Shopping can be addictive, but that addiction is really hard to measure before. However, a first-of-its-kind study has just found a way to make it easier to measure a person's shopping addiction.
A research led by Cecilie Schou Andreassen, Doctor of Psychology and Clinical Psychologist Specialist, was able to come up with the Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale (BSAS), which is even used to determine the key traits and factors that lead to having a shopping disorder.
The study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, and as cited by Medical News Today, showed the seven questions that could measure shopping addiction such as "You think about shopping/buying things all the time," "You shop/buy things in order to change your mood," "You shop/buy so much that it negatively affects your daily obligations (e.g., school and work)," "You feel you have to shop/buy more and more to obtain the same satisfaction as before," "You have decided to shop/buy less but have not been able to do so," "You feel bad if you, for some reason, are prevented from shopping/buying things," and "You shop/buy so much that it has impaired your well-being."
According to MNT, if a shopper does "agree" or "completely agree" on at least four items in the questions, it may imply shopping addiction.
In order to create this tool, the researchers developed a 28-item questionnaire wherein four questions were created under seven core criteria which includes "salience," "mood modification," "conflict," "tolerance," "relapse," "withdrawal," and "problems."
The questionnaire, distributed through the online version of five Norway nationwide newspapers, was answered by 23,537 Norwegians of varying gender, occupation, and education.
Upon analyzing the responses, the highest-rated items were retained to come up with the final seven-question scale.
On the other hand, besides creating the BSAS, the researchers were also able to find out the key traits of a person with a shopping disorder.
As reported by MNT, extroversion may lead to the disorder as extroverts tend to use shopping to maintain attractiveness, while those individual afflicted with neuroticism, anxiety, depression and self-consciousness tend to use shopping to lessen the negatively emotional feeling.
The report added that low self-esteem as well as depression and other psychological distress are also factors that might lead a person to have a shopping disorder.
"The current study confirms that excessive shoppers display symptoms seen in drug addiction, alcoholism and other substance addictions. People with problematic shopping behavior experience craving, withdrawal, loss of control and tolerance. The research also provides evidence that younger females are more likely to shop excessively," Dr. Andreassen said via MNT.
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