Context and Cognition in Consumer Psychology: How Perception and Emotion Guide Action

191 Pages·2018·16.535 MB·English

by  Gordon R. Foxall

CONTEXT AND COGNITION IN

CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY
Context and Cognition in Consumer Psychology is concerned with the psychological
explanation of consumer choice. It pays particular attention to the roles of perception
and emotion in accounting for consumers’ actions and their interaction with the
desires and beliefs in terms of which consumer choice is frequently analyzed.
In this engaging book, Gordon Foxall extends and elaborates his theory of
consumer action, based on the philosophical strategy of Intentional Behaviorism.
In doing so, he introduces the concept of contingency-r epresentation to explore
the ways in which consumers mentally represent the consequences of past decisions
and the likely outcomes of present consumption. The emphasis is on action rather
than behavior and the manner in which the intentional consumer- situation, as
the immediate precursor of consumer choice, can be reconstructed in order to
explain consumer actions in the absence of the environmental stimuli required by
behaviorist psychology. The result is a novel reaffirmation of the role of cognition
in the determination of consumer choice. Besides the concept of contingency-
representation which the author introduces, the analysis draws upon psychoanalytic
concepts, theories of cognitive structure and processing, and the philosophy of
perception to generate a stimulating synthesis for consumer research.
The book will be of interest to students and researchers in consumer behavior and
economic psychology and to all who seek a deeper interdisciplinary understanding
of the contextual and cognitive interactions that guide choice in the market place.
Gordon R. Foxall is Distinguished Research Professor at Cardiff University.
A Fellow of the Academy of Social Science, the British Psychological Society, and
the British Academy of Management, he has published over 30 books and 300
papers on consumer behavior, economic psychology, and marketing theory. His
principal research interests are in psychological aspects of consumption and the
philosophy of economic behavior.

CONTEXT AND

COGNITION IN
CONSUMER
PSYCHOLOGY
How Perception and
Emotion Guide Action
Gordon R. Foxall
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Gordon R. Foxall
The right of Gordon R. Foxall to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by
him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Foxall, G. R., author.
Title: Context and cognition in consumer psychology : how perception
and emotion guide action / Gordon R. Foxall.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017020326 | ISBN 9781138778191 (hard back : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781138778207 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315772103 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Consumer behavior. | Consumers. |
Consumption (Economics)–Psychological aspects.
Classification: LCC HF5415.32 .F683 2018 | DDC 658.8/342–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017020326
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 77819- 1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 77820- 7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 315- 77210- 3 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Out of House Publishing
CONTENTS

List of figures vi

List of tables vii

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

1 A progressive research program 1

2 Consumer action 11

3 Perceptual contingency- representation 39

4 Refining perceptual contingency- representation 65

5 The intentional consumer- situation 95

6 Cognitive foundations of the intentional consumer- situation 116

7 Behavior, action, agency 136

Glossary of key terms 147

Bibliography 156

Index 170
LIST OF FIGURES

1.1 The continuum of closed– open consumer behavior settings 7
1.2 Summary of the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM) 8
1.3 Staggered ranges of consumer behavior setting scope 9
2.1 Behavior and action 15
2.2 The continuum of consumer choice 18
2.3 Hyperbolic discounting and the point of decision 23
2.4 The principle of bundling 27
2.5 Comparison of the extensional and intentional consumer- situations 30
3.1 The relationships involved in indication and causation 47
4.1 Primary emotions 68
4.2 The BPM Emotion Contingency Matrix 72
4.3 Contingency- sensitivity and emotion 75
6.1 A more complete model of the tripartite structure 120
6.2 Cognitive interpretation, intentional interpretation, and action 135
LIST OF TABLES

1.1 Effects of consequential stimuli on rate of responding 5
4.1 Evolutionary needs, and the emotional systems that have
evolved to meet them 69
4.2 Emotions/ states and behaviors associated with: (a) the avoidance of
(FFFS) and approach (BIS) to aversive stimuli, and (b) the
approach to appetitive stimuli 74
5.1 Primary and secondary mentation in the explanation of pathological
gambling 113
6.1 Characteristics of mental processes/ propositional attitudes in
relation to world- reality and psychic- reality testing 126
7.1 Behavior, action, and agency 143

PREFACE

My intention is to elaborate aspects of the theory of consumer choice presented
most recently in Addiction as Consumer Choice: Exploring the Cognitive Dimension
(Foxall, 2016a) and Perspectives on Consumer Choice: From Behavior to Action, From
Action to Agency (Foxall, 2016b).
This book, therefore, forms part of an intellectual endeavor to clarify the expla-
nation of consumer choice through a critical examination of the theoretical posi-
tion reached in those earlier works. In doing so it draws upon several extraneous
research programs which illustrate in varied ways the requirements of a theory of
consumer choice that links context and cognition. While none of them is designed
to address this problem directly, each is uniquely involved with both philosophy
and psychology and each raises issues that an explanation of economic and social
action must speak to.
They are, first, Nanay’s (2013a) work as a philosopher which interfaces with the
psychological, especially in the field of perception and action; second, Brakel’s (2009)
combination of philosophy and psychoanalysis which is significantly concerned
with the nature of psychological explanation; third, work on the Reinforcement
Sensitivity Theory (principally Corr, 2008a, but drawing also on Corr & Krupić,
2017; Gray, 1982; Gray & McNaughton, 2000; Smillie, 2008) that links emotion and
neurophysiology with contingencies of reinforcement and punishment; and, fourth,
theoretical work on the tripartite model of cognitive structure and functioning
advanced by Stanovich (2011), but drawing also on Evans (2010) and Stanovich
and West (2000). Each of these methodologies and contributions helps refine and
develop the synthesis of economic psychology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy
of psychology which is germane to understanding contemporaneous consumer
choice and hence ourselves.