Young Consumer Profile in the Context of Postmodernity And Materialism: A Field Study on University Students

The main aim of this research was to examine the Turkish consumer profile through university students in the context of postmodernity and materialism. The sample of the study composed of a total of 342 randomly selected students who had been pursuing a degree at a foundation university in Istanbul in the 2017-2018 academic calendar year. Three-dimensional Postmodern Consumer Scale and three-dimensional Materialism Scale were applied to students. The results of descriptive statistics, showed that students' postmodern consumer behaviors were 'high' for multiphrenic self and decentering subject dimensions and 'medium' for hyperreality dimension. The descriptive statistics of the Materialism Scale, displayed that students’ materialism scores stood at a medium level and that the highest average scores could be calculated for modesty first, and then for centrality and success, and lastly for show-off. Regarding relationships between postmodern consumer behavior levels and materialist behavior levels of the university students, significant positive correlations between multiphrenic self-scores and centralism and show-off scores, between decentering subject scores and centralism and show-off scores, and finally between hyperreality scores and centralism and modesty scores were found