Abstract: Clothing choice forms an important and central part of everyday consumption decisions and of all daily events. The clothing industry is completely driven by constant ideas and new inspirations that sometimes influence designs repetition with minor changes. Young female consumers play an important role in the market place as they exert enormous influence over the allocation of spending power across a growing number of product categories including clothing. According to O'Cass (2000), females are more involved in fashion clothing than males; however, the younger generation of women and men are more involved in fashion buying than older consumers. Cultural values and social notions of decency and morality of every society also influence societal clothing patterns and styles. In the selection of clothing, two main factors, namely, social and psychological factors have been found to influence most consumers. This study therefore investigates the influence of social and psychological factors on the selection of clothing among female students of Kumasi Polytechnic. The study engaged qualitative research design and descriptive survey method. The population for the study was all female students in the polytechnic in the 2014/2015 academic year with a sample size of 200 students. Questionnaire was used for the data collection and the study employed the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 for percentage and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The results of the study indicate that the female students acquired their clothing information from the media, peers, family members, fashion leaders, store displays and sales persons. The strongest social and psychological factors that influenced the selection of clothing among female students were found to be the media and body image. Again the results revealed that fit and colour were among the most important attributes of clothing considered by the female students. It is recommended that as much as female students would want to dress like their role models and peers, they should be guided by teachers, parents and fashion experts to adopt clothing behaviours that conform to the societal values and Ghanaian cultural modesty in clothing standards.
Keywords: Clothing, Psychological factors, Influence, Social factors, Selection.
Title: The Influence of Social and Psychological Factors on the Selection of Clothing among Female Students of Kumasi Polytechnic, Ghana
Author: Thomas Obeng Asare, Abdul-Fatahi Ibrahim, Asare Daniel Kwesi
International Journal of Engineering Research and Reviews
ISSN 2348-697X (Online)
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