A Typology of Four Qualitatively Different Patterns of Shopping Behavior

A typology is proposed for four qualitatively different patterns of shopping behavior based on the Personality Continuum: normal consumer, neurotic shopper, compulsive buyer, and psychotic spender. Results are evaluated for five instruments designed to measure compulsive shopping behavior. Only the Questionnaire about Buying Behavior Scale (Lejoyeux and Ades 1994) yielded three qualitatively different patterns of shopping behavior representing the normal consumer, neurotic shopper, and compulsive buyer. No psychotic subjects completed the instruments. The remaining instruments divided the subjects into two broad groups -- compulsive and non-compulsive shoppers -- with the neurotic shoppers and psychotic spenders lumped together with the true compulsive buyer.