Abstract:

On the working ground of market-research a striking ambivalence is to be stated in the expectations-with respect to' the contributions of the psychologist. On the one side, one demands of the psychologies an insight as. "deep" as possible into the behaviour of the consumer, i.e. a knowledge of factors determining large segments of this behaviour. Some disappointment is to be noted, if the psychologist cannot answer the why-question that may be put in connection with each reply. On the other side: one demands of the psychologist and justly so - an exact measurement of data, an exact determination of the measure in which certain factors influence the behaviour, on exact ascertaining of the frequency with which these factors play a part. One might state that these typo expectations are indeed not principally incompatible however, in the present state of psychological science they are. The same contrarieties one meets with respect to the expectations regarding the contribution a psychologist can deliver for a typology of the consumer.