The Qualitative Study Of Perfectionism In Consuming Behavior

This paper used the ideas and methods of grounded theory. The purpose is to describe the actual consumer purchase behaviors, to analyze the phenomenon of perfectionism that occur during the individual consumption, to compare different types of perfectionism in consumer's decision-making bias and their internal drive. The research used Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Zi's Positive Perfectionism Questionnaire and the Zi's Negative Perfectionism Questionnaire. Four subjects were selected to take the semi-structured interviews, and two of them were under field purchase behavior observation. The raw data were collected by grounded theory and the researcher did the data analysis and scenario analysis. The study found three type of the perfectionism motivation which different from the previous research:the filling perfectionism motivation; the isolating perfectionism motivation; the rejecting perfectionism motivation. Judging by positive perfectionism and negative perfectionism, the researcher contrasted, described and analyzed four different types perfectionist's behavior and mental process:The respondents who get the high negative perfectionism scores are more likely to regret after making decision. They tend to remove, isolate, and transform the imperfect goods. Their evaluation of goods are dependent on others, their purchase decisions are vulnerable and they come in for the impact of negative evaluation information easily; the respondents who get the high positive perfectionism scores have the strong self-conscious. Their buying decisions are less vulnerable that independent by the external disturbances. They are well-adapted to get rid of the imperfect goods. When facing them, they can hold a positive attitude and have a relatively high level of acceptance; the respondents who get the high positive perfectionism scores and negative perfectionism scores has both of two characteristics of positive and negative perfectionism, the psychological conflict during the buying process are the strongest; the non-perfectionist have a relatively high level of self-esteem, self-conscious. They didn't show any typical features of perfectionism in the general state of the purchase, but the particular situation and mental state can evoke non-perfectionist's sense of insecurity, then they will show a high level of perfectionism state. The study summarized the common ground of the perfectionist's purchase behavior:the perfectionists are particularly sensitive to the differences between goods, compared with the non-perfectionist, they tend to focus on small differences; the perfectionist even enjoy the process of comparing different goods'detail; the perfectionist are usually set up standards which have a non-rational basis for decision making, and they are always inflexible in the buying process; in this study, three of the perfectionist pursue perfection in any situation, the non-perfectionist will appear the perfectionism state in special situations; The three perfectionist of the research are all approve their buying habits, they generally recognized that perfectionism means excellence performance, the process of pursuing perfection can bring a sense of achievement and perfection. Three perfectionists also have some common point in the early experience:they all had been in foster care between their 2-10 years old; they all are the youngest child in their family; the environment of their childhood is loose and the relationships between their parents are not so good; their senses of security are low. At last, no significant gender differences have been found in the areas covered in this study.