Act of Gift Giving
Gift giving anxiety
Because of the increasing complexity of gift giving within our society, givers and even recipients now become increasingly anxious in gift giving situations. Gift giving anxiety arises when the gift giver wants to make an impression upon the recipient in hopes of furthering or adding meaning the relationship. Often gifts are extensions of our inner-self,... »
Gift Certificates and Gift Cards
Today the idea of a gift certificate is nothing groundbreaking. However, in the 1930’s, the gift certificate was a revolutionary tool for consumers. It alleviated fears of getting the wrong gift, but avoided the impersonal stigma of giving cash. The process of obtaining the card has remained essentially unchanged. The giver would browse stores around... »
Handmade Gifts
Up until the Industrial Revolution, all gifts were handmade. However, mass-produced items soon replaced handmade gifts, leading to a small cultural backlash against mass-produced gifts. In the early 1930’s a group of advertisement writers devised a manifesto to explain the superiority of handmade to mass-produced gifts. Their reasons are: 1. Handmade items are able to distinguish... »
Emotions associated with gift giving
Gifts can be used to deliver specific messages, and reasons for giving involve different emotional states. Certain occasions are viewed as times to express those particular emotions. Those events have become universally accepted as a time when particular emotions should be communicated. For example, “joy” is an emotion that connotes a positive experience that results... »
The role of greeting cards in gift giving
When a gift is offered, both the giver and receiver need to rely on a series of non-verbal and sometimes complex messages to order to convey the meaning of the gift or discern the symbolism behind it. Julie Ruth asserts that greeting cards are one way in which a gift giver can more exactly... »