a armstrong - mindfulness and compulsive buying (slrg seminar jan 2013)

Mindfulness and Compulsive Buying

Dr. Alison [email protected]

SLRG Seminar: 23rd January 2013

ESRC Research Group on lifestyles, values and

environment

mailto:[email protected]

Background & Motivation

• Over-consumption in the west• Poor for individual wellbeing• Poor for social wellbeing• Poor for ecological wellbeing

• Mindfulness• Popularised Buddhist technique encouraging non-

judgemental awareness of the present moment• Shown effective for improving individual, social and

ecological wellbeing

• Intuitive connection

Consumption• Psychologically motivated

• Affective

• Symbolic

• (Functional)

Symbolic Self-Completion Theory (Wicklund & Gollwitzer, 1982)

Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins, 1987; Higgins et al, 1990; Higgins et al, 1992)

“Retail Therapy”

When it’s Out of Control

• The Compulsive Buyer• Spontaneous urges to buy experienced as intense

and urgent• Related to positive affect: excitement, stimulation,

feeling good• Lack of control• Continues despite negative consequences• Often seek experience of buying rather than the good

itself

• Addiction: bio-psychosocial

Compulsive Buying

• Women probably more than men

• 5.5% -16% of population

• Peak occurrence as young adults

• Occurs alongside depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and other compulsive behaviours

Mindfulness• “the awareness that emerges through

paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment” (Kabat-Zinn, 2003)

• Collection of facets?• Awareness, observing• Paying attention, focus• Non-judgemental• Non-reactivity to experience, accepting• Describing experience

How to Develop Mindfulness

• Meditation

• Attend a course• Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)• Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)• Vipassana (Insight) meditation

• Practice (formal and informal)

• Effectiveness• Mood disorders, self-esteem, self-regulation, sense

of self (identity)

Conceptual Links

Mindfulness

Psychological

Affective

Behavioural

Over-Consumption / Compulsive

Buying

Compulsive Buyers Learning Mindfulness:

Research Questions• What is it like to be a compulsive buyer?• What is it like for compulsive buyers to learn

mindfulness?• What impact on life/shopping?• Is there measurable change compared to

control groups?• What can be said about the psychological

process of change?• What are the implications for consumption /

sustainability more broadly?

Study DesignT1 TM T2 T3

Compulsive Buyers learning Mindfulness (6)

Interview (1)QuestionnaireReceipts

Questionnaire (mindfulness only)

Interview (2)QuestionnaireReceipts

Interview (3)Questionnaire

Compulsive Buyers not learning Mindfulness (6)

Questionnaire Questionnaire

“Normal” Buyers learning Mindfulness (6)

Questionnaire Questionnaire (mindfulness only)

Questionnaire

Video

Video

8 week Mindfulness Intervention

Quantitative D

ata

Variable being Measured Scale chosen

Mindfulness Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (Baer et al, 2006)

Tendency to compulsively buyCompulsive Buying Scale (d’Astous, Maltais & Roberge, 1990)

Obsessive-compulsiveness of shopping cognitions and behaviours

Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale – Shopping Version (Monahan, Black & Gabel, 1996)

Impulse Buying Impulse Buying Scale (Dittmar, Beattie & Friese, 1996)

Reported pro-social and pro-environmental buyingReported (Ethical) Buying (Pepper, Jackson & Uzzell, 2009)

Obsessive-compulsiveness Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (Foa et al, 2002)

Depression Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Steer & Brown, 1996; Beck et al, 1996)

AnxietyBeck Anxiety Inventory (Beck et al, 1988; Beck & Steer, 1990)

Satisfaction with Life Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al, 1985)

Affect experiencesPositive and Negative Affect Scale (Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988)

Self-esteem Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965; 1989)

Identity self-discrepancySelf-Discrepancy Index (Dittmar, Beattie & Friese, 1996)

Negative self-imageHabit Index of Negative Thinking (Verplanken et al, 2007)

Materialism Material Value Scale (Richins & Dawson, 1992)

Tolerance of uncertainty Need for Closure Scale (Kruglanski, 2010; Webster & Kruglanski, 1994) Ambiguity subscale only

Psychological distancing Experience Questionnaire (Fresco et al, 2007)

Spirituality Spirituality Assessment Scale (Howden, 1992)

Before Mindfulness Intervention:

Being a Compulsive Buyer

The Emotional Role of Buying

Feeling dreadful

Fran: “things I find particularly hard are decisions to do with my children, ‘cause I feel whatever I’m doing or decide will

affect them and erm, yea, if I’m faced with two decisions, I’ll analyse and look at both sides, because each one could have

a knock-on effect, and then I’ll take that beyond to “if I go down that route the knock-on effect from that, from that, from that” and then down. So by the time, again, by the time I’ve

finished, I’ve lived through so many events that couldn’t possibly happen [... but] I’m responsible, have to be

responsible for any misfortune that might happen to them.”


Fran: “I get caught up in the whole world of shopping, which takes me away from worrying about, perhaps things I don’t

want to, ‘cause I’m worrying about the shopping “should I take it back?””

Buying to feel better

Katie: “I just had massive, massive panic attacks all the time. (...) and so I think I was trying to make myself feel better and actually have control over something else, and I think that’s

when [the shopping] started to get quite bad, (...) to go and do something and make yourself feel a little bit better, a little bit

brighter”

Katie: “it’s kinda like getting a present, ‘cause you’re kinda opening it up, they’re kinda wrapped up”

Katie: “when I go out of the house or whatever [wearing something new], I just feel like, erm, I don’t feel as normal as I

do every other day”


June: “I think it’s the guilt, you know, the awful shame of, you know, why have you done this? You know, if I had an illness like a cancer or something, you would say to a friend, but this is an illness in a way that you can tell no one, you know, it’s

like I’m in some dreaded disease”

Buying to feel better Vicious cycles

June: “I’m aware of depression being there that, and I mean the anxiety, and of course it gets worse because the last year or two I’ve realised what an enormous debt I have mounted

up and the anxiety’s so great now, you know, I’m like treading on egg shells”

Symbolic Reasons for Buying

I don’t know who I am ...

June: “But you sort of want to live this double life, you know, I mean, I look at my wardrobe and I think, there’s loads of

clothes that I hardly ever wear that were bought on the basis that I’m a different woman, really. (...) it is like leading a

double life, there’s this woman who goes shopping all the time, who’s buying things for a, to be a woman, some other woman, and then there’s me that’s, you know, that doesn’t

really know who I am any more, don’t know, you know, what I’ve done it for.”


But I want to be ... looking / being the part

Maggie: “I have recently just put on a hell of a lot of weight which I absolutely hate. (...) I hope I can lose this weight.”

June: “I’ve even bought clothes that don’t really fit me, I bought them from Minuet which is for petite women, because maybe I wanted to be petite, I don’t know whether it was that

that appealed. They all seemed to look nice, the shape of them was nice.”

Fran: “I preserve this front. You know, I’m always the Mum at the school that’s baked all these cakes, you know, I wouldn’t miss a thing like that. I volunteer for this, that and the other”


But I want to be ... Looking / being the part

Ethan: “I suppose the branding, the label and the advertisement creates a sense of quality, creates a sense of excitement. You know, you buy a product that’s just had an amazing ad campaign and because everyone’s seen it, it’s

like you’re then part of that campaign.”

Katie: “And then you come out, and by the time you get home you’ve got like five different bags, and you know, you’re kinda walking along and you think “yea, people can see I’ve been

shopping” and I feel like I’ve had a good day here, especially with the nice bags that are sort of with the string and

everything, not plastic ones, and that that makes me feel like you’ve done something worthwhile.”

Addicted

I’ll just buy this ...

Maggie: “I think “oh, just this once” sort of thing. “I’ll just do it now, and then I’ll wear these and that’ll be good, and I’ll get

rid of some others that I’ve got that I don’t want any more, and then these’ll last me for a few years”. But it doesn’t work like

that.”

Fran: “if I buy something that I think looks nice in one colour and it, I’ve then got to get it in all the other colours, because I think “oo, that’s, yea, that does make me look OK, I’d better get more of those” (...) I get carried away, and almost to the

point where I’m so hyped up in a shop that I get, I’m not really sure of what I’m doing.”

Katie: “And then you get home and you look at your bags and you think “fuck it, I can’t afford this, and I’ve done it yet

again”.”

Addicted

Broke, yet tripping over stuff

Fran: “my husband hates it, ‘cause he’s a very ordered [person] (...) and he says he’s just tripping over stuff, it’s just

stuff, it’s like this collection of stuff in various rooms that I keep shut away. He, yea, he doesn’t like it, and it has a big impact,

and the children don’t like it ‘cause you can’t get in to these rooms.”

After Mindfulness Intervention:

What Happens When Compulsive Buyers Learn

Mindfulness

Measures Changed

Understanding Mindfulness

June: “it’s more to do with awareness, and it’s not about relaxing so much, it’s more about your awareness,

heightening your awareness”

Fran: “always on the first day back I want to wear new clothes, and I didn’t this time. I made myself. I thought “no, I, why do I

need to wear new clothes, wear something I’ve worn before and see what happens”. That was alright [laugh]. And I think,

yea it is, it’s just doing it differently.”

Choice Over Thoughts and Feelings

So that’s how I think and feel!

Seeing things differently

How different understanding is

achievedI feel better!

Stay here; no need to run away

I am not my thoughts



Fran: “I think I realised I’m not very kind to myself, in fact I think I beat myself up a lot, all

the time.”

Fran: “it’s not the same rush that I get with the shopping, or that initial, but the overall experience gives a much nicer feeling. (...) it’s a more relaxed feeling. Whereas with the shopping it’s that initial rush, all that excitement and then

you’ve got all the coming down from that, and all the worry and everything afterwards, this might not be the massive rush at the beginning, it’s a more gentle gradual process in that you plan it, you go off, we do it we have fun. (...) So the buzz was less I suppose, but it went on for longer and lasts, and it didn’t

have this awful crash afterwards”

Maggie: “it made me feel extremely panicky and I had to, I had to sit up, thinking I’ve got to stop this, this is awful”



June: “[Marketing messages are] just so unrealistic, I do know that now, well, I always knew it at the back of my mind, but

you suppress that realistic thought because your, your mind’s taken over on euphoria”

June: “I mean it’s funny with clothes, I’ve got things in my wardrobe that I can remember I wore that when I was very upset, and it’s got emotional attachments. (...) I thought to

myself, well, you know, there’s say, you know a skirt I wore on holiday and had an argument with my husband while I was wearing it [laugh], that’s nothing to do with the skirt, (...) I

didn’t see that at all before, (...). You know, and this is why we’re always looking for something new, that hasn’t got the

attachment.”



Fran: “She said, you have to just accept that’s how it is and just think, right, well I’m going to be choppy at this time. And I found just by doing that, things would appear on the turbulent sea, that’s how it is. So I do try to do that, when I get times

that difficult I do try to do that and think “well, this is how it is, just have to accept that it is choppy and I can’t necessarily do

anything about it””A: “And do you find that you are able to accept?”

Fran: “I can, it depends on how, it very much depends on how I’m feeling”

REAPPRAISAL



Maggie: “I am being a lot more logical [about shopping and buying things], and a lot more, I’m thinking long and hard

about actually going. Do I really want to go? I’m thinking how I’m going to feel afterwards. I’m not actually feeling, when I

think about it, I don’t actually think about the buzz you get, the positive side, I’m thinking about the negative sides more now. Things like, I’ll think “oh, I know I’m never going to wear it”, or “where am I going to put it, I’ve got too much”. I’m thinking about “do I want more polythene bags at home? Have I got

enough hangers for it?” Yea, I really am thinking sort of negative, and the thing, when you come, when you bring your

purchases home, you know, it doesn’t stop when you buy something, you’ve got to sort it out when you get home,

you’ve got to start clearing things out and having sort-outs again, ‘cause you can’t keep it all. (...) I have noticed that,

quite profoundly really.”



achieved

Fran: “all my heightened awareness that, it’s made me more aware really of how I look, and I haven’t got to a stage where I can accept and just be how I am.

I’m trying, I keep trying and thinking “well, this is how I am now, I’m not going to suddenly loose a stone by

tomorrow”, I do try to sort of talk to myself about it, but not very successfully.”

Fran: “that’s one of the very useful things I think is that

thing that she, that labelling your thoughts. So if I get, if I

find myself getting swept along, I try to step back and

then think “oh that was a planning” I do an awful lot of planning thoughts, or “that was an anxious thought””

Fran: “Well I suppose it, before I just get, I wouldn’t even think about, I’d be so swept along with it, I

wouldn’t know, and get caught up. I think it makes me stop a bit and see, I don’t know, so that you can’t

build on all the thoughts, ‘cause if you have one thought, if you label it, it sort of almost is contained, isn’t it? Whereas if you don’t label it, you get that

thought and another one and another one and so they go on. Whereas if you think “well, OK, I’ve

acknowledged that thought and I’ve labelled it, it’s there and contained”





achievedI feel better!





June: “it’s not really me, it doesn’t have to affect me”

DECENTRING (less identified)

Fran: “I can still think about things, but step back a bit, so you can almost watch your thoughts can’t you, go by, but not

necessarily have to get so swept along by them”

Fran: “it’s just felt calmer, the actual decision [regarding a work promotion], but maybe that’s because I was clearer

about where I’m at with myself.”

June: “I think I’m more positive, and stronger I think, you know, stronger as a person”

STRENGTHENED / REIFIED sense of self



Fran: “the bits to begin with I found really hard were when she asked us to focus on thoughts, and that bit, at that point I

could feel myself coming out in a sweat, and just wanted to get up and leave the room. (...) I could feel myself fidgeting, “I

can’t, when will this be over, I’ve got to get out”.(...)

A: “So what did you actually do? Did you stay in the room?”

Fran: “I stayed, no I stayed. (...) I kept, I mean she sort of said “well, you are free to go out if you want to”, but didn’t.”

June: “so I think to myself, if I wore it a few more times then that memory would fade anyway”

EXPOSURE


I feel better!

June: “And I’ve noticed with this course, I’m beginning to feel more like I did say when I was twenty, I never worried about

the past, I never beat myself up (...) And you do feel that kind of child-like simplicity again”

Resisting TemptationNicole: “I don’t feel as much on autopilot no, I feel more

aware”

Ethan: “So there’s still a want to spend, but less “oh, I like that, I’ll buy it”. ‘Cause like I can get the pleasure from “oh I

like that” without having to do the till bit.”

June: “when it came to buying that cream I was sort of on a high thinking “oh well, I’m managing my debt and I’m controlling everything, so it won’t matter if I buy that”.”

Maggie: I have been very, very aware that I have finished work, and for quite a few weeks, I’ve finished work and I’ve had this (...) tremendous desire to go shopping. (...) And I

have actually thought to myself “why do I want to go shopping?” and have actually sort of processed it. (...) And I’ve thought “I don’t need anything”, and I had to really fight

myself to drive myself home. (...) And I came home, as soon as I’m home it’s fine ‘cause I can find other things that, to do.”

Resisting TemptationJune: “when he left that I was so relieved I thought “I need to do

something for myself”, and so I went to the beauty salon and I had a body wrap and a facial, that was expensive, but I mean I suppose that was nice in that it was something for me. But then I started spending

on some clothes, (...) I can only call it a spending spree, I mean, I must’ve spent two, three hundred pounds.”

June: “I just gave up on the meditation. I felt awful. I just didn’t have time. I was just so tired when I got to bed at night, I just gave it up,

and I know that’s why, you know, I had no resources when they’d gone to start being realistic and, you know, be mindful, which is why I went

off the tracks.”

June: “So anyway, when I’d taken them, bought these things back, I thought you know, “I’ve got to get back on this programme”. (...) And in

the past week I started again on the programme. I started doing the body scan like we started off before (...) [and] since I started back on the body scan I know I’m much more positive again. (...) It’s amazing

how that works because you have to concentrate, not give in to all these wandering thoughts all the time, this constant bombardment.”

• Learning mindfulness has helped these compulsive buyers:• Reduction to factors driving / sustaining the buying

behaviour (affective and symbolic)• Increased awareness and ability to manage urges• Choice over thoughts, reactions, behaviours• Self-regulation

Summary

Mindfulness and Consumerism/ Sustainability

Self-focussed awareness

Mindfulness andConsumerism/Sustainability

Steph: “(I think that) if I’m going binge on chocolate, it should be ethical chocolate that I’m binging on (laugh). I think (the

desire to buy ethical products has) enhanced thinking about it because it all comes down to a realisation I had quite near the end of the course, which is that, this kind of wanting to respect

the world and the people in it, is something that I’ve had for ages, but it’s very hard to have that sort of relationship with everything around me, if I don’t have the relationship with

myself. And (I) go back to this whole having built up more of a relationship with myself thing, then I’m now finding it easier to open that up to the world around me and the people that I’m

interacting with”


Mindfulness and Consumerism/ Sustainability

Self-focussed awareness

Acceptance


Breaking cycles

Consumerism

Mindfulness

ESRC Research Group on lifestyles, values and

environment

[email protected]

www.presentminds.org

0777-606-1670

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.presentminds.org/

a armstrong - mindfulness and compulsive buying (slrg seminar jan 2013)

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