A Research On The Relation Between Symbolic Consumption And Self-identity Of The University Students

From the perspective of consumptive sociology, self-identity can be expressed byconsumption style, consumption is the main tool to construct and maintain selfidentity.On the other hand, self-identity has the function of restricting consumptionstyle.Nowadays, we can find that the campus life is filled with symbol consumption,in the train of which is the blind pursuit to excessive consumption, conspicuousconsumption, and other adverse consumer behavior. The aim of this research isanalyze the phenomenon of J University students'symbol consumption, and explainthe link between symbol consumption and consumption style.Based on the symbol consumption theory and real circumstances of universitystudents, this dissertation divides self-identity into three parts----individual level,collective level, social level, and describes how much symbol consumption constructself-identity and which factors influence the feeling of consumption identification. Inaddition, this dissertation analyzes how much the frames of self-identity restrictconsuming behavior.This study finds that the motivation of university students'symbol consumingbehavior do include the element of building and maintaining self-identity. In theinfluencing factors of symbol consumption identification, the main ones are economiclevel and grade. The frames of self-identity do restrict the university students'consuming behavior in different grades.