Consumer psychology can be defined as the scientific study of the behavior of consumers. A consumer is an individual who uses the products, goods, or services of some organization. As Howell (1976) pointed out, each organization provides some product that is used by some consumers, even though we may not always recognize the products or the consumers as such. For example, it seems fairly obvious that the college students who drink a cola produced by a specific beverage company are the consumers of that beverage product. However, in a sense, we can think of public high school students as the consumers of a state's educational product; voters can be thought of as consumers of a political candidate's leadership and administration product; and, the members of a religious group might be viewed as consumers of a church's spiritual product. Thus, the study of the behavior of consumers involves examination of a wide range of everyday human behavior.

Values function as guides to consumption behavior has an intuitive appeal. When confronted with a choice among alternatives that are sufficiently different, the choice that is most consistent with an individual's values would seem logical. For example, when deciding upon what type of automobile to purchase, one typically must decide among a number of category choices ( sports car vs. sedan, luxury vs. economy), which differ on corresponding attributes ( practical vs. whimsical, expensive vs. inexpensive). These category choices and attribute preferences may logically be driven by value priorities (excitement, fun and enjoyment, social recognition, respect, financial security, family responsibility). On the other hand, choices among brands or substitutes may have little to do with value orientations, especially for low involvement products. In other words, it may be hard to link value systems to choices between brands of soap or chewing gum. Past research tends to support this notion, suggesting that values tend to be more closely linked with choices between product classes and less with brand choice within a category ( Henry, 1976; see Gutman, 1990, Reynolds & Gutman, 1988 for an alternative view.)

The foregoing example suggests that the strength of the value-behavior link may depend on the nature of the behavior. Although relatively little work has addressed the issue, we would like to suggest that the value-behavior link may also depend on the nature of the individual. It makes intuitive sense that some individuals are more aware of their internal dispositions such as motivations, attitudes, and values. Such individuals are prone to introspection, and attend to their inner feelings and states frequently. This tendency should result in these individuals being more confident of their values, and more aware of the links between internal dispositions and behavior.

Trait research has pinpointed one construct in particular that we feel captures this description, and is relevant to values research. The individual differences construct of private self-consciousness (Fenigstein et al., 1975) refers to an individual's tendency to attend to inner aspects of the self, and those high in private self-consciousness (PSC) should be "particularly conscious of their own thoughts, feelings, attitudes, motives and behavioral tendencies" (Carver & Scheier, 1981, p. 46). Given this definition, it is reasonable to think that high PSCs may differ from low PSCs on several values-related dimensions. High PSCs by definition consult their inner states and dispositions more often, and thus should have better and easier access to this internal information. Consequently, we would expect high PSCs to be more confident in reporting personal values and more sure of the role of particular values in their self-schema. . .

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