The Impact of Temporal Orientation on Higher Order Choices: a Phenomenological Investigation

ABSTRACT - I examine the influence of temporal orientation--the future- present dichotomy--on the higher order choices (spending-saving decisions) of five informants. Analysis of interview data reveals each informant's temporal orientation remains constant across the separate types of higher order choices. Analysis of spending and saving decisions explores similarities and differences in the strategies employed and consequences experienced. Further analysis yields a four fold table--recognition (or not) of present-future trade-offs by experiences of conflict (or not)--that captures the effect of temporal orientation on the higher order choices of these informants. Further investigation is encouraged.

Citation:

Patricia Ann Walsh (1995) ,"The Impact of Temporal Orientation on Higher Order Choices: a Phenomenological Investigation", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 22, eds. Frank R. Kardes and Mita Sujan, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 311-317.

Advances in Consumer Research Volume 22, 1995      Pages 311-317

THE IMPACT OF TEMPORAL ORIENTATION ON HIGHER ORDER CHOICES: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION

Patricia Ann Walsh, University of Connecticut

ABSTRACT -

I examine the influence of temporal orientation--the future- present dichotomy--on the higher order choices (spending-saving decisions) of five informants. Analysis of interview data reveals each informant's temporal orientation remains constant across the separate types of higher order choices. Analysis of spending and saving decisions explores similarities and differences in the strategies employed and consequences experienced. Further analysis yields a four fold table--recognition (or not) of present-future trade-offs by experiences of conflict (or not)--that captures the effect of temporal orientation on the higher order choices of these informants. Further investigation is encouraged.

For decades, economic research has examined many aggregate saving/spending issues. In the past decade, two ACR presidents (Andreasen 1993; Belk 1987) along with Wells (1993) call for consumer researchers to direct attention to broader issues including consumers' saving and spending decisions. Nonetheless, spending/saving decisions remain a virtually neglected, albeit important, consumer research area.

Recently Walsh and Spiggle (1993) turned their attention to the spending/saving issue. They identify temporal orientation--the present-future dichotomy--as one of four dimensions describing the spending decisions of their informants. This study builds on Walsh and Spiggle by examining spending, as well as saving, along the dimension of temporal orientation.

In contrast to the dearth of consumer research on the save/spend decision, time has received considerable attention including a special issue of the Journal of Consumer Reserach (March 1981). Some consumer researchers study time as a resource (c.f., Cherlow 1981; Holbrook and Lehmann 1981; Hunt and Kiker 1981; Kaufman, Lane, and Lindquist 1991; Mamorstein, Grewal, and Fishe 1992), others study time as a variable (c.f., Burke and Edell 1986; Olshavsky 1980; Richins and Bloch 1986). Bergadaa (1990) however, conceptualizes time as a perspective influencing consumer action. She terms this temporal orientation.

Bergadaa finds two primary temporal orientations--present and future. She finds present oriented individuals indicating a satisfaction with the present not planning to change. These individuals typically react to external events. On the other hand, she finds future oriented individuals anticipating changes in their presently experienced responsibilities. She characterizes them as wanting to construct their own lives. In other words, a future oriented individual is one who views the present from the vantage point or perspective of the future.

It is important to distinguish future oriented individuals from future oriented behaviors. Any individual, regardless of orientation, may engage in future oriented behaviors. A future oriented behavior is a behavior presently engaged in so as to prepare for the future. For example, one may save $100 a month in a college fund for a child. While this constitutes a future oriented behavior--planning for the future--it does not define the saver as a future oriented individual. A future oriented individual's behaviors reflect his/her anticipation of the future. It is this perspective that defines temporal orientation and subsequently motivates behaviors.

This study applies Bergadaa's conceptualization of temporal orientation to investigate higher order choices. Walsh and Spiggle coin higher order choices to capture the precursive nature of the spend-save decision--a decision that precedes, explicitly or implicitly, all purchase decisions.

DATA AND METHODS

Five single, young adult informants (age 21 to 27), each living with his/her parents, and paying neither room nor board participated in this research. Each informant comes from a working class background and represents their families' first generation to attend college. Four of the five informants work full-time; the fifth informant was working 20 to 30 hours per week and was to begin a full-time job the day after the interview. Table 1 presents their characteristics.

Each informant participated in a semi-structured, open-ended interview lasting from 33 to 1 hour and 26 minutes (average, 57 minutes). [The interview schedule is available from the author upon request.] The interview guide focused on exploration of how each informant handled his/her money. Questions assessed each informant's method of saving, of spending, and the types of accounts each uses. In every case, probing for specific spending/saving examples followed the respondent's answers. Each interviews was tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Analytic Procedures

The analysis began with open coding conducted during numerous readings of the transcripts. Next, a series of systematic tabulations revealed similarities and differences both across informants and across spending/saving incidents for a single informant (Spiggle forthcoming). This produced a set of provisional concepts and categories that were used to reexamine each transcript (c.f., Bergadaa 1990). This hermeneutic reexamination yielded denser categories--each more abstract and containing more concepts and properties than before.

Each interview transcript was decomposed and reassembled into several tabulations, providing a methodical way to analyze diverse spending/saving events across and within the informants. Each tabulation included illustrative quotes to retain context. Thus, while the analysis yields etic concepts--concepts not necessarily available to the informants (Wallendorf and Brucks 1993)--it remains grounded in the data.

The concepts generated in open coding aided in constructing the first tabulation. This tabulation itemized spending/saving incidents across informants and enabled systematic comparisons of each spending/saving event. It yielded more abstract categories that encompassing the concepts generated in open coding.

Next, the dimensions of each category's properties were delineated (Spiggle forthcoming; Strauss and Corbin 1990). The second tabulation identified strategies, conditions, and consequences of each spending/saving incident. Strategies, conditions, and consequences comprise axial coding, a process through which the "data are put back together in new ways...by making connections between categories" (Strauss and Corbin 1990, p. 96). Axial coding thus enables the conceptual operations necessary to move from simple identification of emic-redundancies (Wallendorf and Brucks 1993) to the etic perspective. [Emic redundancies refer to surface level themes that recur across the interviews and are obvious to the informants themselves. Etic perspective refers to more abstract themes and concepts, not necessarily recognized by the informants but, available to the researcher through analysis.] Although presented linearly, the employment of these operations proceeded hermeneutically (Spiggle forthcoming).

TABLE 1

INFORMANT CHARACTERISTICS

An emic-perspective summary document was constructed (Wallendorf and Brucks 1993) for use as a member check (Lincoln and Guba 1985; Wallendorf and Belk 1989) for each informant. A thank you letter, the member check summary document, and a set of questions aimed at assessing the validity of that summary were mailed to, and returned by, each informant. All informants agreed with their higher order choice pattern summary, and surmised their description to be independent of the interviewer.

INFORMANT EXPERIENCES

The following sections provide evidence of how each informant's temporal orientation generates patterns of higher order choice strategies and consequences.

The Case of Spending

Present Orientation. Three informants, Eileen, Carl, and Terri, display a present-orientation toward spending. Eileen's present-orientation to spending manifests itself in her view of spending pattern stability. She routinely spends all available funds and anticipates no changes to this pattern. Eileen's spending patterns reveal two recurrent dimensions--(1) she focuses on immediate enjoyment and spends money to "keep a good feeling going" and (2) she characterizes many purchases as "spur of the moment." She explains what she spends money on:

Personal things, those are feel betters. They are things that make me feel better...Because I like to play with the make-up and with my hair and when it all comes out great you feel great and if you have a bad hair day (giggle), then it's just a bad hair day (giggle).

Eileen demonstrates her present-focus to spending by references to feelings of self-entitlement and enjoyment. She grounds her spending decisions in terms of the present-day benefits and evaluates these benefits strictly from the vantage point of today. Further, Eileen gives no indication of anticipating future spending pattern alterations.

Carl also possesses a present-orientation toward spending. He exhibits a very limited set of wants and agrees that his attitude toward spending is best characterized as apathetic.

If I want it, I get it. If I don't, I don't. I mean, for me, there is not a big grey area. I know what I need and I know what I want.

Repeatedly, Carl indicated a general disinterest in spending by making statements like, "It [spending money] really doesn't phase me one way or the other."

Each week, Carl spends half his pay on immediate consumables--gas, drinks, and food--and deposits the other half to savings. Expenditures on immediate consumables encompass only one-half Carl's earnings; he saves the rest by default. Nevertheless, this accumulated "surplus" gives him the latitude to engage in unusual and lavish unplanned spending freedoms. In one such example, Carl described purchasing an extravagant gift-- diamond earrings--for his girlfriend.

I guess that I saved up before hand but...I didn't save it up for that particular reason...I had just been saving it and I said well, I'll get the earrings and I have the money, so I did.

Terri also exhibits a strong present orientation toward spending and routinely spends on immediate consumables. Unlike the other informants, Terri routinely uses credit cards for purchases she otherwise could not afford. Although she expressed both a desire to alleviate and a desire to expand her debt capacity, her spending examples illustrate a pattern of ever- mounting debt accumulations. Terri's present orientation evidences itself in her decisions to "buy now" and satisfy today's wants regardless of the financial pressures created.

I usually go [to Fashion Bug] when I know that I can charge because that's the easiest way to do it. You know, charge now and worry about it later...When I go, I know that I have to get something and I know that it's going to be, you know, 50, 60 dollars and I just couldn't write a check for that because then it would leave me without for something else, to pay a bill or whatever. So, I usually try to charge it. If I can charge it, that's good.

Future Orientation. Tom and Michelle each possess a future spending orientation. Despite behavioral differences, the spending of each is motivated by the future orientation.

FIGURE 1

Tom describes regularly "blowing" the proceeds of each paycheck--typically on immediate consumables such as cigarettes, gasoline and beer--some time before receiving his next check. While these items parallel those described by Carl and Terri, closer reading reveals that Tom experiences spending differently. Tom comments on how blowing his money makes him feel:

It doesn't bother me. Right now. For the stage I'm in right now...[This stage is] uhm, something like, working in a grown-up world, living a child's life...I still think I'm a kid...I'm enjoying it. I'm going to be a kid for as long as I can...I'm sure that [my spending patterns] will change.

Tom views his "child's life" and his spending behaviors from a future-oriented perspective. Through an appreciation of the impermanence of his life-stage, Tom attains present-day spending freedoms while expecting to change these behaviors in the future. Despite expecting future spending restrictions, his plans for such change are abstract--another characteristic of future-oriented individuals (Bergadaa 1990).

Blowing all his money sometimes renders Tom unable to make necessary purchases. When this occurs, Tom often turns to his Mother for financial assistance. For example, when required to purchase a particular pair of shoes for work, Tom did not have the money--he already spent it all. A "gift" from his Mom enabled the purchase. This reliance on Mom reinforces Tom's child-like self-characterization.

Michelle saves about half of each paycheck much like Carl. With the other half, Michelle spends freely, particularly on self-indulgent goods and services "...that kind of like keep a good feeling going,"--extraordinarily similar to Eileen's "keep a good feeling going" rationale. However, unlike either Carl or Eileen, Michelle maintains a future orientation.

Michelle repeatedly spoke of spending as an attempt to avoid future regret attributable to forgone present consumption opportunities (Simonson 1992). It is this rationale--viewing spending from the perspective of the future--that classifies Michelle as future-oriented. She demonstrates this perspective in describing her indulgent visits to a tanning salon.

I've been going to a tanning booth...It's kind of meaningless...You know, like, paying money to get tan. When you think about it, it's really kind of stupid...This is the time that I could do that, you know? I don't have to worry about anybody else and it's not like a joint account or anything. It's just my money. And I really might just as well do it while I have a chance. I can do whatever I want now so that I don't have to be like later, oh, you know, when I was growing up I couldn't go to the tanning booth and everybody went but I didn't want to spend the money. But I don't want that. So, I go.

She reinforces this future orientation later in the interview:

I'm trying to do all of these things now, too, when I can buy what I want and not really have to do anything or get like any permission or approval or anything.

Other examples of Michelle's self-indulgent purchases including extra summer clothes, artificial finger nails, numerous pieces of gold jewelry, make-up, and a variety of hair salon services.

Spending Summary. Superficial analysis suggests that temporal orientation exerts little influence on the informant's spending behaviors and strategies. However, axial coding allows discernment of temporal orientation's impact on the informants' spending consequences. Figure 1 presents a four-fold space characterizing each informant according to the spending strategy employed and consequence experienced.

The spending strategy dichotomy--engages in boundary expansions and staying within boundaries--centers on the source of funds for spending and is independent of temporal orientation. Carl, Terri and Tom each engage in boundary expansions, although each uses a different method to fund this boundary expansion. Carl achieves spending boundary expansions via his nonpurposive savings; Terri expands her boundaries by using credit cards; and Tom relies on "parental donations" to expand his boundaries.

For the other two informants, Eileen and Michelle, spending remains within predefined ranges. For Eileen, this spending boundary includes all the proceeds of each pay and nothing more. Michelle, on the other hand, presets her spending boundary at one-half of each paycheck (the other half dedicated to savings). Neither informant expands their predefined spending boundaries.

The spending consequence dichotomy--minimize unsatisfied wants and minimize regret--align with each informant's spending temporal orientation. This dimension examines the motivation and the intended result for each informant's spending. Present- oriented spenders--Eileen, Carl, and Terri--reported spending so as to minimize presently unsatisfied wants. These three are motivated by the intent to minimize present regret despite differing funding sources. For each, attractive spending opportunities are met with consummated purchases.

The future oriented spenders, Tom and Michelle, reported spending money presently so as to minimize future regrets over forgone spending and consumption opportunities (Simonson 1992). Each regularly takes advantage of present spending opportunities, recognizing the fleeting nature of these opportunities.

The Case of Saving

For each informant, the temporal orientation influencing spending similarly influences saving. Eileen, Carl, and Terri each demonstrate present orientations toward spending and saving while Tom and Michelle each exhibit future orientations. As in the case of spending, the informants display different saving patterns and behaviors despite similar temporal orientations.

Present Orientation. Eileen saves money in a retirement account. This future oriented behavior coupled with her present- temporal orientation generates conflict. She attempts conflict reduction through two mechanisms; (1) she implements an external control agent to enable her savings (the payroll department), and (2) she frames the deposits as losses--reductions in her present-day consumption ability.

I took the 401-K plan at work...And I don't know if that was really voluntary either...Every single week it's coming out [of my pay] and I think, am I really sure that I want this out every single week? Is it really going to be worth it...I'm reaping no benefits from it now. Who knows if I'm going to need it then, but everybody puts something away for when they're old because they have to.

Throughout the interview Eileen expressed a widespread reluctance to deprive herself of immediately available rewards in favor of delayed future rewards (Hoch and Loewenstein 1991). She summarizes her feelings about saving:

It's not easy...To be saving--saving money. Because if you have the money and there is something out there that you want and that--you might just have made yourself think that there is something out there that you want--or whatever--or that you can afford, then there's a really good chance that you won't save your money or whatever. You know--like, there's always going to be something out there. You're always going to want something. Well for me, if I have the money, instead of wanting, I have to go out there and get it.

As previously mentioned, Carl deposits about one-half of each paycheck into a savings account. Despite this behavior, Carl, like Eileen, ignores present-future trade-offs. His savings is nonpurposive; it is simply the amount of pay left over after spending on his limited set of wants and desires. It facilitates extraordinary purchase freedoms--it is not a savings devise for the future.

During a period of unemployment, Carl maintained his spending life-style through the funds available because of his pattern of nonpurposive saving accumulation. Like with spending, Carl remains apathetic toward all savings considerations.

Terri also embodies a present savings orientation. She saves money in a Christmas Club--a structured form of savings. These funds do not facilitate Terri's Christmas gift purchases. Instead, they serve as annual "lump sum" payments on her outstanding, and presently-pressing, credit card debt. Terri described her use of this account:

[At] Christmas time, I never have the cash. Well, I have a Christmas club but by the time that I get that, it's to pay on bills...I use [my Visa] a lot for cash advances which is bad because the interest on it is terrible...but, it's always convenient.

Terri repeatedly separates the acquisition of goods from payment. She recognizes this as a restriction on the use of her Christmas club savings and often restricts her ability to continue spending. Despite recognizing this, Terri consistently engages in these restrictive patterns.

Like Eileen, Terri also regularly deposits to another savings account via payroll deductions. For Terri, the external control over these deposits allows her to "forget" about the account and functions as a willpower strategy. As she stated:

I never seem to have extra money to save. Oh, I do, I'm sorry, I do have a savings account at the credit union at work. I have money taken right out of my pay so that's the only way that it ever really seems to work because it's too easy for me to go to a bank and say, OK, I want to take fifty out...That's the only way I can seem to save money is if it's taken right out of my check. That way, I can't get my hands on it. Now, I've been [working at this job] for six months and I do not know how to get the money out of the credit union. And that's, that's fine because as long as I don't know, I won't do it.

Terri's savings experiences suggest two themes: (1) Terri uses money initially intended as savings as payments for prior acquisitions; and (2) Terri exhibits an inability to save voluntarily and opts for external determination of the deposits.

Future Orientation. Like with spending, Michelle and Tom acknowledge impending future changes in their saving behaviors. Each plans to alter their saving patterns in the future.

Michelle routinely saves, depositing about one-half of each paycheck into her savings account, and indeed, her savings are dedicate for the future:

I don't have as many responsibilities...at this time in my life. Like, I don't have anything to keep me from spending it. Except for, maybe I want to save it, you know? ...Mostly, like, saving is just for the future. Not for any one thing, it's just for the future.

Michelle's future saving orientation is expressed through expectations of increasing future responsibilities and restrictions. In preparation for these approaching constraints, Michelle saves--an example of future oriented behavior by a future oriented individual.

FIGURE 2

At one time, Michelle deposited more than half of each check to her savings account. Michelle experienced the dialectic of pleasure and discomfort from making these larger deposits.

I was getting too greedy. I was seeing my bank account go up and up and I got greedy and put two hundred dollars in each pay...[I could be putting that much] in the bank but...without having the fun that I have. To have money in the bank, I'd have to give up spending money like that--on fun. And, that's something that I, hopefully, could start doing, you know?

The dialectic is expressed in the conflict over trading-off fun-- present spending--for increased saving accumulations--future- based savings. Michelle's recognition of impending future demands simultaneously encourages her to save more now in preparation for the future, and to spend more now in light of the closing aperture of present-day freedoms.

Despite Tom's savings account balance of "two dollars and change," he also maintains a future savings orientation. Regardless of his present behaviors, he anticipates changes in the future. Tom described his feelings about saving.

Right now, I guess I still have that immortality thing that little kids do. How they don't realize that life is only so long...So I don't worry about my future, my future with money. It'll be around.

Although Tom and Michelle each maintain saving future-orientations, Michelle's future is much nearer than Tom's. His self-characterization as a child evidences his far-off vision of the future. This vantage point allows Tom to presently feel financially at ease despite his lack of savings. Nonetheless, Tom repeatedly recognized a need to save when he gets nearer the future--nearer his "grown-up," more responsible time.

Saving Summary. Unlike with spending, no associations between temporal orientation and savings behaviors are uncovered for these informants. However, axial coding generates Figure 2 which characterizes the informants according to saving strategy (internal/external control) and consequence (conflict/freedom).

The saving strategy dichotomy focuses on who controls savings deposits--the informant (internal control) or someone else (external control). As Figure 2 depicts, Michelle, Carl, and Tom each control their saving contributions (Michelle and Carl deposit voluntarily, Tom voluntarily decides not to save). Eileen and Terri, on the other hand, employ external control-- both employ "agents." This strategy ensures saving deposits.

The saving consequence dichotomy--conflict/freedom--focuses on the experienced result of saving. Despite differing temporal orientations and saving strategies, both Eileen and Michelle experience conflict over saving. For these two, conflict results from recognizing lost present-day consumption opportunities.

For Terri, Carl, and Tom, saving (or not) yields freedoms-- although all three freedoms differ. For Terri freedom comes from freeing-up previously accumulated debt, Carl is able to free himself from dependence on a paycheck (he quit his job), and Tom frees himself from the constraint of saving, a constraint he anticipates in the future.

HIGHER ORDER CHOICES: AN INTEGRATION

This inquiry finds informants' temporal orientation influencing both types of higher order choices; those who exhibit a present (future) spending orientation also exhibit a present (future) saving orientation. Nonetheless, further analysis reveals variability across and within the informants in the strategies and consequences associated with spending and saving.

Only one of the four dimensions identified in this study-- spending consequences (minimize unsatisfied wants-minimize regret)--aligns with temporal orientation. Spending strategies (boundary expansions-stay within boundaries), saving strategies (internal control-external control) and saving consequences (experiences of conflict-freedom) are all independent of temporal orientation. Despite this apparent weak association, temporal orientation does form the context within with each informant makes higher order choices.

FIGURE 3

Present oriented informants--Eileen, Carl, and Terri--do not expect future-imposed higher order choice alterations empowering each to spend freely in the present, to give minimal thought to saving, and to expect extending this pattern into the future. Although Tom and Michelle (future oriented informants) also spend freely, each gives substantial thought to saving. Their current higher order choices occur in response to an anticipated future-- each anticipates future higher order choice pattern alterations due to portended responsibilities and subsequent restrictions. In other words, future oriented individuals recognize trade-offs between present and future higher order choices while present oriented individuals do not.

Higher order choice outcomes focus on the conflict or freedom the informants experience in spending and saving money. This dimension, however, is unrelated to the temporal orientation of the informants.

Figure 3 integrates the findings across higher order choices. The four-fold space merges the dichotomous higher order choice context (temporal orientation) with the dichotomous outcome of these choices. This representation captures each informant's dominant higher order choice experience and highlights their differences.

CONCLUSION

Consumer behavior theory and economic theory suggests that individuals who recognize present-future trade-offs in spending and saving will behave in certain ways. For example, Hoch and Loewenstein (1991) discuss transient alterations in tastes as time- inconsistent preferences. Similarly, Thaler and Shefrin (1981) theorize that the "doer" makes shortsighted decisions, acting more on impulse than the "planner"--the traditional "economic man." The future oriented informants, Tom and Michelle, contradict these theories. For them, doing (spending) occurs at the insistence of the planner and the planner voluntarily takes a back seat to the doer until the future arrives. In other words, the doer is not myopic but farsighted and functions so as to ameliorate the potential for future-based regret. Thus, what appears as time inconsistent preferences, are actually consistent within the framing of the future for future-oriented individuals.

Another interesting finding concerns the experience of conflict generated by higher order choices. Although conflict was most explicitly discussed in the savings context, Eileen and Michelle's experience of conflict transcends higher order choices. Conflict differentiates these two from the other informants who do not experience conflict over spending-saving trade-offs because they engage in boundary expansion strategies.

While Eileen and Michelle both experience conflict, the conflict type is different. In Lewin's framework (Gerard and Orive 1987), Michelle experiences approach-approach conflict. For her, conflict results from the forced choice between two desired activities--save or spend. Eileen's conflict, approach- avoidance conflict, includes the existence of two external barriers--(1) funds automatically removed from her paycheck and (2) deposited in an account unavailable to her until retirement-- that prevent her from spending as she wants.

Future Directions

Subsequent higher order choice investigations might expand on at least two of the present findings. (1) The finding of conflict experienced only in the context of saving. (2) The contradictory tangle of the future oriented individuals' experiences of present-future trade-offs that do not correspond to the existing research representations of this trade-off. This may simply illustrate an anomaly or, alternatively, it may illustrate a previously neglected conceptualization that may pervade individuals' experiences. Further, investigations may study whether or not individuals are cognizant of present-future trade-offs and what underlying factors contribute to an individual's propensity to be future- or present-oriented.

Other obvious future directions include expanding this study to other age groups, other ethnic groups, and groups experiencing different types of daily-life financial demands (e.g., daily living expenses such as rent/mortgages, utilities, food, and so on). Another noticeable future direction involves incorporating the other three dimensions identified in Walsh and Spiggle (1993)--context dependence/independence, struggle/no struggle, and system of control/no system of control--and examining them separately across the two types of higher order choices.

This represents only a small sampling of potential future directions available to consumer researchers interested in this important, yet neglected, area.

KEY REFERENCES

Andreasen, Alan R. (1993), "The Future of the Association for Consumer Research: Backward to the Past," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 20, eds., Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research.

Bergadaa, Michelle M. (1990), "The Role of Time in the Action of the Consumer," Journal of Consumer Research, 17 (Dec.), 289- 302.

Hoch, Stephen J. and George F. Loewenstein (1991), "Time-inconsistent Preferences and Consumer Self-Control," Journal of Consumer Research, 17 (March), 492-507.

Lincoln, Yvonna S. and Egon G. Guba (1985), Naturalistic Inquiry, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA.

Simonson, Itamar (1992), "The Influence of Anticipating Regret and Responsibility on Purchase Decisions," Journal of Consumer Research, 19 (June), 105-118.

Strauss, Anselm and Juliet Corbin (1990), Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory, Procedures and Techniques, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA.

Spiggle, Susan (forthcoming), "Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research.

Thaler, Richard H. and H. M. Shefrin (1981), "An Economic Theory of Self-Control," Journal of Political Economics, 89 (2), 392-406.

Wallendorf, Melanie and Merrie Brucks (1993), "Introspection in Consumer Research: Implementation and Implications," Journal of Consumer Research, 20 (3), 339-359.

Walsh, Patricia Ann and Susan Spiggle (1994), "Consumer Spending Decisions: Dimensions and Dichotomies," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 21, Provo: UT: Association for Consumer Research.

Wells, William D. (1993), "Discovery-oriented Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, 19 (March), 489-504.

Please contact the author for a complete reference list.

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