Suchergebnisse

This study focuses on the acceptability of using money in repayment for three kinds of neighborly help. Questionnaires were distributed to 400 households in four different neighborhoods. Only in the case of the "loan" of food was money found to be an acceptable form of repayment. In most cases, the use of money was rejected because it would break a social convention. There was a strong preference for repaying help by offering the same kind of help in exchange. The data suggested that there are strong patterns of reciprocal helping. Multiple regression analyses showed that the amount of help received was correlated with age, place of previous residence, and the number of people in the immediate area whom the respondent would call by name. Respondents who scored higher on either help received or perceived neighborliness were slightly more willing to offer money in repayment of neighborly help. These results are consistent with the view that there are limits on the use of money in social exchanges.

Economic Psychology extends the study of psychology and, in this case, the investigation of the socialization process in the economic realm. Thirty children, ten each aged 6, 9, and 12, took part in a "play economy" which consisted of four adjoining rooms, representing opportunities to save (one room was a "bank") or temptation to spend, e.g., another room contained a sweet shop with real sweets. Children were given 90 tokens over the period of the game and had to save 70 in order to purchase a desired toy which had been chosen at the outset. This study was designed as an extension of an earlier one which used a more restricted environment (a board game). The results took two forms: (1) a simple analysis of the "success" rates of children in terms of their saving, and (2) the recording of children's own constructions of the play economy and of savings behavior, based on their verbal accounts and explanations. While the results showed a predictable pattern of increased understanding of savings (especially institutional saving) and improved savings "success" rates with increasing age, the information gathered from the accounts showed that younger children developed "rational" strategies which were not necessarily inferior when viewed in a wider social context.

Using evidence from an 18-year British follow-up study this paper examines whether saving during adolescence is linked to saving in adulthood. A contextual development model of saving behavior is tested, examining the interplay between socioeconomic family background, parenting style, economic socialization, adult socioeconomic attainments, and saving behavior in adolescence and adulthood. The findings suggest that saving at age 16 is linked to saving at age 34, and that socialization experiences during adolescence, as well as own social status and income, shape the savers that we become.