People living in the contemporary world have to cope with various issues, and they often choose different ways that can sometimes be rather destructive. Compulsive buying disorder is often an issue of women trying to cope with depression, but this psychological state is not the only reason for the development of the disorder (Müller et al., 2014). The purpose of this study is to explore the perspectives of women in their late 30s who suffer from compulsive buying disorders.
Women will be encouraged to share their views on possible causes and effects of the disorder as well as the peculiarities of their psychological state and personality. The research question of this study is as follows: How do women in their late 30s view their compulsive buying disorder, its causes and effects on their family life, career, personality, and so on?
To address the research question, it is possible to utilize descriptive qualitative design. The case study design is chosen for this research. This research design enables the researcher to explore an issue and employ a variety of tools to gain an in-depth understanding of the issue (Creswell, 2012). Convenience sampling is the sample type chosen to address the goals of this study. Women will be recruited through social networks to participate in the research.
Coding is the most appropriate data analysis strategy, and, hence, the most recurrent themes will be identified to explore the way women see their compulsive buying disorder, its effects, and causes. The major threats to internal validity are associated with data interpretation bias. Coding checks, triangulation, and detailed descriptions can be used to decrease the validity threats.
It has been acknowledged that women are more likely to be affected by compulsive buying disorder (Granero et al., 2016). Müller et al. (2014) note that the disorder often becomes a result of depressive symptoms. At that, there are other reasons for the development of the disorder, including personality traits (Shahjehan, Qureshi, Zeb & Saifullah, 2012). Women in their late 30s are of particular interest as they often have a career and/or family, enough funds to spend, and various issues to address. This population can provide helpful insights into the nature of the disorder.
The participants will be recruited through social networks. Online semi-structured interviews will be held with those who will volunteer to participate. The data will be stored on the researcher’s computer, and the confidential data will not be provided to any third parties. The participants will receive code names, and the transcripts sent to peers for code check will have the code names. The participants will sign the written consent forms.
A pilot interview with two participants will be held to refine the guided questions as well as other questions of the interview. Online semi-structured interviews will be carried out. To increase the validity of the study, the participants’ posts (textual and visual) available from their social networks accounts (posted up to 6 months ago) will also be analyzed and encoded. QDA Miner Lite will be used to check the relevance of the themes identified.
The research question of this study can be formulated as follows: How do women in their late 30s view their compulsive buying disorder, its causes and effects?
The data will be analyzed manually. The most recurrent themes in the participants’ accounts will be identified. The data analysis software will be used to check the validity of chosen themes. Code checking will be implemented by peers to increase the validity of the study. The themes will also be identified when analyzing posts of the participants. The themes tracked in interviews and posts will be compared.
It is expected that personality affects the development of the disorder in women and that single women are more prone to the disorder and see it as a way to fill in their inner voids. To address the researcher biases, the researcher will try to avoid limiting the participants’ answers in any way and will provide complete freedom to discuss any topics.
References
Creswell, J. (2012). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Granero, R., Fernández-Aranda, F., Mestre-Bach, G., Steward, T., Baño, M., & Del Pino-Gutiérrez, A…Jiménez-Murcia, S. (2016). Compulsive buying behavior: Clinical comparison with other behavioral addictions. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. Web.
Müller, A., Claes, L., Georgiadou, E., Möllenkamp, M., Voth, E.M., & Faber, R.J… De Zwaan, M. (2014). Is compulsive buying related to materialism, depression or temperament? Findings from a sample of treatment-seeking patients with CB. Psychiatry Research, 216(1), 103-107.
Shahjehan, A., Qureshi, J.A., Zeb, F., & Saifullah, K. (2012). The effect of personality on impulsive and compulsive buying behaviors. African Journal of Business Management, 6(6), 2187-2194.