Coping strategies and embarrassment moderated by
gender
MASTER THESIS June 2019 University of GroningenFaculty of Economics and Business
Master Marketing Management
Ijsselstraat 25B, 9725 GA Groningen, The Netherlands
+ 31 (0)6 31 77 86 94
e.thiescheffer.1@student.rug.nl
PREFACE
This master thesis explores, ‘coping strategies and embarrassment moderated by gender, in a public setting.’ This thesis was written between February and June 2019, and resembles my graduation project for the master Marketing Management for the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. I would like to thank my supervisor Martijn Keizer for always listening to and trying to understand my sometimes chaotic ideas. I would also like to thank my family and friends for supporting me throughout these last couple of busy months. Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who filled out my survey, helping me complete my thesis.
I hope you find it an interesting research to read!
ABSTRACT
This research examined the effect of different coping strategies on embarrassment, influenced through gender in a public setting. In a single study, the concept of “embarrassment” was explored. This is an emotion to which, as previous literature proposed, individuals can react differently to in various retail purchase settings. This study depicts insights into the hypotheses regarding the relation between possible coping strategies Millennials use to react to a particular embarrassing situation, with a sample of 206 respondents. Namely, whether or not to enter a sex boutique when an acquaintance is located near its entrance. Through a regression analysis, the extent to which individuals would use various coping strategies and the impact of these strategies, through gender, on embarrassment were tested. The results of the interaction effects between gender and coping strategies appeared largely insignificant; however, from the five tested hypotheses, two turned out to be significant. These included the direct effect of planful problem-solving on embarrassment and gender on embarrassment. Through an experimental design, this research indicates that the relationship between coping strategies and embarrassment is stronger for females than males, but males score higher on coping strategies without embarrassment taken into account. Planful problem-solving and confrontive coping were among the two most prominent and significant coping strategies for this research. The implications of the findings related to theory, and future research topics, are explained in the discussion of this paper.
Coping strategies and embarrassment moderated by gender 1 PREFACE 2 ABSTRACT 3 INTRODUCTION 6 1.1 Theoretical relevance 7 1.2 Social relevance 8 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 9 2.1 Embarrassment 9 2.2 Coping strategies 11 3. METHODOLOGY 20 3.1. Sample 20 3.2. Design 20 3.3. Procedure 21 3.4. Measurements 22
3.4.2 Scale coping strategies 24
3.5. Analysis plan 25
4. RESULTS 26
4.1 Descriptive analysis 26
4.2 Coping strategies and embarrassment 27
4.3 Pearson correlation, normality and multicollinearity 28
4.4 Regression analysis 30
4.4.1.1 The sample should be based on independent observations 30 4.4.1.2 There is a linear relationship between the dependent and the independent variable 30
4.4.1.3 The residuals are normally distributed. 30
5. DISCUSSION 37
5.3.1 Did anything go wrong? 41
5.3.2 Hindsight 42
6. WORKS CITED 45
7. APPENDIX 50
Appendix 1 - Examples of coping strategies 51
Appendix 2 - Pre-Test 52
Appendix 3 - Items from the WCQ 54
Appendix 5 - Measurements: Gender scale 64
Appendix 6 - Measurements: Regression variables 64
Appendix 7 - Descriptive analysis: Covariates 65
Appendix 8 - Descriptives of covariates in histograms 66
Appendix 9 - Descriptive analysis: Nationality 67
Appendix 10 - Cronbach’s Alpha 68
Appendix 11 - Distributions inter-correlated factors 69
Appendix 12 - Correlation analysis 70
Appendix 13 - VIF scores 70
Appendix 14 - Normality statistics 71
Appendix 15 - Descriptives covariates distributions 71
Appendix 16 - Residual statistics regression analysis 73
1. INTRODUCTION
Imagine, you decide to want to purchase a sex related product. You make the decision to go to a sex boutique in order to get some additional information and explore the different products they have. You walk along the shopping street in your neighborhood to the local sex boutique. When you get close to the store, you spot an acquaintance near the entrance of the sex boutique. What would you do?
What others think about us can drive embarrassment, implying embarrassment is a familiar emotion to many (Edelmann, 1981), occurring rather often (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988). So when others, real or imagined, are present, it may cause one to feel evaluated, possibly provoking embarrassment (Dahl, Manchanda, Argo, 2001). Likewise, a breach of social norms or rules may cause one to lose their self-esteem and feel a loss of self-presentation for a brief moment in the presence of others (Edelmann, 1981), also triggering embarrassment. Previous research indicates, embarrassment can be defined as feeling exposed, inadequate and awkwardly self-consciousness (Modigliani, 1968). The emotion can appear in numerous situations. Examples include: introductions to new audiences, being under-dressed at an event, or greeting a person who you thought was an acquaintance, but turned out to be a stranger (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988). When embarrassment then occurs, it may result in distressing symptoms like for example: blushing, sweating, or fumbling, and can reflect a threat to an individual’s private or public image (Modigliani, 1968).
Occasionally situations arise publicly, generating concerns that would not have caused embarrassment when an individual would be by themselves (Miller, 1996). Retail purchase settings serve as an example of such public situations. This leads to a list of products, constructed by Nichols, Raska and Flint (2015), that supposedly in a retail purchase setting, are considered embarrassing purchases. Five of these items are related to sexual purchases, the recurring theme in this research: romance novels, massage oil, adult magazines, personal lubrication and condoms (Nichols et al., 2015).
go on with the planned activity, or even hide the fact that something embarrassing happened at all. These examples are typically referred to as coping strategies. Coping is thus one of the primary responses to handling emotions (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988). Historically, coping primarily arose in life-threatening situations and related to the need to survive (e.g. Miller, 1980: Ursin, 1980). These situations include various emotions to which individuals can react, like: fear, evoking the behavior possibly triggering the coping strategies avoidance or escape. Anger on the other hand triggers a response of confrontation or attack. Coping with different emotions in various situations include different cognitive processes to reduce and/or manage a particular situation or (negative) emotional state, for example: “denial, repression, suppression, and intellectualization, as well as problem-solving behaviors” (Vaillant, 1977).
The problem statement of this research can thus be described through the following research objective: to investigate the effect of various coping strategies on embarrassment, influenced by gender in a public setting. The public setting entails physically entering a store, in this case a sex boutique, where other consumers, real or imagined, may be present. This will be investigated through exploring the following research question:
How do different coping strategies affect embarrassment, and how does gender influence this effect in a public setting?
The report begins with the theoretical framework regarding embarrassment, coping strategies, gender and purchase setting. Next comes a depiction of the conceptual model. This is followed with the methodology, and an explanation of the results. The report ends with a discussion of the results, a conclusion, limitations and recommendations.
1.1 Theoretical relevance
boutiques, which is why this will further be analyzed in this research. How consumers then deal with embarrassment such certain situations is still relatively unknown, so this research contributes to the extent to which consumers use certain coping strategies in a public retail purchase setting, namely entering a sex boutique, and the impact embarrassment has on this.
1.2 Social relevance
2.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter includes a theoretical overview in the form of a literary review, including the hypotheses constructed for the research and the conceptual model. The literary review includes definitions and concepts revolving around the problem statement.
2.1 Embarrassment
One of the first studies completed about embarrassment by Goffman (1956), explored the emotion embarrassment, where it appears no social situation exists that cannot turn out embarrassing for an individual. To build on the definition stated in the introduction, Goffman (1956) defines embarrassment as loss of dignity and disability to part take in an encounter due to undesirable events arising, representing breakdowns in the social encounters (Dahl et al., 2001). Furthermore, embarrassment according to Edelmann (1985), is considered a social emotion, that arises resulting from the violation of public social expectations, evaluated by others (“public embarrassment”). It is important to note that embarrassment is not synonymous to emotions like: shyness, anxiety, and shame (Edelmann, 1985). The moment of experienced embarrassment may be accompanied by various distressing symptoms, like: fumbling, stuttering, blushing, sweating, blinking, or even experiencing absent mindedness (Goffman, 1956). These symptoms may occur as a result of an individual’s awareness of their failure in acting in accordance with the norm in a social interaction, which could lead to others believing the individual lacks collectively valued attributes (Modigliani, 1968).
humans possess an exceptional social nature where individuals are extremely motivated to uphold positive impressions towards those whom they may even only encounter once (Blair & Roese, 2013). Relating to this, individuals may thus grab any opportunity to impress with choreographed behavior (Blair & Roese, 2013). In order to spare themselves of discomfort, consumers tend to avoid embarrassing situations (Miller, 2007) and thus embarrassing purchases (Bell, 2009; Moore, Dahl, Gorn and Weinberg, 2006). The experienced embarrassment may therefore pose a threat to an individual’s so called presented self; their public image (Modigliani, 1968).
Generally speaking, people dislike embarrassing situations that convey an undesired public identity (Parrott & Smith, 1991). Even the mildest forms of embarrassment can cause consumer behavior to change in order to avoid a negative public identity, even when this reduces one’s happiness (Ariely & Levav, 2000; Ratner & Kahn, 2002; White & Dahl, 2006). The term ‘public identity’ can be defined as characteristics displayed to others in a particular situation (Reysen, Landau & Branscombe, 2012; Sherwood, 1965; Tetlock & Manstead, 1985). Based on this Leary, Britt, Cutlip and Templeton (1992) stated the most common things that threaten public identity, but not an individual’s private identity revolving around, “public violation of norms, incompetence, out-of-role behaviors, and other shameful and embarrassing situations” (Leary et al., 1992).
So, when someone then desires to purchase a product in a public setting that contradicts with the consumer’s aspired public identity, it can trigger embarrassment (Dahl et al., 2001). Furthermore, the level of embarrassment experienced can increase in social contexts with more people around. So, when an individual then finds themselves in an embarrassing situation with many people around, it may sooner trigger an undesired public identity. For this reason, the research takes place in the public purchase setting. The public purchase setting relates to purchases made in a social context (Dahl, Darke, Gorn & Weinberg, 2005; Dahl et al., 2001). With this theory in mind, consumers appear to avoid publicly purchasing products with an undesired identity (Berger & Ward, 2010; White & Dahl, 2007).
These findings suggest that when a consumer purchases a so called embarrassing or intimate product, others would judge them negatively (Dahl et al., 2001). The findings furthermore suggest, embarrassment is thus more likely to occur when publicly purchasing intimate products (Dahl et al., 2001; Grace, 2009). This leads to possibly embarrassed customers desiring to acquire an intimate or undesirable product, probably deciding not to do so anymore, even though it might be beneficial for them to get it (Lau-Gesk & Drolet, 2008).
Embarrassment can hence be described as a negative emotion triggered when individuals worry about violating their social-image in social situations. So whilst experiencing negative emotions including stress and embarrassment, individuals may use coping strategies to reduce and/or discard the emotion (Carver, Scheier & Weintraub, 1989; Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, DeLongis & Gruen, 1986). Therefore, it is important to realize different ways to respond to embarrassment exist. According to Miller (1996), there are two ways in which individuals typically respond to an embarrassing situation: to avoid the scrutiny or change one’s behavior, in order to preserve their public image. This suggests a relation between the emotion embarrassment and the way in which an individual reacts when finding themselves in possibly uncomfortable situations. Previous research has primarily focused on how emotions intrude with cognitive functioning and therefore coping in humans (e.g., Crohne & Laux, 1982: Schwarzer, 1984: Spielberger, 1966, 1972; van der Ploeg, Schwarzer & Spielberger, 1984).
2.2 Coping strategies
reduce or handle negative emotions like anxiety, embarrassment or stress, problem-solving behavior may also be triggered (Menninger, 1963; Vaillani, 1977).
To elaborate, according to Folkman and Lazarus (1980, 1985, 1988) two types of coping exist: emotion-focused and problem-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping revolves around regulating distressing emotions, and the latter around changing the situation of the emotion causing the distress (Folkman & Lazarus, 1985). Thus, according to the emotion experienced in a situation, in this case embarrassment, per individual it depends whether the coping strategy turns out more emotion-focused or problem-focused (Moore et al., 2006).
Another key point to regard, is that people are likely to evaluate stress, like embarrassment, in two phases: through primary and secondary appraisal (Folkman et al., 1986). Here, primary appraisal is referred to as analyzing whether or not an event poses a threat. Secondary appraisal on the other hand, refers to the judgement for handling a stressful situation, and what others may think of the individual experiencing the situation (Folkman et al., 1986). In such a manner, when individuals consider a situation posing as a threat, primary appraisal, secondary appraisal begins, in order to figure out how an individual should cope. It can thus be said that, the use of coping strategies can arise in secondary appraisal phase, where different strategies might be preferred in various situations. This because, each holds potential to reduce or eliminate embarrassment in its own way. To elaborate on this, when a situation is susceptible to change, problem-focused coping strategies are resorted to, whereas when this is not the case, emotion-focused strategies are most likely resorted to (Stein, Leventhal & Trabasso, 1990). To add to this, two mechanisms of interference are then emphasized. These include a motivational one, redirecting attention to a more pressing situation (Easterbrook, l959; Schönpflug, 1983), and a cognitive one, eliminating anxiety-related thoughts that are irrelevant to performance (e.g., Alpert & Haber, 1960).
and problem-focused, where the aim of both is to reduce and/or even eliminate a stressful situation (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980). To further clarify, the emotion-focused strategy focuses on “emotional disengagement, denial, learning to live with a situation, or seeking help from including emotional disengagement, denial, learning to live with a situation, or seeking help from a higher power” (Arndt & Turedi, 2017). On the other hand, “problem-solving coping tactics involve plans and activities for resolving stress. If a person cannot cope, he or she will seek to escape or avoid the situation” (Arndt & Turedi, 2017).
To put it another way, problem-focused coping strategies help reduce the source of the negative emotion directly and emphasizes on changing the person or the environment (i.e. going to a store outside town). Emotion-focused coping strategies can influence how one feels about the negative emotion and emphasizes managing distressing emotions by changing the interpretation of the situation (i.e. not having to be embarrassed because others do it too). Both types of strategies can be used in a situation, but one also suffices (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980 & 1988a). But, when an individual fails to cope, they will most likely try to escape or even avoid the situation all together (Arndt & Turedi, 2017).
TABLE I Coping strategies
Coping strategy Explanation
Planful problem-solving Full attention to the problem, to come up with a plan of action, which “can affect emotional response in two ways: plans of action ultimately changing emotional response, or direct affect on cognitive appraisal” (Stein et al., 1990).
Confrontive coping Because it is more aggressive and can be slightly hostile, it is more prone to trigger negative emotions in the confronted person. This can lead to a decrease in the person-environment relationship (Stein et al., 1990).
Positive reappraisal This can generate positive emotional responses, whilst lessening the negative ones through selective attention. Often individuals try to find positive meaning in harm already done, after which emotions like pride and satisfaction can arise (Stein et al., 1990).
Distancing This can help get individuals through highly stressful situations and facilitate its problem solving. Here individuals often try to detach themselves. Also, “a person acknowledges the troubling problem but doesn’t want to deal with its emotional significance” (Stein et al., 1990).
Table 1: Description of different coping strategies
To further clarify, concerning the four resulting coping strategies related to emotions, like embarrassment, the conclusions from Folkman and Lazarus (1988) are as follows: emotion-states seem to improve with the planful problem-solving, meaning people would feel better when facing the problem causing distress. On the contrary, emotion-states are sometimes reduced with confrontive coping; however, this depends on the given situation. A previous study completed by Folkman and Lazarus (1986) depicted that with people suffering from depressive symptoms, confrontive coping strategies appeared more prominent. Positive reappraisal appeared to have a positive impact on emotion states, where distancing seemed more difficult to achieve and too was sometimes associated with negative emotions (Folkman and Lazarus, 1988a). The results may differ for this research, as it solely concerns embarrassment in a specific situation.
research completed by Nichols et al. (2015) a relatively unresearched possibly embarrassing situation was constructed. It involves physically entering a sex boutique, whilst an acquaintance is located near its entrance. This may have negative connotations as tested with the pre-test, causing an individual to feel embarrassed with a perceived disapproving audience like friends, but also strangers, thus increasing their undesired public identity.
This leads to the following four hypotheses (positive refers to a worsened emotion-state): H1: The planful problem-solving coping strategy has a negative influence on embarrassment.
An improved emotion-state resulted from the coping strategy planful problem-solving, evident from the research completed by Folkman and Lazarus (1988). This may be caused by individuals facing feelings of distress head on. This can also be explained through an improved person-environment relationship, which can cause a more positive emotional response. This resulted from previous research studies. An example revolves around being fired and starting to look for a new job, in this case the problem may not be solved immediately, but something is being done about it. (Folkman & Lazarus et al., 1986). But, it is possible for planful problem-solving to work both ways.
H2: The positive reappraisal coping strategy has a negative influence on embarrassment. Amongst “young people,” positive reappraisal resulted in improved emotion-states. However, according to previous research, with older participants, it had the opposite effect. Nevertheless, positive reappraisal can be a little difficult to keep up, so distancing can help in taking the distress away cognitively (Katz, Weiner, Gallagher, & Hellman, 1970).
H3: The confrontive coping coping strategy has a negative influence on embarrassment.
H4: The distancing coping strategy has a negative influence on embarrassment.
Distancing is a coping strategy mostly resorted to when the other coping strategies do not workout. In some of the previous research completed, it contributed to a worsened emotion-state. An example revolves around a breast biopsy and a woman who thinks she may have breast cancer because she heard about someone getting that in the previous year. “To the extent that distancing cannot be sustained, not only might it fail to diminish distress, but when it diverts attention from needed problem-solving it could even lead to increases in distress, as when an individual uses distancing to avoid thinking about (and therefore seeking medical attention for) a symptom” (Katz, Weiner, Gallagher & Hellman, 1970). Distancing can be very difficult to achieve, but as previously indicated is capable of helping reduce negative emotions as well.
2.3 Gender influencing coping strategies in a public purchase setting
It can furthermore be stated that men and women make use of different coping strategies when experiencing an embarrassing situation. Previous research for example concludes that women prefer masking an embarrassing product acquisition, whereas men prefer social-emotional support tactics (Arndt & Turedi, 2017). When considering the purchase of condoms, it appears that several factors influence embarrassment related to this purchase setting, including: knowledge of condoms, different sexual activity, previous purchases, and gender (Vail-Smith, Durham & Howard, 1992). The embarrassment surrounding these sex related purchases is additionally felt more strongly by women (Miller, 1992). However, with experience and education embarrassment may diminish (Kelly, 1996). Then again, it is not proven that gender alone is responsible resorting to different coping strategies, this is also related to the stressful encounter experienced by men and women at hand (Vitaliano et al., 1985).
This leads to the following hypothesis:
H5: Gender effects the different coping strategies chosen in a public purchase setting against embarrassment positively.
2.4 Purchase setting
What is essential for embarrassment to arise, is that an individual must care for what a social audience thinks of them (Schlenker & Leary, 1982). Furthermore, according to psychologists, people do not necessarily need to physically be present in order for the consumer to experience embarrassment. The consumer merely needs to envision someone is watching and possibly judging them (Edelmann, 1981; Miller, 1996). Nevertheless, imagined social presence does not have the same grave effect as actual social presence in a purchase (Dahl et al., 2001).
2.5 Conceptual model
The conceptual model used as a basis for this research is depicted in figure one. Figure two shows the detailed model including the independent variables, the four different coping strategies: planful problem-solving, positive reappraisal, confrontive coping and distancing. Additionally it shows the dependent variable, embarrassment, and the moderator, gender. The model is constructed through the research conducted for the literary review.
Figure 2: Detailed conceptual model.
Five hypotheses emerge from the detailed conceptual model. These are as follows: H1: The planful problem-solving coping strategy has a negative influence on embarrassment. H2: The positive reappraisal coping strategy has a negative influence on embarrassment. H3: The confrontive coping coping strategy has a positive influence on embarrassment. H4: The distancing coping strategy has a positive influence on embarrassment.
3. METHODOLOGY
This chapter outlines the sample for the survey, the design and procedure completed, and an outline of the survey used. Additionally, the measurements are explained as well as an outline of the analysis plan.
3.1. Sample
In order to obtain relevant results, the sample size can be justified as per investigated item, 25 respondents should represent the results. As this was a 4x2 design, the sample thus required a minimum of 200 respondents, with an equal as possible male to female ratio. The sample was obtained through the random selection.
Birth year represented the covariate, control variable, for the sample. This research, as mentioned, solely focused on Millennials (born between: 1980-2000). Additionally, other covariates included the following demographics: educational level and nationality. These variables were included as they may have had an indirect effect on the research problem statement.
3.2. Design
As mentioned, this research had 4x2 levels, and was a mixed design, in which all participants evaluated all four included coping strategies. Furthermore, it represented a causal research design, meaning it was conclusive and a cause-and-effect relationship was determined. The design revolved around quantitative data and was tested through a statistical (factorial) design (testing more than one independent variable). For this research, the four different coping strategies represented four separate independent variables. The concept of embarrassment represented the dependent variable. The moderator for this research was gender (male vs. female).
dependent variable and the interaction effect between the independent variables and the dependent variable.
An experiment was conducted in the form of a survey, in order to examine the predicted consumer behaviors as stated in the hypotheses mentioned in the introduction. Here, purchase setting was a variable held constant. The research regarded a public setting, in this case referring to whether or not a person was willing to physically enter a sex store, when an acquaintance was located near its entrance.
3.3. Procedure
In order to depict the most suitable “public embarrassing situation,” a pre-test was conducted among 21 respondents. Using the list of products classified as embarrassing to purchase, by Nichols et al. (2015), and the act of entering a sex boutique publicly, the selection for the pre-test was made (appendix 2). Each statement had to be rated on a 7-point likert scale (extremely unembarrassed to extremely embarrassed). The results from the pre-test completed by 21 Millennials, depticted both the purchase of adult magazines and publicly entering a sex boutique as two of the most embarrassing actions to part take in. The pre-test was completed in order to confirm that publicly entering a sex boutique did indeed trigger the emotion of embarrassment amongst individuals.
Because each coping strategy included various statements, in order to avoid the statements intentionally being rated similarly, they were structured in a random order (appendix 3). With regard to embarrassment, there were three statements (about: awkwardness, embarrassment and comfortableness) to rate. The order of the statements was not of importance here. The statements the respondents were asked to rate would eventually lead to findings on whether or not participants experienced the situation as embarrassing, and how they would potentially react if they were in such a situation. The questions asked throughout the survey, represented existing scales, further explained in the measurements section. At the end of the experiment, the participants were thanked and (optionally) asked for their email address in case they wished to receive the results of the experiment.
3.4. Measurements
This research included several variables, these variables are depicted in table II. For the independent and dependent variables an existing scale was used in order to test the different hypotheses.
TABLE II Variables Research
Concepts Variable Type
1. Embarrassment Dependent Variable
2. Coping strategies Independent Variable
3. Gender Moderator
Table 2: Variables incorporated in the research.
for themselves. The series of statements reflected the actions the participants could resort to. Examples of these per coping strategy are mentioned in appendix 1.
TABLE III Coping strategies scale
Coping scale 4 point likert scale
1. Planful problem-solving 0,1,2,3,NA (never used-regularly used & NA) 2. Positive reappraisal 0,1,2,3,NA (never used-regularly used & NA) 3. Confrontive coping 0,1,2,3,NA (never used-regularly used & NA) 4. Distancing 0,1,2,3,NA (never used-regularly used & NA)
Table 3: The scale used for coping strategies.
One of the most important aspects of the scenario participants had to pay attention to, was the acquaintance located outside the sex boutique. As already established, the respondents would solely be tested in the public purchase situation with the manipulation, assuming one would feel embarrassed (as shown in the pre-test). The coping strategies were mixed and put in a random order (appendix 2), to prevent participants from influencing the results with the coping strategy they felt reflected their desired selves most. Each participant had to rate all statements for each included coping strategy, as well as the three statements regarding embarrassment. This means that the participants were not “forced” into groups that might not even have been relevant to them.
TABLE IV Embarrassment scale
Embarrassment 7 point likert scale
1. Embarrassment Not embarrassed at all-very embarrassed 2. Uncomfortable Not uncomfortable at all-very uncomfortable
3. Awkward Not awkward at all-very awkward
Table 4: The scale used for embarrassment.
3.4.1 Scale embarrassment
In order to measure embarrassment, the three question scale created by Dahl et al. (2001) was implemented. With this scale, like with Blair and Roese (2013), the participants had to rate the level of embarrassment they would feel in the specified situation on a three-item embarrassment index, adapted from previous research (Dahl et al., 2001; Modigliani, 1968; Parrott & Smith, 1991). The items included the level of: embarrassment, comfortableness and awkwardness.
3.4.2 Scale coping strategies
3.5. Analysis plan
To analyze the data obtained through the survey, a linear regression was conducted. The reason for this being, the data could be considered interval data and four different independent variables were included, with one dependent variable and a moderator. Before conducting the linear regression, several steps had to take place.
First, the data had to be reduced. As an existing scale was used for this survey, a factor analysis was not necessary. For this reason, the data collected for each coping strategy as well as embarrassment, was added back together. Following this, a reliability analysis in the form of a Cronbach’s Alpha was conducted to figure out to which extent items correlated or had to be eliminated.
With this completed, a Pearson correlation analysis could be done in order to see whether or not the variables correlated together, followed by checking out the VIF scores, to test for multicollinearity. Lastly, a linear regression was completed. With the regression analysis results, a conclusion could be drawn on whether or not the proposed hypotheses were significant or not. Additionally, limitations were identified and possible additional future research ideas were generated.
4. RESULTS
4.1 Descriptive analysis
4.1.1 Raw data
Before the descriptive analysis was carried out, the raw dataset was cleaned. The original dataset consisted of 360 respondents, which included the completed surveys and ones that were still in progress. The incomplete responses were eliminated. In total, 139 incomplete responses were eliminated from the sample, as these incomplete responses could not be used in the analyses. The reason for this large number of eliminations, is because the final number of responses included all responses that were still in progress and thus unfinished. Additionally, responses from which the respondent fell outside the age boundary were also eliminated. These totalled 10 respondents. There were 3 preview responses. These were test runs to see if all functioned well, so these too were eliminated. Furthermore, there were 2 participants who did not enter a nationality, so these too were deleted. After the data was cleaned, 206 responses remained for further analysis.
In addition to the eliminated responses, the ‘NA’ (not applicable) responses did not have to be incorporated in the analysis, these were re-coded as ‘missing values,’ so they would not be incorporated in further analyses. The reason for this is because when a respondent checked the ‘NA’ option, it meant it was not relevant to them. If these then remained in the sample, SPSS would assign a weight to them, like with the other items in the ranking of the scale, this should not happen, so the responses were excluded from the sample. Finally, the item ‘awkwardness,’ was re-coded before further analysis was conducted with the dataset, because the likert-scale was coded opposite from ‘embarrassment’ and ‘comfortableness’ (appendix 3).
4.1.2 Frequencies
majority of respondents (29.6%) have a masters degree as highest educational level. The sample consists of 28 nationalities, 150 (72.8%) Dutch, 8 (3.9%) British, and 8 (3.9%) USA.
4.2 Coping strategies and embarrassment
4.2.1 Factor analysis
The items from the survey originate from the WCQ (appendix 3 and 4). As explained in the methodology section, each item belongs to a particular coping strategy, and the items were randomized in the survey to avoid participants from rating each coping strategy similarly knowingly. To reduce the items back to the pre-constructed coping strategies, first, a factor analysis was conducted. Its purpose was to reduce the large quantities of data. This was done through finding a common variance to retrieve underlying dimensions or to test if the hypothesized dimensions also exist in the dataset (Malhotra, 2010).
The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO), Barlett and Communalities tests were carried out in order to examine if the factor analysis was allowed to be carried out. KMO is a measure of adequacy, which is required to be larger than 0.50. A KMO value between 0.60 and 0.70 is considered as ‘average.’ The KMO obtained for this dataset was as follows (KMO = .875) and was also significant, as shown by Barlett’s test for sphericity (KMO > .000), meaning the KMO for this data held (Malhotra, 2010).
Even though for the factor analysis the commonalities of the components for the factor analysis were all high (>0.50), when conducting the un- and rotated factor analysis, the items did not emerge as being inter-correlated per coping strategy. However, because an existing scale was used for this research, a factor analysis was not required, for this reason, the data was reduced using solely the Cronbach’s Alpha from the reliability analysis. Because turned out not being relevant, the results of the factor analysis were not included.
4.2.2 Reliability analysis
measuring the four different coping strategies and the three items measuring embarrassment (appendix 10), showed that embarrassment, comfortableness and awkwardness together had a α = 0.798. When all items for the factor, embarrassment, are included, the (α > 0.6), so no item was excluded, as the value was sufficiently high, and (M = 4.55, SD = 1.38). For the coping strategy, planful problem-solving, items 1, 5 and 13 together had α = .667, and (M = 2.35, SD = .833). When items, 9, 17 and 21 were also included, the α was reduced to .440. Therefore, a sum variable was computed using only the first mentioned items. For the coping strategy, confrontive coping, items 6, 14, 18 and 22 together had a α = 621, and (M = 2.02, SD = .717). When items, 2 and 10 were also included, the α was reduced to .333. So, with planful problem-solving and confrontive coping, something occurred resulting in the pre-constructed combinations not emerging strongly anymore. This will further be elaborated on in the discussion. For the coping strategy, positive reappraisal, items 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23 and 25 together had a α = .673, and (M = 2.19, SD = .607). Here, none of the items were removed. For coping strategy, distancing, items 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 together had a α = .704, and (M = 2.34, SD = .698). Again, no items were eliminated. The items that were eliminated because of the reliability test, were not included in creating the new factors, as with their inclusion, the reliability would be too low.
From the histograms (appendix 11) of the newly created factors, it is evident that all the factors are approximately normally distributed with a single or several high peak(s).
4.3 Pearson correlation, normality and multicollinearity
4.3.1 Pearson correlation
significantly correlated with one another. The significance means that the coefficient is different from zero, suggesting the existence of a linear relationship.
When the coping strategies were compared to one another, the values appeared relatively close to 1 and were positive, suggesting a stronger linear relationship between the variables than the independent variables compared to the dependent variables, but as seen with the VIF scores, multicollinearity appeared not a problem with this dataset.
4.3.2 Normality statistics
Table IX in appendix 14 depicts the normality of the constructed factors for the independent variables, coping strategies, and the dependent variable, embarrassment. When looking at the significance levels of Shapiro, all values were (p<.05), which means these were significant. Skewness is a measure of the asymmetry of a distribution, the closer to zero, the better. This means that embarrassment was slightly skewed (-.579) and positive reappraisal was too (.235). Kurtosis is the level to which values cluster around a central point. Both the values for the variables regarding skewness and Kurtosis, fell within the -1 - +1 range, indicating the data was normally distributed, aligning with the observations of the Shapiro statistic.
As seen with the normality tests, the Shapiro-Wilk statistic, all values were close to 1, which was further depicted in the Q-Q plots. This means all points were close to the linear line, indicating the data was normally distributed. Additionally, the significance level for all factors were (p<.05), meaning they were significant and further implying normal distribution. The Q-Q plots are depicted in appendix 15.
4.3.3 Multicollinearity
4.4 Regression analysis
4.4.1 Assumptions regression analysis
To be able to perform a linear regression, the following three assumptions have to be met:
4.4.1.1 The sample should be based on independent observations
The participants in the dataset had to be independent of one another. So, the items in the Qualtrics survey of the experiment were placed in a random order, in order to ensure participants did not rate the items of each coping strategy similarly, and no relation would exist between the observed scores between the participants.
4.4.1.2 There is a linear relationship between the dependent and the independent variable A linear relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable should exist. The mean residuals equalled to 0 (see appendix 16). Furthermore, when looking at the scatter plot in appendix 17, it is evident that a linear relationship exists, as the residuals are all spread randomly around the average 0.
4.4.1.3 The residuals are normally distributed.
In sub-chapter 4.2, the normality statistics of the dataset were discussed. This showed that the four independent variables as well as the dependent variable fulfill the criteria for normal distribution. This is furthermore depicted in the Q-Q plots (figure 17). So, all the assumptions are accepted.
4.4.2 Distribution of coping strategies between males and females
score highest on planful problem-solving, where females scored highest on distancing, which goes on to show the difference in behavior in certain arising situations.
Table V
Males and coping strategies
Model N Mean Std. Deviation
Planful problem-solving 77 2.61 .784
Confrontive coping 77 2.17 .763
Positive reappraisal 77 2.26 .647
Distancing 77 2.43 .714
Table 5: Distributions of different coping strategies for males.
Table VI
Females and coping strategies
Model N Mean Std. Deviation
Planful problem-solving 126 2.19 .819
Confrontive coping 126 1.93 .674
Positive reappraisal 126 2.15 .581
Distancing 126 2.28 .684
Table 6: MDistributions of different coping strategies for males.
4.4.3 Regression analysis
models were conducted for this particular linear regression, shown in table VII, VIII and IX below.
Table VII Model summary
Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate
1 .528 .279** .264 1.17
2 .560 .313* .285 1.16
3 .573 .328 .286 1.16
Table 7: Model summary for the regression analysis † p <.05*, p <.01**.
Table VIII Model summary
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 105.347 4 26.337 19.146 .000 Residual 272.369 198 1.376 Total 377.716 202 2 Regression 118.268 8 14.784 11.054 .000 Residual 259.448 194 1.337 Total 377.716 202 3 Regression 124.000 12 10.333 7.738 .000 Residual 253.716 190 1.335 Total 377.716 202
Table 8: Model summary for the regression analysis.
Table IX Regression Analysis
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
IV’s Planful problem-solving -.402** -.332** -.629* Confrontive coping -.348** -.322** -.119 Positive reappraisal .374** .358** .180 Distancing -.033 -.057 .462 Covariates Gender .136* .396 Education -.006 -.022 Birth year .0.92 .100 Nationality -.077 -.077 Interactions
Gender and planful problem-solving
.380
Gender and confrontive coping
-.254
Gender and positive reappraisal
.245
Gender and distancing
-.734
Model 1, depicted in table IX, solely tested the four independent variables against the dependent variable. The results of the first model, R² = .279, F (4,198) = 19.15, p = .000, indicate a significant effect. There is a significant and negative effect between planful problem-solving and embarrassment (meaning, embarrassment decreases) B = -.402, t = 17.67, p = .000, and confrontive coping and embarrassment B = -.348, t = 17.67, p = .000. Positive reappraisal and embarrassment B = .374, t = 17.67, p = .000 has a positive and significant effect, meaning the level of embarrassment one feels actually increases. There is an insignificant and negative effect between distancing and embarrassment B = -.033, t = 17.67, p = .754.
Adding to this, with model 2, also in table IX, the significance and direction for the coping strategies remained similar, but the scores for each slightly decreased, where it slightly increased for distancing, with the covariates added to the model. It additionally showed that gender had a significant effect on embarrassment. When the statistic was multiplied by 2, it represented the result for females, showing that females had a higher level of embarrassment than males do. The rest of the covariates had such a small impact, with no significance, they did not impact the hypothesized relations. Lastly, for model 3, table IX, included the interactions, these all resulted as insignificant.
When considering just the coping strategies on their own, planful problem-solving had the largest embarrassment reduction effect. On the other hand, positive reappraisal had the exact opposite effect with embarrassment. Furthermore, females had a higher score on the level of embarrassment experienced, but here too the indirect effect with gender was not quite significant. Finally, in model 3, gender was approximately significant at the p < 0.10 level (p=.103). Moreover, the direct effect of planful problem-solving was approximately significant at the p < .05 level (p=.051).
4.4.4 Conceptual model and regression analysis
Figure 3 shows the conceptual model including the four independent variables with the coefficients and the significance values (p-values). In the model, each standardized beta coefficient and significance level was stated for the relation between the independent variables and the dependent variable (model 2), the effect of the moderator on the dependent variable (model 2), and the interaction between the moderator and the independent variables on the dependent variable (model 3). The results that turned out significant, are written in bold.
5. DISCUSSION
5.1 Conclusions
The problem statement of this research had the following research objective: to investigate the effect of different coping strategies on embarrassment, influenced by gender in a public setting. This statement was paired with the following research question:How do different coping strategies affect embarrassment, and how does gender influence this effect in a public setting? Through the results obtained with the data collected from the experiment, a survey, 206 participants responded to the statements regarding the created (cause-and-effect) scenario, stated in the introduction of this research. Through a regression analysis, the results of the survey were analyzed.
Table X Results hypotheses
Hypotheses Result
H1: The planful problem-solving coping strategy has a negative influence on embarrassment √ H2: The positive reappraisal coping strategy has a negative influence on embarrassment -
H3: The confrontive coping coping strategy has a positive influence on embarrassment -
H4: The distancing coping strategy has a positive influence on embarrassment -
H5: Gender effects the different coping strategies chosen in a public purchase setting against embarrassment positively
√
Table 10: Acceptance or rejection of each tested hypothesis.
The results of the present study provided relatively weak empirical support for the five constructed hypotheses (further explained in the limitions), explained below:
H1: The planful problem-solving coping strategy has a negative influence on embarrassment. According to the obtained results, when investigating the effect of planful problem-solving on embarrassment, the prediction as stated in the hypothesis, was that with this coping strategy the level of embarrassment an individual experiences would decrease. This is also reflected back in the results. This relates back to the literature review in the following way. According to Arndt and Turedi (2017), planful problem-solving is effective when one part takes in activities and makes plans to get out of a stressful situation or feeling. This can be effective up until a point at which one cannot cope anymore, which means they would likely escape or avoid the situation in its entirety. The results of this research on the direct effect is in line with the findings of Folkman and Lazarus, stating that it is “associated with an improved emotion state” (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988).
H2: The positive reappraisal coping strategy has a negative influence on embarrassment.
of embarrassment would decrease. This was however not reflected back in the results. This reflects back to the literature review as not aligning with the findings of Folkman and Lazarus. Positive reappraisal “was associated with improved emotional states” (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988).
H3: The confrontive coping coping strategy has a positive influence on embarrassment.
According to the obtained results, when investigating the effect of confrontive coping on embarrassment, the prediction, as stated in the hypothesis, was that with this coping strategy the level of embarrassment would increase. This also did not reflect back in the obtained results. The results of this research indicated a decrease of embarrassment. This reflects back to the literature review as not completely aligning with the findings of Folkman and Lazarus. They expressed it worsened emotion states, as expressing negative emotions can make one feel worse. However, in this case it improved emotion states.
H4: The distancing coping strategy has a positive influence on embarrassment.
According to the obtained results, when investigating the effect of distancing on embarrassment, the prediction, as stated in the hypothesis, was that with this coping strategy the level of embarrassment would increase. This is however did not reflect back in the results. The results obtained with this data suggests that embarrassment decreased when this coping strategy was resorted to. This reflects back to the literature review in the following way. According to research completed by Folkman and Lazarus, distancing is one of the coping strategies that is hard to achieve, but did have a link to negative emotions. In the current research, distancing was not significant, whereas this was the case with Folkman and Lazarus in some of the cases. It did have a contribution to worsened emotion state. Also according to Folkman and Lazarus, this could be the case because with distancing as well as positive reappraisal, a reduction in distress is hard to sustain.
H5: Gender effects the different coping strategies chosen in a public purchase setting against embarrassment positively.
When investigating the effect of gender on embarrassment, the prediction, as stated in the hypothesis, was that with the coping strategies the level of embarrassment would increase. This is also reflected back in the results. This reflects back to the literature review in the following way. In general, when analyzing the results of this research and the explored literature, it is evident that females were more prone to experiencing negative effects of embarrassment than males. However, when it comes to the effect of gender on just the coping strategies, males appeared to have a higher score when it came to the usage of coping strategies than females. These results align with the literature, as in their childhood, boys often dealt with embarrassment in different ways and thus had more experience in handling themselves in such situations than females.
5.2 Practical implications
There are several practical implications arising from this research. The research does not however inform policy. According to the individual gender findings and the explored literature, females appeared to be more prone to experiencing embarrassment, and showed distancing to be the most prominent coping strategy. This means individuals tend to avoid and escape the situation and pretend it never happened. However, when considering the results from the regression analysis, the interaction effect was insignificant, thus evidence lacks to build a conclusion on this. According to the literature, this is however more like a last resort. From the regression analysis, planful problem-solving has the largest significant embarrassment reduction effect on embarrassment.
5.3 Limitations results
5.3.1 Did anything go wrong?
There are several limitations to this research. In total, the minimum of 200 responses were collected; nevertheless, there was no equal distribution between males and females. This was aimed for, in order to best test the effect of the moderator. From the findings, it also cannot be concluded that gender directly moderates the relation between coping strategies and embarrassment.
The survey was distributed on the social media accounts: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Whatsapp. This means the respondents in the sample for the most part come from personal surroundings and could have similar personality characteristics. This could have had an impact on the results. Additionally, the respondents were asked to answer to the fictative situation as if they were in the actual situation themselves; however, as explained in the literary review, people behave differently when asked to pretend to be in a situation, than when they actually find themselves in the situation. This may also have altered the results. This could have been done differently by interviewing individuals actually visiting a sex boutique (but this could also have been difficult as not everyone is willing to talk), or by making a virtual reality video and letting participants experience the situation through virtual reality. Additionally, all participants were asked to respond to the same scenario. For the hypotheses it could have been interesting to create a neutral scenario in which there was no acquaintance outside the store as well, so the results could be compared to see if there were significant differences.
certain items may have been worded, indicating a more positive or negative connotations to a statement, even though each item of the WCQ has the same scale, may cause for a different distribution in answers. This could then have resulted in differences in the way the participants interpreted the statements. Furthermore, as with the previous research it could be possible that some of the items simply did not fit together anymore. This could also be a reason why the FA did not work out properly (Parker, Endler & Bagby, 1993). This could have caused the results to become a little weaker, as there were fewer items for these two coping strategies to base the conclusions on. For planful problem-solving, only three items remained after the Cronbach’s Alpha, so it may put to question what was actually measured.
Reflecting back on the definitions of the respective coping strategies, the scenario created for this research, could have been more detailed, so that each of the coping strategies could more clearly be tested. This especially with confrontive coping, for example the acquaintance could have talked to the individual for the person-environment interaction. Lastly, four of the coping strategies from the WCQ were not taken into consideration, whilst they could actually have provided valuable information. This was lost because these were not included.
5.3.2 Hindsight
interesting to know whether or not people are religious and what coping strategy they would then resort to in relation to embarrassment.
With regard to the literary review, I would have looked at the scales each of the different articles made use of with regard to the particular variable. So, I would timely be able to implement this more effectively. Even though the WCQ worked, there were other scales to test coping strategies, like the WCS (ways of coping scale). I however found these at a later point, when the survey was already distributed.
5.4 Opportunities and recommendations
A study for future research could include different store displays (expressive and more subtle) for sex boutiques and those could be tested in a similar setting as with this research, thus link different coping strategies and embarrassment to it. It could thus revolve around ways to get the people who decide not to enter the store, to enter the store.
With regard to the coping strategies, even though previous research mentioned four out of the eight had a larger effect on emotion, maybe it would be good to test all of them, just to see if the same ones have the largest effect in such a retail purchase situation. This would however increase the length of the survey, which may cause more respondents to not finish it completely. But, it might be interesting. Additionally, it may be interesting to test different age groups instead of genders, to investigate whether older or younger people experience more or less embarrassment in such a situation, as literature (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988) suggests embarrassment lessens with age.
As recommendation, when looking further into coping strategies, embarrassment and the researcher retail setting, sex boutiques, it could be interesting to investigate the situation using virtual reality or interviewing actual consumers entering sex boutiques, or even walking past them.
5.5 Final word
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