تأثیرات موقعیتی بر نگرش ها و رفتار مصرف کنندگان

While classical and operant conditioning are frequently implicated in the formation of attitudes, there is no generally accepted theoretical portrayal of the processes involved and how the two conditioning processes might interact. We describe a model of attitude–behavior relations, the behavioral perspective model (BPM), which suggests how situational influences on consumer choice may be categorized, and employ Mehrabian and Russell's [An approach to environmental psychology. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press, 1974] approach to environmental psychology to test that model in the contexts of attitude formation and attitude–behavior consistency. Venezuelan consumers (N=254) rated descriptions of consumer situations based on the contingency categories identified by the BPM in terms of pleasure, arousal and dominance. The results indicate that attitude responses to consumer environments vary as predicted by the model. Moreover, the model presents a framework for managerial action through the understanding of how structural components of consumer situations (namely, utilitarian and informational reinforcement and behavior setting scope) are related to the generation of affective responses (pleasure, arousal and dominance) and approach–avoidance responses.

Since conditioning studies emphasize the role physical and social environments play in determining both overt and covert responding, the analysis of attitude formation from the viewpoint of classical and operant learning promises to integrate the learning theory and information processing perspectives on consumer choice. However, there is no unifying theoretical model for this and studies of situational influences on consumer response tend to be detached from studies of consumers' attitudes. We propose a theoretical account of consumer learning, which combines both types of learning and relates them to the formation of attitudes in situ. Foxall, 1990 and Foxall, 1997a behavioral perspective model (BPM) provides a means of categorizing the antecedent stimuli that comprise the setting in which consumer choice occurs and the rewarding consequences of behavior in the setting that such stimuli signal. Each of the eight categories of consumer situations proposed by the model predicts a unique pattern of attitude response. The model was tested using Mehrabian and Russell's (1974)Approach to Environmental Psychology, which gauges emotional reactions to environmental stimuli in terms of three affective responses—pleasure, arousal and dominance. The empirical investigation reported here replicates and extends a study of English consumers (Foxall, 1997b) to Venezuela. Findings support the earlier research by demonstrating the expected attitude differences among the eight varieties of consumer situations in a Latin American context.

The attitude responses pleasure, arousal and dominance vary over a variety of consumption contexts as predicted by the BPM. This methodology incorporates the situational factors—consumer behavior setting scope and consumption history—that cognitive theorists have increasingly taken into consideration, but does so more comprehensively and in a way that allows managerial responses to be based on comparative analyses of situational effects on consumers' attitude formation and attitude–behavioral consistency. The predictions derived from this theoretical framework have been supported in a Latin-American context as well as the English locale within which the framework was developed and initially tested. The theoretical framework has also been shown to be transferable among cultures as long as differences on economic, social and political practices and conditions are sympathetically addressed Soriano and Foxall, 2002a and Soriano and Foxall, 2002b.