Study of the economic behavior of an individual: correlation between psychological characteristics and monetary attitudes

Abstract

The subject of this research is the monetary attitudes (financial prudence, money worship, money as socioeconomic status, money anxiety) and monetary relations (attitude to money, representations of monetary behavior). The goal of this article is to examine the specificity of monetary attitudes of an individual, and trace their correlation with psychological characteristics of an individual (risk tolerance and resilience). The research involves 371 respondents, median age of 34.5 years. Research methodology is based on the following instruments: “Scale of Monetary Attitudes” adapted by D. A. Bayazitova and T. A. Lapshova; “Reselience Test  adapted by E. N. Osin and E. I. Rasskazova; “Diagnostics of the Level of Individual Readiness for Risk” adapted by E. P. Ilyin; Zuckerman Sensation-Seeking Scale; essay “My Monetary Behavior”. As a result of the conducted research, description is given to the concept of “monetary behavior”, characteristics of value-semantic attitude towards money of the respondents, and the level of risk behavior in monetary terms. It is established that risky consumer behavior of a person implies the tendency to making “uncontrolled” purchases in the context of systematic money scarcity and pattern of debt (credit) behavior. The author determines that high value of monetary resource is negatively interrelated with the resilience indicators. It is demonstrated that such monetary attitudes as “excessive prudence”, “money worship”, “money anxiety”, “strive for higher socioeconomic status " are accompanied by self-doubt and disbelief in oneself in the situations of risk and uncertainty.