Alawami

Lina Alawami
Frances Voltz
11-17 -2014
ENGLISH 1102

Bibliography
Benson, April L. To buy or not to buy: why we overshop and how to stop. Boston, MA:
Trumpeter, 2008. Print.
This book seeks to analyze the predispositions for shopping as well as provide
solutions for the behavior. In this sense, the author examines compulsive buying as a
problem rather than as a mere phenomenon. The author explains shopping mania as a
habit that develops to cure a different psychological need rather than to satisfy the actual
need of shopping. The text, therefore, manifests over-shopping as a means of distracting
oneself from dealing with an essential emotional need such as love. Alternatively, it
could be a means of gaining the attention of others if the involved person feels that others
do not care about him/her. Besides, over-shopping could be a product of low self-esteem
if the victim engages in impulsive purchases to feel important about oneself (Benson 14).
The book, therefore, recommends mindful shopping as a means of countering this
problem. It highlights the essence of financial security as a means of leading an enjoyable
life in the end. The book entails the philosophical arguments of merging the mind and the
soul as a means of fending off the need to shop impulsively.

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This book will help the assignment in examining compulsive buying as a personal
problem. The author explains shopping is connected to the making of an individual and
highly relates with ones needs. In this sense, the book helps in highlighting the history
and emotions of an individual that explains why such a person develops a shopping
mania. In addition, the text is helpful in appealing to the ordinary individual who faces
first-hand account of a shopping problem. It accords insight that an ordinary individual
can easily apply into ones life.
This is a credible source because of notable reasons. To begin with, the author is a
psychologist who specializes in the treatment of compulsive buying disorder. This means
the author has an adequate history in handling matters that concern with the shopaholic
problem. It is essential to highlight that such history lends credibility to the authors
arguments because he handles the subject in its real-time sense. This also connotes an
underlying empirical outlook on the subject of shopping. The text manifests credibility in
the fact that it offers both analysis and solutions to the problem of shopping. However,
the text may thrive on the prejudice of viewing shopping as a problem rather than as a
mere attribute of a person. Besides, since it only characterizes over-shopping as a product
of certain psychological disposition, it ignores the fact that such a behavior may be a
consequence of the socio-economic system of a society. As a product of the socioeconomic system, the individual, therefore, is supposed to have limited control over ones
behavior.
Murad, Khairudin and Salleh Shahnon. Confession of an online shopaholic:
teenage youths purchasing behavior towards online retailing preferences.
International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 4.1 (2014): 35-38. Print

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This article centers on the phenomenon of online retailing as an influential and

contemporary way of shopping. The text traces this development by analyzing the
concept of traditional shopping that has always conferred given advantages to individuals
conducting such shopping. Traditional shopping emerges from the need to fulfill
contemporary needs that reflect and emanate from the general psychological preferences
of individuals living in an area (Murad and Shahnon 35). In this sense, traditional
shopping is a reflection and product of the immediate environment that it serves. This
explains why shopping malls in communities serve the social purposes of meetings
among individuals who take time to participate in activities surpassing the mere act of
shopping. Traditional shops provide the opportunity for members of a community to
connect. Besides, such shopping centers create the connection between the customers and
the products in given purchase centers as they touch and see the actual products they
admire. In spite of this perennial value, globalization has created a wave of developments
that are even transforming the shopping realm. The article dwells on the essence of online
shopping, which helps customers in a variety of ways. The author argues that online
shopping provides convenience and efficiency because a customer does not have to travel
to a physical shopping center. The study uncovered an interesting fact that youths prefer
purchasing clothes and apparel than other of products. This manifests an image-conscious
generation, which only over-shops on products that enhance the appearance of the
consumer.
This book will help the research in significant ways. To begin with, it broadens
the scope of understanding a shopaholic. Since the world continually develops, it is
erroneous to understand issues in a static sense. This, especially, is essential in a world

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whereby a person who loves shopping is depicted as addicted to physical malls and
outdoor shopping as opposed to virtual shopping that is gradually engorging in most
consumers psyche. Online shopping is a reality that some schools of thought are denying
in spite of its surging presence. Internet development has consequently challenged the
traditional thought system. In this capacity, the text offers an insightful and
comprehensive view of addressing the shopping phenomenon. For instance, the article
highlights the case of discounts that are common in online retail. Such incentives are
highly likely to encourage higher amounts of purchases when a person is engaging in
online shopping than when the same person is engaging in traditional shopping.
It is essential to highlight that this article is a highly credible source. For instance,
it highlights forms of shopping that the audience can perceive from ones immediate
environment. The article is a considerably empirical artifact that tests the dependent
factor of shopping over the independent factors of shopping such as family friends, and
income. The article investigates how these independent factors interact and change to
shape the shopping behavior of an individual. The article specifically targeted the youth
in this study rather than study the whole population of shoppers. In this view, it captures
the technologically adept youth population that is highly likely to use internet services
rather than the older shoppers. While investigating the modes of payments that the youth
use in making purchases, the study assigns percentages and related frequencies. This
mathematical approach accords an accurate representation of the real-time happenings in
shopping rather than observations that suffer the errors of subjectivity.

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Pranistiasari. Erlina. Shopping behavior as the reflection of the hiercahy of human

needs on the main character in the film confessions of a shopaholic. A Thesis.
2011. Web. September 26, 2014.
This study builds on the Abraham Maslows theory of hiercahy of needs.
Abraham Maslows theory has been articulated to follow a material and intellectual
pattern whereby individuals who are very rich pursue needs that surpass their own self. In
the same sense, highly intelligent people are highly likely to pursue a certain sense of
spirituality that transcends the mere motivation of recognition and physiological needs.
The article mainly analyzes the behavior of Rebecca Bloomwood in the movie,
Confessions of a Shopaholic. The author identifies the profile of the Rebecca character
thereby identifying her possible needs. These needs are essential in rationalizing, if not
justifying, the behavior of the main character. Maslows needs devolve into the five
levels of psychological, safety, love and belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization
profiles. In the end, the author identifies that the characters shopping behavior reflects
the needs of esteem and self-actualization ones (Pranistiasari 4).
It is crucial to admit that this study will strengthen the research by lending a
sociological perspective to the investigation of shopping mania. In this perspective, the
author rationalizes rather than condemns the behavior of a shopaholic. It invites the
audience to understand the character and indulge in comprehending why a shopaholic
behaves in that given way. In this mode, the audience concludes that it is difficult for an
individual to detach oneself from the need for esteem and the pride in peer validation.
Besides, the text has a positivity that manifests a shopaholic as a natural person whose

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behavior is a mere reaction to ones needs. The individual, through shopping, indirectly
satisfies needs that are real in ones life.
This credible research uses intensive qualitative analysis in laying bare the
conscious and the unconscious of a shopaholic. To begin with, the article narrates the
story of Rebecca and her pursuit for glamour that jeopardizes her finances. She sticks to a
job that she dislikes because such a career accords her considerable money. The author
analyzes the Rebeccas character as a person who lacks belonging and love thereby
pursuing primary needs through superficial things. She also seeks validation in spite of
having a job that does not pay her as much as she wishes. When the character refuses her
dream job at a fashion magazine, it reveals that the character is at the beginning of
fulfilling her intrinsic needs by refusing things that only accords her external validation.
Hoyer, Wayne, Deborah MacInnis, and Rik Pieters. Consumer behavior. Mason,
OH: Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
This book analyzes compulsive buying from the business perspective. In a subtle
sense, the author unknowingly argues that shopping is a world phenomenon rather than a
characteristic of certain individuals (Hoyer, MacInnis, and Pieters 297). Although the
book is rooted in commerce, it lends the economic reasoning that consumers are always
rational. For instance, a consumer chooses a bundle of goods that will attain the highest
satisfaction, but such a bundle of goods does not surpass the budget limit of the given
individual. In this frame, a consumers impulse at buying preferred goods does not
override ones conscience in judging the particular income that can actually afford such
goods. This book highlights the evolution of modern business as a marketing driven
element rather a capital-dependent thing. This means that marketing is influential in

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drawing consumers to particular products. In the real world, the successful marketing
campaigns of brands such as Rolex have led consumers in buying such products.
This book will provide a business perspective of analyzing a shopaholic. This
means that the shopping individual is a creation of unique forms of business that occur in
the contemporary society. In this sense, the individuals needs are consequences of
superimposed images on the consumers psyche. In turn, a consumer can simply buy a
given product due to the social value that such a good entails.
It is essential to highlight that this is a credible source since the Cengage
publishers have specialized in high quality business texts. The book uses academic
economic and commerce arguments in explaining the concept of impulse buying. The
only shortcoming of this book lies in the idea that it ends up ignoring shopping mania as
a problem that the society ought to tackle.
Abramowitz, Jonathan, and Arthur Houts. Concepts and controversies in obsessivecompulsive disorder. New York, NY: Springer, 2005. Print.
This text only deals with the psychological perspective in defining and analyzing
compulsive buying disorder. The arguments are intensively academic as they strike out
the differences between impulsive and compulsive disorders (Abramowitz and Houts
185). In essence, the book argues that a shopaholic may be a person who faces an
impulsive problem rather than a compulsive problem. This is because a compulsive
problem infuses with depression and other personality problems.
This book is helpful in analyzing shopping mania as mainly a psychological
problem. Seeking out solutions for such an individual, therefore, demands the study of
history that may have helped shape such a behavior. The book diverges from the business

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and sociological definitions by explaining how a person facing a compulsive disorder

might have an intense underlying need for recognition and acceptance.
This credible source traces its arguments from the DSM categorization. The book does
not specifically deal with the compulsive buying disorder as it lists it as one of the
classifications that deserve verification. The book refers to empirical studies and employs
the scholarly authority from influential academics.