Assessing psychological dispositions and states that can influence economic behaviour

This chapter covers the assessment of some of the key psychological dispositions that are associated with differences in financial behaviour. It considers some methodological issues associated with how these factors are typically measured in research, and with the types of instruments used, that readers should be mindful of when conducting their own research. The chapter also considers three broad classes of dispositional factors: financial attitudes; time orientations; and pragmatic characteristics, and describes some of the key tools used to investigate such factors. Economic psychologists have the task of understanding how an individual's current, acute situational circumstances may influence their financial behaviours. The chapter further outlines state-based indicators that help researchers to ascertain an individual's current financial state both actual and perceived as well as associated impacts on people's current mental state. People's economic behaviours are also in part determined by their sense of self-assuredness and their sense of engagement in competently achieving goals.