Distraction has been shown to increase the time people spend in a physical store as well as the amount of purchases people make in a physical store. However, many people shop online, and the online...Show moreDistraction has been shown to increase the time people spend in a physical store as well as the amount of purchases people make in a physical store. However, many people shop online, and the online market seems to be growing. The current research investigated if the findings of earlier research of distraction in a physical store are replicable to an online shopping environment. It was tested if distraction would increase the amount of time people spend, and amount of purchases people make in an online shopping environment. Participants were asked to perform a shopping task in an artificial webshop, and they were split into two groups. One group was distracted by an audio fragment while performing the shopping task, and the other group was not distracted. The amount of time that participants spend in the webshop, and the amount of purchases that participants made were measured. Although the distraction manipulation, as measured by self-report, seemed to be effective, no significant differences in amount of purchases and time spend in the webshop was found between the groups. These findings suggest a different effect of distraction in online shopping environments compared to shopping in a physical stores. This effect could be explained by the different ways people navigate through a physical store compared to a webshop.Show less
In this research we look at why people living in debt are possibly not receiving the help that is available to them, and that they need. It is hypothesized that at the base of this socioeconomic...Show moreIn this research we look at why people living in debt are possibly not receiving the help that is available to them, and that they need. It is hypothesized that at the base of this socioeconomic problem lies a negative relationship between the Need for Autonomy and the Acceptance of Free Debt Advice. This is based on the notion that through accepting help you relinquish a part of your ability to fully make your own choices, meaning you would actually give away a piece of your autonomy by accepting help. Participants, (N=75), completed an online questionnaire that measured their need for autonomy, using the Implicit PSEAutonomy Measure, and their acceptance of help, using a question based on the General Help-Seeking Questionnaire. The data showed no significant correlation between the two variables. We must conclude that in the current research we were unable to detect there a possible relationship between Need for Autonomy and Acceptance of Debt Relief Help. Recommendations to improve on this research in the future are offered however, such as ensuring more balanced samples on the basis of gender and educational level.Show less
In Great Britain 4% of households experience problematic debt, which can cause depression, anxiety and physical illness. Still, people who live in debt do not always use help services, possibly...Show moreIn Great Britain 4% of households experience problematic debt, which can cause depression, anxiety and physical illness. Still, people who live in debt do not always use help services, possibly because accepting help infringes on their need for autonomy. To test this, an online questionnaire was used measuring people’s implicit need for autonomy and the extent to which they would accept offered debt advice. A one-sided Spearman analysis showed no significant negative correlation between need for autonomy and accepting help. This means that the need for autonomy might not stop people from accepting debt advise. This could be because the relationship between need for autonomy and receiving help is moderated by the context in which the help is offered. Also, the limitations of this study, like reliability and time, could have caused a non-significant finding in this study.Show less
Financial debt is a worldwide increasing problem associated with multiple negative psychological, physiological and physical consequences. Getting out of debt is hard. But even though help is...Show moreFinancial debt is a worldwide increasing problem associated with multiple negative psychological, physiological and physical consequences. Getting out of debt is hard. But even though help is offered to get out of debt, people do not always accept this. A high need for autonomy could be a reason why people in financial debt do not accept help; they may prefer to be independent and solve their problems themselves. To what extent does the need for autonomy correlate with the willingness of people in debt accepting free debt advice? This was researched with an online questionnaire measuring implicit need for autonomy and willingness to accept help by imagining being in debt and being offered free debt advice. Our results show that there is no correlation between the need for autonomy and the willingness to accept free debt advice. In the discussion of our research, other factors that might be related to the reason why people in debt do not accept help will be examined.Show less
Free debt advice is an option for UK debtors who want advice on how to get out of their financial situation. However, not everyone who could benefit from this type of help actually receives it. One...Show moreFree debt advice is an option for UK debtors who want advice on how to get out of their financial situation. However, not everyone who could benefit from this type of help actually receives it. One of the reasons people do not accept help when in debt, is that they do not want others involved in their situation. Previous research suggests that this relates to the need for autonomy. This study attempts to investigate whether high need for autonomy is negatively related to acceptance of free debt advice. 75 participants took part in an implicit measure of the need for autonomy, and a hypothetical debt scenario after which they had to indicate their likelihood to accept free debt advice. A nonsignificant, negative Spearman correlation was found. Several limitations were discussed and recommendations for future research were formulated based on these limitations.Show less
The combination of rising debts in the UK and the evidence for debts negatively affecting people’s health is alarming. There are organizations that offer help to those struggling with debts. To...Show moreThe combination of rising debts in the UK and the evidence for debts negatively affecting people’s health is alarming. There are organizations that offer help to those struggling with debts. To improve the help that these organizations offer, more knowledge on help-seeking behaviour is needed. Based on previous research indicating the diminishing effect of the need for autonomy on the willingness to accept help, we investigated if the need for autonomy serves as a barrier for accepting help for people living with debts. We hypothesized that there is a negative relationship between the need for autonomy and the likelihood of accepting help. In this study, respondents answered a questionnaire that measured their implicit need for autonomy and their willingness to accept help. A negative correlation was found, however non-significant. Our sample showed a strong willingness to accept help, which is unrepresentative of the UK population. We argue that the relationship between the need for autonomy and the willingness to accept help is likely to exist, even though we were unable to detect it. Future research is needed to understand this phenomenon better. We recommend future research to use a sample that is living with debts.Show less
Debt and poverty are vastly growing issues of our society that come with psychological risks. Receiving free debt advice improves well-being psychologically, yet those in debt do not often get this...Show moreDebt and poverty are vastly growing issues of our society that come with psychological risks. Receiving free debt advice improves well-being psychologically, yet those in debt do not often get this help. We argue that the need for autonomy can be an influential construct in the acceptance of free debt advice, given that poverty is accompanied by lower perceived autonomy and that when ones autonomy is endangered, this lowers their tendency to accept help of other kinds. So, we hypothesised that having a higher need for autonomy would indicate lower tendency to accept debt advice. We conducted an online survey with 75 UK citizens in which an implicit measure of the need for autonomy (Picture Story Exercise) as well as a likert scale for accepting debt advice were administered. There was an insignificantly negative correlation between the implicit measure and the acceptance of free debt advice. We speculate that, how dependency/autonomy oriented debt advice was perceived as well as the fact that our participants were not experiencing real life debt, weakened the correlation. As exploratory analysis, the correlation between the explicit measure of need for autonomy (IAF) and likelihood of accepting help was tested. This correlation was also nonsignificant yet positive. We speculate that this could be due to the social desirability bias. Future research should explore the autonomy/dependency orientation of free debt advice to pave the way for increasing the acceptance of debt advice.Show less
More and more people get into debt every year. However, they rarely receive the freely offered services to help them out of debt. Previous research suggests that a person’s high need for autonomy...Show moreMore and more people get into debt every year. However, they rarely receive the freely offered services to help them out of debt. Previous research suggests that a person’s high need for autonomy can be seen as an obstacle to accept help. Hence, this study examines the effect of explicit and implicit need for autonomy on the willingness to accept help when in debt. Participants were asked to fill out an explicit (Index of Autonomous Functioning) and an implicit (Picture Story Exercise) measure for autonomy. Afterwards, a hypothetical scenario in which participants’ likeliness to accept free debt advice was administered. Results suggest that explicitly measured need for autonomy is non-significantly, positively correlated with the willingness to accept the offered help. Contrary, the implicit measure showed a non significant, negative correlation with the help-acceptance of the participants. The discussion revealed that the definition of the need for autonomy differs between the measures, which might influence the discrepancy in results. Additionally, as the form of help was autonomy oriented in the current research, there are strong arguments for a greater influence of need for autonomy on dependency-oriented types of help.Show less
Over half of all households in the UK experienced some type of debt between 2016 to 2018. Being in debt can pose a serious threat to wellbeing. Many of these households are not able to get out of...Show moreOver half of all households in the UK experienced some type of debt between 2016 to 2018. Being in debt can pose a serious threat to wellbeing. Many of these households are not able to get out of debt by themselves. However, many of these households also do not accept the help, often existing of free debt-advice, that is provided to them. Literature from domains such as education suggest that people might not accept help due to their autonomy being limited. This thesis looked into whether this was also the case for the domain of debt. Respondents were asked to fill out a questionnaire, existing of an implicit measure of autonomy and a hypothetical debt letter. After receiving the letter, participants were asked how likely they would be to accept the help (free debt-advice) offered in the debt letter. Surprisingly, many of the participants accepted the help, leading to the rejection of our hypothesis that the need for autonomy could predict help acceptance. The results showed that there was no relationship between the need for autonomy and help acceptance. A possible reason for this finding could be that in the domain of debt, a different barrier against help acceptance, like shame or stigma, is at play.Show less
Eerder onderzoek heeft aangetoond dat de uitputting van iemands wilskracht afhankelijk is van diens overtuiging of wilskracht gelimiteerd is. Personen die denken dat wilskracht ongelimiteerd is,...Show moreEerder onderzoek heeft aangetoond dat de uitputting van iemands wilskracht afhankelijk is van diens overtuiging of wilskracht gelimiteerd is. Personen die denken dat wilskracht ongelimiteerd is, zouden eenvoudiger impulsen kunnen onderdrukken. Hierdoor zouden ze efficiënter langetermijndoelen kunnen behalen. Wij verwachtten dat mensen met deze overtuiging anderen minder snel om hulp zouden vragen, omdat zij wellicht denken dat ze alles alleen kunnen. Anderen om hulp vragen heeft echter voordelen, die mensen met een ongelimiteerde wilskrachtovertuiging zouden missen. Voor dit onderzoek is daarom onderzocht of mensen met een ongelimiteerde wilskrachtovertuiging anderen minder snel om hulp vragen. Dit is onderzocht door middel van online vragenlijsten, bestaande uit 12 vragen over wilskrachtovertuiging en 12 vragen over anderen om hulp vragen. Deze variabelen bleken zwak gecorreleerd, waarbij toeval niet kon worden uitgesloten. Dit onderzoek kon geen verband aantonen tussen wilskrachtovertuiging en de mate waarin diegene anderen om hulp vraagt. Het verwachte negatieve effect van een ongelimiteerde wilskrachtovertuiging kon zodoende ook niet worden aangetoond. Extra onderzoek rondom dit onderwerp is aanbevolen. Zo kan onderzocht worden welke andere eventuele nadelige bijkomstigheden mensen met een ongelimiteerde wilskrachtovertuiging ervaren.Show less
Whereas financial scarcity has mostly been measured through objective indicators in the past, more recent research provides implications that subjective indicators might be of value in explaining...Show moreWhereas financial scarcity has mostly been measured through objective indicators in the past, more recent research provides implications that subjective indicators might be of value in explaining scarcity effects as well. The current study is a replication of previous research on the effects of financial scarcity on cognitive performance, to examine the role of subjective scarcity. Subjective scarcity is measured through the Personal Inventory of Financial Scarcity (PIFS), objective scarcity through effective household income, and cognitive performance through the Hearts & Flowers (HF) task. Our results, however, do not support relationships between subjective scarcity and cognitive performance, nor between objective scarcity and cognitive performance. This could be accounted to ceiling effects and a lack of control on the HF task, as well as to potential shortcomings in the PIFS as predictor of subjective scarcity. Nonetheless, we deem subjective scarcity as a potential valuable predictor of financial stress, and thus recommend further research on the concept.Show less
