Benny Barak

Cognitive Age: A New Multidimensional Approach to Measuring Age Identity.

An exploratory field study was undertaken to explore the way in which age-concepts are experienced, and to assess the relationship of age identities to each other. In addition, this study seeks to establish a new multidimensional age scale, Cognitive Age, to replace the well-established standard scale, Identity Age. This research also functions as a follow-up to an exploration by Kastenbaum et al. of “ages-of-me.” Ths most frequently used subjective age measures, Identity Age and Feel/Age, are unidimensional, and thus very difficult to evaluate in terms of reliability and/or validity. A multidimensional view of age as reflected by Personal Age is very appealing, but complex to assess. Cognitive Age successfully merges Identity Age, in which respondents identify with age-referrent groupings, and Personal Age, in which respondents rate themselves in terms of four functional age dimensions. The resultant Cognitive Age scale is both reliable and valid.

Age identity: A cross-cultural global approach

A combination of recent international surveys establishes surprising universality of the subjective and ideal age self-construal constructs appraised in years. Results showed that in 18 culturally disparate countries, age-of-birth was older than subjective/cognitive age self-construal; in 15 nations ideal/ desired ages were measured as well, and those were even younger. Implications of the constructs universality , as well as the reliability, validity, and equivalence of the different measurements of age identity in a cross-cultural research context, are discussed from a global perspective.

Sexual identity scale: A new self-assessment measure

An individuals subjective evaluation of sexual identity differs from objective evaluation by sex role researchers. This study reports initial validity and reliability data on a new measure of self-ascribed sexual identity: the Sexual Identity Scale (SIS). SIS considers four functional sex dimensions on the basis of components described in both sex and age role literature. SIS and two modified Bem Sex Role Inventory instruments—a Masculinity Trait Index (MTI) and a Femininity Trait Index (FTI)—were administered to an adult sample of 380 men and 380 women aged 20–80. Reliability, assessed with LISREL VI and Cronbachs alpha, was found to be high. LISREL VI findings provide construct validity, both convergent and divergent. The nature of association of biological sex and sex trait measures, high interitem SIS correlations, as well as divergence from the modified sex trait indices (MTI and FTI) also support validity. The studys results and implications are discussed.

Public self-consciousness and consumption behavior

Abstract Public self-consciousness is a major aspect of self-attention, concerned with attention to the self as a social object. In this study of American adults, public self-consciousness was tested against a number of variables with self-concept and/or socially conspicuous elements. Many relationships, involving public self-consciousness, stand out from the data analysis performed, including those with age, sexual self-image, and fashion-related variables, thus demonstrating the wide scope of public self-consciousness in relation to everyday behaviors and perceptions. Demographically, there were also racial and marital status differences in public self-consciousness.

Perceived Youth: Appraisal and Characterization

Results from a mail survey of respondents aged sixty to ninety-four suggest that psychographic dimensions of youthfulness and identification with old age constitute effective inner-age research variables, especially to those seeking to study older populations. The two specific dimensions explored are: “perceived youth,” a magnitude measure of the proportional discrepancy between chronological and cognitive ages; and “feeling-old,” which inversely measured youth through reliance on a six-point Likert agree/disagree statement: “I feel old.…” In addition to the obvious inverse relationship between these inner-ages, research established trait covariation relative to an increase in perceived youth coincidental with a rejection of a feeling-old identity, corresponding to increases in “happiness, own-health rating, being venturesome, giving advice, self-esteem, social activity, and keeping-in-shape,” as well as decreases in “taking advice, being a homebody, and having health worries.”

Inner‐age satisfaction in Africa and Asia: a cross‐cultural exploration

Field survey studies undertaken in Nigeria, Korea, China and India explored the way inner‐age satisfaction is experienced in those culturally diverse societies. Chronologically 20 to 59 year old respondents’ inner‐age satisfaction was gauged as the average difference between feel, look, do, and interest cognitive (self‐perceived) and desired (ideal) inner‐age dimensions. Analyses of covariance (with chronological age factored out) across the four nations showed Nigeria to differ significantly in terms of inner‐age satisfaction from each Asian population, contrary to the Asian societies where no differences were found across samples (except between Korea and India where inner‐age satisfaction differed at a p .05). High levels of satisfaction with inner‐age (coming about when cognitive and desired ages are equal) commonly transpired: 31.4 per cent of Indian, 36.9 per cent of Nigerian, 44.3 per cent of Chinese, and 44.9 per cent of Korean respondents. Age dissatisfaction in an elder direction (ideal age older than self‐perceived age) was atypical and happened most often among Nigerian (23.4 per cent) and least among Korean subjects (10.7 per cent). In contrast, wishing for a younger innerage was a commonplace phenomenon in India (50.6 per cent of the sample), as well as in China where it occurred the least (36.6 per cent). The study’s findings imply the universal nature of the way human beings (irrespective of culture) perceive and feel about inner‐age, as well as the potential of an inner‐age satisfaction psychographic as a relevant consumer behavior segmentation trait for marketing planners of age‐sensitive products and services who seek to standardize their global branding and distribution.

The Influence of Media Exposure on Materialism, Fashion Innovativeness and Cognitive Age: A Multi-Country Study

Past research has demonstrated that the media have far-reaching impact and consequences on consumer behavior. However, most of it was done in Western countries, and it is likely that consumers’ attitudes toward media and their exposure to various types of media vary widely across countries (e.g., Zhang, et al. 2006). This research explores if there are any differences in the influence of media on important aspects of consumer behavior across different cultures. Based on the consumer socialization literature this research hypothesizes a significant relationship between mass media usage and cognitive age, fashion innovativeness, and materialism across three culturally diverse countries: India, Korea and the United States.

Teaching Environmental Scanning: An Experimental Approach

Secondary data analysis in marketing tends to be mainly concerned with literature reviews. The author suggests a teaching approach, using class exercises, which stresses secondary data analysis to conduct environmental scanning. This type of scanning is to help determine marketing opportunities and threats as the first step in the strategic marketing planning process.

Social religiosity: concept and measurement across divergent cultures

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale to measure social religiosity (SR) and assess its measurement invariance across different cultures. Design/methodology/approach – The research relied on samples from China (n=486), India (n=377), Japan (n=362), Korea (n=386), and the USA (n=580). The invariance process involved carrying out a series of confirmatory factor analyses with progressively more restrictive constraints. Findings – Results show the SR scale to be reliable and valid across culturally and religiously diverse countries. Implications of the findings are also discussed. Originality/value – Based on Katz (1988) this is a new scale to measure SR and its measurement invariance is assessed across culturally divergent countries.