소비생활에서의 행복과 갈등

Abstract

We intend to investigate the positive and negative aspects of everyday consumption experiences. The positive aspects of consumption experiences are analyzed in terms of happiness. Happiness can be defined as a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, satisfaction, pleasure,or joy. If the ultimate goal of consumption is to meet consumer’s needs and wants, happiness in consumption indicates the state of achieving consumer goals. The negative aspect of consumption experiences captures the state of discontent and uneasiness which is opposed to the happy state, and we define this state as a conflict in consumption life. The specific aims of this study are to describe the two opposite sides of the consumption experiences: happiness and conflict in consumption, and to investigate the consumer’s capabilities and characteristics which are necessary for managing happy consumption. We conducted indepth interview to nine married women from the middle and upper income classes who live in Seoul and its environments and analyzed their textual contents applying the qualitative data analysis method of Colaizzi's. The feelings of the happy consumption experience are expressed with the terms such as “happy”,“freedom”, “thankful”, “joy”, “good”, “content”, “enough”, “affluent”, “comfort”, “relief”, “rewarding”,“thrilling”, and etc. On the other hand, the feelings of the conflict in consumption life are expressed as “unpleasant”, “uncomfortable”, “worried”, “repentance”, “sorry”, “inconvenient”, “pitapat”,“begrudge”, “burdensome”, “mental pressure”, “shameful”, “confused”, and “uneasy”. The four major components that describe the state of happiness in consumption are found: ‘Obtaining economic benefits compared to the price paid, Relationship rather than possession’,Affluence in heart’, and ‘Self-improvement and confidence. Since these experiences are based on the consumer’s autonomy and determination, we title these themes as the Active Commitment to Pursuing Freedom and Quality of Life. In the case of conflict in consumption experience we also find the four major themes. ‘Insufficiency and extravagance’, ‘Like others’, ‘Conflict in the family’, and ‘Fast growing driving force for consumption’. The subjects feel conflict when they face the budget constraint and cannot refrain from the consumption desire, and blindly follow the consumption patterns of their reference group. They feel difficulty and emptiness in catching up with the fast-growing standard of living. This phenomenon is described as “Swollen rice-cookie” which looks great but is empty inside in fact. The themes which describe consumer’s capabilities and characteristics that can lead consumers either to happy or anxious consumption include ‘Self-confidence and belief’, ‘Consumption skill’, ‘Rational/irrational consumption principal’, and ‘Lack of autonomy’. Happy consumption experiences have a common point that they are the means for the fulfillment of intrinsic value such as interpersonal relationship, moderation, self-achievement, and sharing. Consumers feel happy in the process of consumption which provides economic benefits and the opportunities showing one’s consumption ability. These results imply that the consumer’s choice of how to consume is more important than what to consume. The result that consumers from the middle and upper income classes feel deficiency is consistent with the notion of the happiness economists that the consumer needs and wants can never be met. Therefore, in order to be free from the endless desire for materials, consumers need to have the rationality and principals to direct themselves to fulfill what they truly want. In an affluent consumption society, the development of the consumer’s capability to manage consumption in a way to reach the happy state becomes increasingly important part of consumer’s education. Consumer’s choice for happy life can be expedited by consumer’s consciousness of what is truly important in one’s life and what is the nature of consumption desire, and also by decision making of how much time and money are to be spent for the innate self-achievement, care for others, and intimate relationship with family, friends, and colleagues. Finally, we suggest that happy consumption depends on consumer’s capability of balancing their consumption between work and leisure, and between oneself and others.