The impact of family forms on interpersonal influence between single parent and full families

The relationship between individual thoughts and the social environment has been widely studied in sociology (Weber, 1968), psychology (Lewin, 1951) and social psychology. The influence of reference groups on individual behaviour is often manifested in the decisions made by consumers while members of these reference groups are often the individual’s friends and acquaintances. Their decisions, their values and norms serve as an example for the individual. In this study the influences of reference groups are examined within the context of the family form in Hungary. The paper focuses on the nature of peer influence in single parent households and full families, to analyse the normative and informational dimensions of peer pressure and communication patterns within the family.

The effects of store atmosphere on shopping behaviour - A literature review.

This paper provides an insight into how the atmospherics of a retail environment influence shopping behaviour. Its objective is to support researchers and practitioners by summarizing the current state of knowledge and identifying gaps and avenues for future research. The scope covers studies in retail marketing and environmental psychology published during the last 35 years. It has been shown that environmental cues (music, scent etc.) have an effect on the emotional state of the consumer, which in turn causes behavioural changes, both positive (approach, buy more, stay longer etc.) and negative (not approach, buy less, leave earlier etc.). Most studies make reference to the PAD model, which proposes that the relevant emotions in this process can be measured along three dimensions Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance (Mehrabian, A. & Russell, J.A.,1974, An approach to environmental psychology, Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press). Since then, significant advances have been made to understand the effect of individual cues, their interaction, as well as the role of moderators, such as gender, age, or shopping motivation. However, there are a number of opportunities for further research. Too little is known about the moderating effects of Arousal and Dominance and how they interact with each other and with Pleasure dimension. Also a number of other moderators, such as gender and culture, should be integrated into the model.

Összegződnek-e az egyéni törekvések? A cselekvés és az eredmény közötti szakadék problémája (Can individual efforts be aggregated? The problem of the action-impact gap)

A szerző arra a kérdésre keresi a választ, hogyan alakulhat ki látványos szakadék az egyéni cselekvések iránya és azok együttes hatása között. A szándékok és tettek hatását felülírhatja a társadalmi gazdasági tényezőkből adódó tehetetlenség: a kritikus tömeg hiánya, szervezeti-infrastrukturális tényezők, kompenzációs hatások, egymás hatását kioltó cselekvések. A szerző a környezettudatosság és az ökológiai lábnyom példáján - ezerfős reprezentatív felmérésre alapozva - mutatja be, hogy az önkéntességre alapozó megközelítés sokszor túlbecsüli a fogyasztó - társadalmi-gazdasági tényezők által korlátozott - lehetőségeit és szuverenitását. _____ Behaviour impact gaps are demonstrably present in everyday life. It is increasingly found that environmental awareness in individuals fails to lead to reductions in the ecological footprint. Intensive agricultural practice reduces biodiversity in the EU even in areas where massive agri-environmental grant schemes are available and applied. Labour market training programmes do not necessarily facilitate job-finding for underprivileged segments of the society. So individual efforts may not add up or induce the expected effect. This outcome appears even for programmes that are successful in attaining the required behavioural change in a target group. The impact of attitudes and individual acts may be wiped out by structural and economic lock-ins such as trade-offs made for the gains, lack of a critical mass of actions, infrastructural deficiencies, or interfering acts of economic actors. The discrepancy between environmental awareness and ecological footprint is used to point out how awareness-raising programmes may miss their targets by overestimating the sovereignty and capabilities of consumers. Consumers are unwillingly locked into unsustainable practices and cannot be moved from that position unless economic and structural premises are also changed.