What is the Psychoanalytic theory of consumer decision making process?

How has the decision making process of the female consumer evolved?

• I am interested in analyzing and understanding the decision-making process of today’s consumer as technology and access to real-time information has changed the way consumers process information, affecting their motivations and engagement in purchase decisions. The ideal respondent  would be able to provide statistics or data on any of the following: a) proving today’s consumer (predominantly female) has more choices to make (and the emotional effects/response to this) b) has to process large amounts of real-time information (therefore has to be tech-saavy to efficiently make use of time) and/or c) the personal, social and economic significance of high-involvement purchase decisions

• Answer:

  Perhaps there are more choices to make today.  After all, there are significantly more products on the market, and more items that perform the same functions, than there were fifty years ago.  Also, the majority of people have much more disposable income than their parents and grandparents did.  Just personally, I think my grandparents did a good job of going without, whereas my generation seem to need everything.  Did we really need a phone that could access the internet?  I certainly got along very well before I had one, but I do now use that function all the time.  I'm not sure that everyone consults the internet before making big purchases (although many people do shop online, and most sites include customer reviews) but I've found that the radio can be a great delivery system for product information, thus a consumer can learn about new products while driving or doing things around the house.  Other than that, there are great websites dedicated to the discussion of consumer good, my favorite of these being http://www.choice.com.au (possibly only because I used to hear it discussed on the radio so often).  I think people in generally have also become more savvy at understanding and screening and information than they used to be, and thus they can tell the difference between a subtle advertisement and a recommendation from a third party most of the time, but perhaps those are just the people I've observed, so feel free to disagree with me here.  Not all shoppers consult media sources for information or reviews, however.  Many still take the advice of sales staff, and I don't really see why this would be a bad idea - these people work with these products all the time, and ultimately it's not in their interest to sell you anything you don't want or can't use, because most big stores have very generous returns policies these days.  Further, governments are more actively involved in monitoring the market and holding companies accountable, so there may be a greater feeling of security involved in large purchases now than there used to be. As for the impacts, I'll let someone with psychological training answer to the personal and social impacts, but economically, it seems that we've all gotten ourselves into a ridiculous amount of credit card debt.  Could that indicate that these decisions are not very well thought through, or that the desire to own a certain product outweighed worries of debt and interest rates?  I'd love to hear from someone with a little more understanding of this. Hope some of that was helpful.