1.

Comment on the applicability of this paper, considering that almost two decades have
been over after its publication. Justify your position with appropriate examples and
recent research papers published in journals mentioned in your handout.

o McAdams suggested a three-tiered framework involving three different but overlapping levels
namely, personality traits, personal concerns, and life stories

The first level, personality traits, speaks of temporary and situational personal characteristics.
It suggested the five-factor taxonomy or THE BIG FIVE taxonomy of personality traits. It says
that five dimensions are necessary and sufficient to represent human personality in terms of
traits. The five dimensions are:
o Extraversion
o Agreeableness
o Conscientiousness
o Neuroticism
o Openness to experience

The second level, personal concerns, speaks of peoples’ goal and how they achieve these goals.
It is further defined in terms of personal action, personal projects and life tasks.

The third level, life stories, speaks of peoples’ narratives derived from their remembered past,
experienced present, and anticipated future into a coherent providing meaning and purpose to
their lives.

Although, almost decades have passed since its publication, I believe, that the given research
paper is still applicable while studying modern day consumer behaviour. According to a recent
article, published in June 2019, “In Brands We Trust? A Multicategory, Multi-country
Investigation of Sensitivity of Consumers’ Trust in Brands to Marketing-Mix Activities”, these
personality traits or The Big Five can be used to link different processing styles of the
consumers. It says, people have different thinking styles or habitual tendencies that they use to
approach different problems in similar ways. Furthermore, these traits are used to examine the
variation in the sensitivity of Consumer Trust in Brand (CTB) to the marketing-mix activities
for consumer profiling.

Developing a buyer’s journey and analysing where a particular customer is at, in his/her
buyer’s journey is one of the major parts of studying consumer behaviour in recent times. This
buyer journey comprises of elements from both the second and the third level including
understanding consumers’ goals, their life tasks, and journeys.

Therefore, I believe that the paper still finds its relevance and applicability in recent day
consumer behaviour study.