Environmental and Cultural Factors
In this literature review paper, I would first cover on Shopping addiction and Compulsive buying, justifying that Compulsive buying is a form of Shopping addiction. Next, shopping addiction will be framed in relation to the addiction cycle, and symptoms of this condition will be highlighted. However as the field has yet to come to a complete common consensus as reflected from the omission of the diagnosis in the DSM-5, I will be highlighting findings and research from both Shopping addiction and Compulsive buying, and discussing both conditions as a topic as a whole.
Additionally, the paper would also examine the psychological, environmental and cultural determinants of the behaviour. Following which, the paper would cover the prevalence rates in the Singapore and global context, and risk populations, although caution should be noted as diagnostic criteria and classification systems has not been fully established. This will be followed by the interventions and policies section and proposed recommendations moving forward, from three different perspectives — clinical, theoretical and policy-making.
Compulsive Buying: a Form of Shopping (Behavioural) Addiction
Shopping addiction is a maladaptive form of shopping behaviour whereby the individual has an uncontrollable, consistent and repetitive urge to act on the shopping behaviour to ease negative affectivity (Edwards, 1993). However, the diagnostic criteria and classification systems of Shopping addiction and Compulsive buying is still highly debated upon and has not received consensus amongst the experts yet (Hartston, 2012). Additionally, shopping addiction has not been included in the DSM-5, due to the myriad range of behaviours which shopping addiction comes with and thus a lack of consensus and high difficulty on the defined behaviours of this condition (Piquet-Pessôa, Ferreira, Melca & Fontenelle, 2014). However, experts have also began to derive a consensus that Compulsive shopping is a type of Shopping addiction, rather than a type of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) (Hollander & Allen, 2006; Goldman, 2000). There are two main reasons for this.
Firstly, this is because those who shop compulsively experience pleasure and rewarding sensations from shopping (Rosenberg & Feder, 2014; Hartston, 2012). However, if compulsive shoppers have OCD, they would not experience these pleasurable emotions that addictive behaviours exhibit, as OCD brings about no positive motivations or rewarding sensations. Additionally, compulsive shoppers do not ruminate over unrealistic negative outcomes unlike those with OCD. Compulsive shoppers would instead have repetitive thoughts of realistic negative withdrawal effects (Karim & Chaudhri, 2012). As such, Compulsive shopping is a form of Shopping and behavioural addiction, and hence both terms would be used interchangeably in this literature review paper.
Shopping Addiction/ Compulsive Buying and the Addiction Cycle
Compulsive buying fits into the framework of the addiction cycle (Rosenberg & Feder, 2014), where during the (1) Preoccupation and Anticipation phase, the individual experiences uncontrollable urges and thoughts to shop, and then this leads to the (2) Binge Intoxication phase, characterised by uncontrollable and excessive purchases, which gives rise to a short-lived sense of euphoria and also a relief of negative affect (Karim & Chaudhri, 2012). However, once the purchase is completed, these positive emotions would dissipate and the person enters into the (3) Withdrawal Negative Affect phase, and begins to experience negative emotions such as guilt, remorse, guilt and anger due to the consequences of his or her shopping behaviour (Karim & Chaudhri, 2012). There could also be anxiety and shame due to the high credit card debts, and strained relations which arose due to the excessive spending. In order to soothe these negative emotions, the individual would constantly think about their next shopping spree, which could lead to the continuation and repetition of the vicious addiction cycle.
Many compulsive buyers recalled that negative feelings are the impetus to a shopping spree (Miltenberger et al., 2003), which could be a dangerous sequence that reinforces shopping to reduce one’s negative emotions. Although shopping could provide an escapism from negative emotions, they could enter into a dangerous and uncontrollable emotional cycle, where they manage negative emotions through quick shopping fixes, instead of coping with the root cause of their compulsive buying behaviour. The pattern of negative-positive-negative emotions is what makes the shopping behaviour highly addictive and thereby potentially escalating to harmful consequences (Faber & O’guinn, 1992).
The addiction cycle explained above is also commonly seen in the emotional patterns of other addiction disorders as well. Moreover, it is observed that individuals with shopping addiction make the decision to buy items repeatedly instead of choosing to window shop suggests that regions of the brain involving decision-making is impaired, similar to other addiction disorders (Karim & Chaudhri, 2012).
Shopping is also similar to substance consumption which brings about dopamine release, due to the pleasure it brings (Rosenberg & Feder, 2014). Additionally, shopping like substances and other behaviours such as gambling is also hyper-stimulating (Hartson, 2012). When an individual shops with increasing frequency, neuroadaptation occurs where hyperstimulation of dopamine reward system causes changes to these pathways – more dopamine is release but fewer receptors are available to bind to, leading to more behaviour or substance to generate the same level of positive emotions. As such, dysregulation of judgement could occur when individuals continuously to strive to re-generate positive emotions, through shopping despite financial constraints. This neuroadaptation and dysregulation of judgement is a distinctive characteristic of addiction (Rosenberg & Feder, 2014).
Taken together, the addiction cycle and the neuroadaptation makes Compulsive buying disorder comparable with addiction disorders (Rosenberg & Feder, 2014).
Symptoms of Shopping Addiction/ Compulsive Buying
Due to shopping addiction/ compulsive buying encompasses on a multifaceted range of behaviours, it is difficult to properly define this addiction. However, a tentative list of symptoms for Shopping addiction shall be used (Hartney, 2019). Some of the behaviours of this addiction or compulsion include spending more than what the individual can afford, shopping for self-consolation when depressed or angry or to avoid feeling guilt about a previous shopping spree, hiding the amount spent during shopping or the shopping act itself, loss of control during shopping sprees, drop in financial health or accumulating large amounts of credit card debt, and strain in relationships due to overspending and excessive buying.
Essentially, the symptoms can be grouped into 3 main characteristics of shopping addiction (Rosenberg & Feder, 2014). Firstly, an urge arises to act on buying, whereby the act of buying is irrepressible. Secondly, in terms of the behaviour, the buying tendencies tend to be uncontrollable. Thirdly, there is a repetitive non-consequentialist nature of the activity, whereby the individual’s buying behaviour continues regardless of the negative consequences it leads to.
Determinants of Shopping Addiction/ Compulsive Buying
There are 2 key categories of determinants for Shopping addiction / Compulsive buying: psychological factors and environmental/ cultural factors.
Psychological Factors
Affect and cognition. When individuals experience negative affect, self-critical cognitions and problematic cognitions such as thoughts of exclusivity of purchasing a product and erroneous beliefs about the emotional result of their purchase, they will tend to seek out “retail therapy” or shopping in order to relief these emotions. After doing so, they experience a relief of negative emotions and gain a sense of euphoria, which leads to emotional gratification (Elliott, Eccles & Gournay, 1996).
Escapism. Shopping is also often a method for escapism, which arises from high or perfectionist expectations attained from an individual’s early childhood. Due to the overwhelming expectations, shopping as an escapism allows the person to get away from all of life’s negativities, which is a delusion created by retailers (Kirezli & Arslan, 2019). As one continues to be unwilling to face reality head on, they continuously shop more. However, shopping has also been viewed as a way to withdraw temporary from modern monotonous life, in order to maintain psychological wellbeing.
Low self-esteem. Buyers who shop compulsively tend to have a lower self-esteem than non-compulsive shoppers (Rosenberg & Feder, 2014). Additionally, individuals with low self-esteem tend to highly value materialism as a way to boost their self-esteem and mood, and to feel better about themselves. As such this encourages individuals with low self-esteem to shop, allowing them to feel a sense of validation and acceptance after they have bought what they wanted (Rosenberg & Feder, 2014). Importantly, self-esteem has been identified as a critical factor contributing to heightened risk of addictive behaviours, specifically those with low self-esteem are more susceptible to online addiction and online shopping addiction could be a manifestation of that (Hsiao, Lee, Chiang & Wang, 2016).
Additionally, there is also a psychodynamics perspective of low self-esteem for shopping behaviour amongst females. As the emotional significance of clothing is strongly associated to the feminine identity development (Richards, 1996), individuals that feel a sense of failure in feminine identity development because of early issues in parent-child interaction would seek out shopping to facilitate the re-enactment of the original attachment bond. As a result, this can help to buffer against early adverse experiences and this can also facilitate identity formation.
Personality: Big-five personality traits. Research has shown that the Big-five personality traits influences or contributes to a higher risk or susceptibility to shopping addiction (Otero-Lopez, 2014). For instance, in terms of conscientiousness, an individual with low conscientiousness would possess a heightened risk of excessive purchasing, due to lower levels of effortful control (Otero-Lopez, 2014). Additionally, individuals with low openness or low agreeableness or high extraversion would tend to be highly endorsing of materialism, and this can also predict an increased risk of excessive purchasing (Otero-Lopez, 2014). Those with low levels of openness or agreeableness tend to be less altruistic, and as such may not question worldly values of materialism and thus more likely to endorse such values. Furthermore, individuals with high levels of extraversion reflect preferences of novelty and excitement, and this desire can be fulfilled through purchasing of higher quantity and quality of products (Otero-Lopez, 2014). An individual with high neuroticism would also tend to have a higher risk of excessive buying, in a direct and indirect relation. From a direct pathway, neurotic individuals tend to shop more frequently, while from an indirect pathway, neurotic individuals tend to value materialism highly and thus buy things more frequently. As such, neuroticism could be one of the most significant personality vulnerability factor amongst the big-five due to its relation to excessive buying through direct and indirect routes (Otero-Lopez, 2014).
Personality: Narcissism. Research has shown that narcissism is correlated with materialism, where an individual who is highly narcissistic would have a tendency for a high need for validation and admiration, and this need could be fulfilled through purchasing material goods (Rose, 2007). There is also another possible mechanism that is driven by the narcissist’s perception that others are aware of his inability to afford material goods, this leads to a lack of feelings of admiration from others, as such this can drive the narcissist to buy compulsively in order to gain these feelings of admiration and eliminate such perceptions.
Other personality traits. Individuals that have a tendency to shop compulsively have also been found to be more impatient, impulsive, irritable and have a lowered productivity in their area of work (Racine, Kahn & Hollander, 2014).
Behavioural Factors
Social learning. Social learning suggests that learnt behaviours is attained through observation and imitation from others (West, 2006). Research has found a significant correlation between parents’ and children’s compulsive buying behaviours, and this is suggested to be due to early learning of such behaviours (d’Astous, 1990). Compulsive shopping typically occurs in adolescents before being more ingrained by 30s, and as such children in their adolescence could have picked up their parents behaviour through social learning (d’Astous, 1990).
Environmental and Cultural Factors
Developed countries. Shopping is affected by social pressures in developed countries, as it is a form of social behaviour in these countries (Muller & Claes, 2011). This behaviour is socially constructed and facilitated through two systems – microsystems consisting of family and friends, and also macrosystems which includes society and culture. Specifically, the social pressures exist due to people feeling a need to obtain a large number of items such as a collection of sets or theme of items, and a strong desire to possess best quality items such as the latest designer items or technologies. Due to these social pressures, the individual will shop for these items for themselves or for gifts for others to gain a sense of achievement (Muller & Claes, 2011).
Online shopping. Due to technological advancements, online shopping leads individuals to shop more often, due to the increased exposure and accessibility it provides, such that online shopping can be done anytime and anywhere. Additionally, the process to complete is purchase is short especially with pre-registered credit card details.
An increasing frequency of exposure of online shopping to the individual would cause an increased pairing of the shopping behaviour with hyperstimulation of the dopamine reward system, thus increasing the encoding of this positive association (Hartston, 2012). As such, this leads to an increased likelihood of compulsive buying behaviour (Hartston, 2012).
Neuromarketing. Neuromarketing is the usage of cognitive brain research to raise the effectiveness of product marketing, through enhancing the difficulty to resist buying urges (Robischon, 2010). This is typically done by bypassing conscious rational decision making, by maximising one’s emotional and brand attachment, and stimulation of emotion and reward areas. Collectively, this directly influences impulsive buying decisions, which individuals may be unaware about (Hartston, 2012; Robischon, 2010).
