social context in which medicalisation, or its converse, arises, we argue that medicalisation is a much more complex, ambiguous, and contested process than the ‘medicalisation thesis’ of the 1970s implied.In particular, as we enter a post-modern era, conceptualizing medicalisation as a uni-dimensional, uniform process or as the result of medical dominance alone is clearly insufficient. Indeed, if, as Conrad and Schneider (1992) suggested, medicalisation was linked to the rise of rationalism and science (ie to modernity), and if we are experiencing the passing of modernity, we might expect to see a decrease in med icalisation

tempcolon Confronting Colonialism and Imperialism in...

Confronting Colonialism in A Tempest A Tempest by Aime Cesaire is an attempt to confront and rewrite the idea of colonialism as presented in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. He is successful at this attempt by changing the point of view of the story. Cesaire transforms the characters and transposes the scenes to reveal Shakespeare’s Prospero as the exploitative European power and Caliban and Ariel as the exploited natives. Cesaire’s A Tempest is an effective response to Shakespeare’s The Tempest because he interprets it from the perspective of the colonized and raises a conflict with Shakespeare as an icon of the literary canon. In The Tempest by William Shakespeare one might argue that colonialism is a reoccurring†¦show more content†¦Prospero, Trinculo and Stephano seek power assuming that no one will be able to triumph over them. Prospero later supports the theme of colonialism when he introduces the idea for Miranda and Ferdinand to go back to Europe and rule. This relates to the external influence that Europe had on the colonized areas although some leaders withdrew from the island. This adds to the controversy of colonization in The Tempest. The primary reason that colonization in The Tempest has become controversial is because Shakespeare directly relates it to reforming the â€Å"savage† natives of a land that is undiscovered by Europeans. It has also been suggested that Shakespeare’s The Tempest was directly influenced by a publication and three pamphlets that were widely known and were circulating during the time that The Tempest was written that give a detailed account on a storm that prevented the arrival of colonists to Virginia in 1609 (Hawkes). The â€Å"Sea Adventure† was a fleet that carried the admiral Sir John Somers and the future governor of Virginia Sir George Somers and was separated from the other eight ships by a fierce storm off the coast of Bermuda. This relates to Shakespeare’s The Tempest in that the ship had Alonso, king of Naples and Ferdinand the prince of Naples along with other noblemen. The Tempest also relates to the story of the â€Å"Sea Adventure† by the description of the island that the shipwrecked men land in. William Strachey, who writes the letter about the