UNDERSTANDING THE DEPRESSED CONSUMER: A QUANTITATIVE STUDY ON THE CONSUMPTION PATTERNS OF INDIVIDUALS IN DEPRESSION

Abstract

Understanding the psychological structures of consumers is of great importance for a well understanding of the Post-Modern society, which is also called the consumption society. Because now there are brands competing to sell their products rather than consumers competing for having products. When this situation is considered together with Post-Modern consumer behaviors, it seems inevitable for brands to understand the psychological conditions of consumers in their target markets. In a sense, these developments with a Realist Approach perspective have made interdisciplinary studies a necessity in postmodern science.

In this study designed in this context, the effects of depression levels of consumers on their consumption style were researched. For this purpose, the globally accepted Consumer Styles Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory were used. During the research process, the data obtained from both scales were tested in terms of correlation and cause-effect relationship with quantitative methods. The findings of the study show that there is no correlation between depression and Consumer Styles Inventory in a cumulative sense. In other words, a change in the depression levels of the consumers does not change the consumer behaviour as a whole. However, when it is focused to the sub-factors of the Consumer Styles Inventory, it has been observed that there is a high correlation between price focusing and depression level. Other sub-factors of the Consumer Styles Inventory were also evaluated in this context. Additionally, the relationship between depression levels and demographic variables is presented as secondary findings.