Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index

In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982.

The measurement of meaning

This article provides a synthesizing overview of the past 20 yr. of consumer research addressing the sociocultural, experiential, symbolic, and ideological aspects of consumption. Our aim is to provide a viable disciplinary brand for this research tradition that we call consumer culture theory (CCT). We propose that CCT has fulfilled recurrent calls for developing a distinctive body of theoretical knowledge about consumption and marketplace behaviors. In developing this argument, we redress three enduring misconceptions about the nature and analytic orientation of CCT. We then assess how CCT has contributed to consumer research by illuminating the cultural dimensions of the consumption cycle and by developing novel theorizations concerning four thematic domains of research interest.

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Consumer Culture Theory (Cct): Twenty Years of Research

This article presents a framework for thinking about the fundamental activities of inference—data analysis and interpretation—by researchers using qualitative data. I contrast these two activities. For analysis I describe seven operations: categorization, abstraction, comparison, dimensionalization, integration, iteration, and refutation. For interpretation I suggest metaphor and other literary devices as models for understanding the meanings of others, identifying patterns in these meanings, and representing how systems of meanings reproduce culture. The purpose of these descriptions is to suggest a vocabulary for and stimulate discussion about how researchers using qualitative analytical techniques arrive at conclusions and make sense of data.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2489688.pdf

Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data in Consumer Research

This article offers a new approach to celebrity endorsement. Previous explanations, especially the source credibility and source attractiveness models are criticized, and an alternative meaning transfer model is proposed. According to this model, celebrities' effectiveness as endorsers stems from the cultural meanings with which they are endowed. The model shows how meanings pass from celebrity to product and from product to consumer. The implications of this model for our understanding of the consumer society are considered. Research avenues suggested by the model are also discussed.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2489512.pdf

Who Is the Celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundations of the Endorsement Process

This research examines differences in consumers’ sympathy and empathy responses to televised drama commercials. The research framework is multidisciplinary, for construct definition from humanities disciplines (aesthetics and philosophy) grounds the empirical testing of sympathy and empathy responses to advertising. Valid and reliable measurement instruments are developed to test relationships between sympathy and empathy as responses to classical and vignette advertising dramas. Results of two experiments indicate that sympathy responses mediate the effect of a drama advertisement’s form on empathy responses, with both sympathy and empathy directly enhancing positive attitudes to an advertisement.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/346251

Sympathy and Empathy: Emotional Responses to Advertising Dramas

This paper uses literary criticism as the basis for stimulus-side analysis of nostalgia in advertising text. It provides a historical context for modern nostalgia by discussing the phenomenon as a fin de siecle or “end of century” cultural effect. It presents a nostalgia taxonomy by distinguishing between two types of nostalgia — historical and personal — that determine advertising elements of plot, setting, characters, and values inherited from literary antecedents. It analyzes each type in commercial communications, using advertisements, periodicals, and direct mail catalogues as examples. Personal and historical nostalgia advertisements are linked to consumer effects of, respectively, empathy and idealization of the self. Eight propositions are developed for additional research in three areas: content analysis, different gender responses, and effects on consumer values.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/4188854

Historical and Personal Nostalgia in Advertising Text: The Fin de siècle Effect

This study examines the influence of product placements in television serial comedies on consumer attitudes toward the products. Proposing a "Balance Model of Sitcom Product Placement Effects," the study integrates genre theory to analyze character-product associations in sitcoms, parasocial theory to consider consumer-character referential relations, and balance theory to address the main research issue of the way that characters' relations to placed products and consumers' relations to the characters affect consumers' attitudes to the products. The model is based on balance theory, in which attitude alignment is the explanation for links between a triad composed of the consumer, the sitcom character, and the placed product. The influence of two consumer-character variables (attitude and parasocial attachment) and two character- product variables (valence and strength of association) are tested in a real-world situation. The methodology uses real televised sitcoms as stimuli, real viewers as respondents,...

CONSUMERS, CHARACTERS, AND PRODUCTS: A Balance Model of Sitcom Product Placement Effects

Asian-Americans are a growth market. Their affluence, high education, and work ethic position them as a “model minority.” However complimentary that term may seem, it nonetheless represents a stereotype whose prevalence must be documented to examine the intersection of minority status and gender in mass media portrayals. The authors report a content analysis of more than 1300 prime time television advertisements conducted to assess the frequency and nature of Asian-American representation. They found that Asian male and female models are overrepresented in terms of proportion of the population (3.6%), appearing in 8.4% of the commercials. However, Asian models are more likely than members of other minority groups to appear in background roles, and Asian women are rarely depicted in major roles. Further, the findings indicate that portrayals of Asian-Americans put so much emphasis on the work ethic that other aspects of life seldom appear. For example, Asian models are overrepresented in business ...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/4189033.pdf

Asian-Americans: Television Advertising and the “Model Minority” Stereotype

This article proposes literary criticism as a source of insight into consumer behavior, presents a broad overview of literary criticism, provides a specific illustrative analysis, and offers suggestions for further research Literary analysis of advertising text reveals elements that provide additional information to consumer researchers, and contributions of literary criticism to consumer research are discussed Major postwar critical schools are reviewed, and relevant theoretical concepts summarized An ad for Ivory Flakes is analyzed using a variety of concepts drawn from literary schools, primarily sociocultural and reader-response ones Suggestions for additional research on content analysis, image analysis, and the history of consumption are made

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/2489513

Barbara B. Stern

Papers

Sympathy and Empathy: Emotional Responses to Advertising Dramas

Historical and Personal Nostalgia in Advertising Text: The Fin de siècle Effect

CONSUMERS, CHARACTERS, AND PRODUCTS: A Balance Model of Sitcom Product Placement Effects

Asian-Americans: Television Advertising and the “Model Minority” Stereotype

Literary Criticism and Consumer Research: Overview and Illustrative Analysis