자아방어기제와 전치적 강박소비행동에 관한 연구

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the influential relationship between the ego defense mechanism and the displacive compulsive consumption behavior. Displacement refers to the act of transferring and expressing the emotions felt toward a certain subject to a less important and less threatening alternative subject. On the other hand, displacive compulsive consumption behavior refers to the transfer seen in displacement and the attachment toward the substitute subject, which is continuously and repetitively emerging in the form of compulsive consumption. The activation of the ego function and its mechanism forms the intrinsic ego of an individual, and if change and enhancement on the intrinsic ego are necessary, greater attention should be placed on the mechanism of the ego function and habituated mechanism. Given this, the study attempts to identify the influence that the ego defense mechanism has on the displacive compulsive consumption behavior and seeks a desirable ego defense mechanism that improves the compulsive consumption behavior. The subjects of this study include a group of consumers in their 20s–50s residing in Seoul and other metropolitan areas, of which a total of 378 were chosen to undergo the analysis. For the method, descriptive statistics, factor analysis, variance analysis, and regression analysis were used. The analysis result and its implications are as follows. First, two factors of the displacive compulsive consumption behavior were identified through the factor analysis (Varimax method). Factor 1 is “anger transfer type compulsive behavior,” which is expressing one’s negative emotions in the form of compulsive consumption behavior. On the other hand, Factor 2 is “substitute subject attachment type compulsive behavior,” which is transferring affection toward a certain subject to a substitute subject or object. Second, the ego defense mechanism consists of neurotic, narcissistic, immature, and mature defense mechanisms. Neurotic defense mechanism was classified into reaction-formation, controlling, rationalization, and dissociation factors; narcissistic defense mechanism was categorized into projection and denial factors; immature defense mechanism was classified into passive- aggression, somatization, acting out, regression, evasion, and identification factors; and mature defense mechanism was categorized into suppression, anticipation, sublimation, altruism, and humor factors. Each defense mechanism showed significant differences by consumer groups in accordance with sociodemographic factors. Third, regression analysis was conducted to analyze the relative influence of the factors that impact the displacive compulsive consumption behavior. Differences were found in the factors influencing the anger transfer type compulsive behavior and substitute subject attachment type compulsive behavior. The factor with the strongest influence on “anger transfer type” was “regression,” followed by “sublimation” and “reaction-formation,” which had a significant influence. As for the “substitute subject attachment type,” the “identification” factor had the biggest influence, followed by regression, evasion, reaction-formation, humor, and rationalization. Such study results suggest that focus should be placed on the ego function to further understand and manage the displacive compulsive consumption behavior. Therefore, the study proved to be helpful in analyzing the ego function influencing compulsive consumption behaviors by each ego defense mechanism and, in turn, supplied basic data necessary to ease compulsive consumption. Future studies could focus on the analysis of the process of controlling the ego defense mechanism to handle anger transfer type and substitute subject attachment type compulsive consumptions.