E-Book Overview
A number of books on economic psychology have appeared in the past few years. The most recent publications are by MacFadyen and Mac Fadyen (1986), Furnham and Lewis (1986), Lea et al. (1987) and Van Raaij et al. (1988). Why produce yet another book for this discipline? This question can be answered in various ways. In a sense, this book is the answer in itself. Its presentation of re search and theories is innovative in this field, at least to my knowledge. It attempts to structure the many theories emerging in the interdisci plinary science of economic psychology and to explain the background of the research. The second answer is pragmatic. In our introductory course of eco nomic psychology for economics students at Erasmus University Rot terdam we used several of the above mentioned books. Our experience with this material is that, when preparing our lectures, we had to ex plain many additional theories and experiments to our students. fur thermore, diagrams, figures and examples had to be culled from other sources or made by ourselves. It is not my intention to run down these publications since I think they provide an excellent treatment of a num ber of topics by specialists in economic psychology. The plan for the present book, however, emerged from our need to present an integrated introductory course for our students.
E-Book Content
PSYCHOLOGY IN ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS Psychology in Economics and Business An Introduction to Economic Psychology GERRIT ANTONIDES With an introduction by W. Fred van Raaij SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Antonldes. Gerrlt. 1951Psychology In econo.lcs and buslness : an Introductlon to economIc psychology I Gerrlt Antonldes ; wlth an Introductlon by W. Fred van Raalj. p. cm. Includes Index. ISBN 978-94-015-7903-2 ISBN 978-94-015-7901-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-7901-8 I. Tltle. 1. Economlcs--Psychologlcal aspects. HB74.P8A64 1991 330' . 01 •9--dc20 91-31223 ISBN 978-94-015-7903-2 Cover picture has been adapted from F. J. Gall and G. S. Spurzheim (1810) in D. Krech et al.: Elements of Psychology. Copyright (c) 1982 by Alfred A. Knopf. Reproduced by permission of McGraw-Hill, Inc. The idea expressed in the cover pic ture is that different kinds of behavior are controlled by separate parts of the brain. This hypothesis in phrenology is not assumed here but we assume that mental processes are involved in economic and social behaviour as considered in this book. Printed on acid-free paper AII Rights Reserved © 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1991 Softcover reprint of the hardcover Ist edition 1991 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. CONTENTS PREFACE 1. INTRODUCTION (by W. Fred van Raaij) ix 1 PART I AN ECONOMIC PSYCHOLOGICAL PARADIGM 2. 3. 4. ECONOMICS AND PSYCHOLOGY 2.1. Shared interests of economics and psychology 2.2. Economic actions in everyday life 2.3. Relevance of psychology for economics 2.4. Economic psychological models of behavior Box 2.1. Mental economics 11 12 15 21 MOTIVATION AND PERSONALITY 3.1. The function of motivation and personality in economic behavior 3.2. Need for achievement 3.3. Locus of control 3.4. Sensation seeking and risk attitude 3.5. Altruism 3.6. Time preference 3.7. Cognitive style 3.8. Life-style Box 3.1. Lee Iacocca 25 27 32 34 38 41 45 47 50 PERCEPTION 4.1. Psychophysics 4.2. Perceptual