Research report on student consumerism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Research report on student consumerism - Essay Example However, only three questionnaires were returned and, consequently, considered within the research analysis. Thus, the sample is represented by three female full-time students, who live in the university dorm, are of the same age, but study different majors. The questionnaire they filled in included questions that would provide an insight to why they prefer some types of food over other and how their preferences have changed since their coming to the university. Literature Review Basis for the present research was derived from the analysis of available literature and research on consumer behavior in terms of consumers’ habits, preferences, and approaches to eating and food shopping. The major literature that advised present research included researches that had been conducted primarily among university students in Canada (Eichler, 1988) that studied factors influencing person’s food choices, difference in approaches to student diet, etc. Thus, according to Silverman (19 97) there is a â€Å"Weight Gain Attributed to University Life† phenomenon known as the â€Å"freshman 15.† It is a popular belief that university students gain an average of fifteen pounds during their first year of university (Mason, 2002). Although it is partly a myth, studies show evidence that the majority of students entering university do in fact gain a significant amount of body mass during their first year of university attendance, which is associated with the accumulation of body fat (Blaxter, Hughes, Tight, 2006) A research by Hammersley (1993) looks at the factors influencing a person’s food choices, which are numerous and the relationships between those factors are seemingly complex (Wolcott, 1990). There is a high level of variance between the factors identified and described by researchers; the number and specificity of these factors vary, depending on the scope of the study. (Yates, 2004) Researchers of Healthy University of Toronto limited their study of food security on the St. George campus to five main factors: time, location, cost, variety, and nutrition (Wolcott, 1990). In another study, Holliday (2007) described factors as four stimulus properties of foods: Budget-friendly, Energizing, Sensory satisfaction, and Time; this is known as ‘BEST’ (Holliday, 2007). In contrast, a qualitative study conducted by Ribbens and Edwards (1998) to assess adolescents’ perceptions of factors influencing their food choices uncovered numerous situation-specific factors; media, peer influence, body image, mood, food cravings, and vegetarian beliefs are just some examples (Ribbens, Edwards, 1998) Method In this research Interview method has been used to collect data from our target respondents. We used direct interview method to get the answers. Major reason to use this method is the Open ended nature of Questions which have been asked to the Interviewees but at the same time it was not completely an un-structured typ e of interview because we have used the list of questions to get the desired results for our research topic so one can say that this was the semi-structure type of interview. There is certain benefit for using this approach like, In this way respondents can easily express their feelings more easily and Convenient and in result of this approach the non-biased information can be easily collect to some extent. (Taylor, 2002) The selected sample students are hostelries therefore there are chances