It has been my belief that people make decisions based on emotion and justify them with logic. When I bought a Breitling watch back in the year 2000 it cost me 3,500 dollars. I justified it by telling myself that I had a wonderful year in production and therefore I deserved it. Telling time was not even on the radar screen because I had many other watches that could have served that purpose. I gave myself a permission slip to own a status symbol and for a couple of years I identified my success with that watch. Now I enjoy it but my emotional attachment to it has all but disappeared.
Just offhand I can say that my reasoning had no validity, none whatsoever. However let me start with how I arrived at making that decision that I wanted to purchase a Breitling. I had no idea what a Bretiling was until I looked at a collection of watches my friend had. He owned some antique watches from the early part of the 20th century and was mostly of the hand wound variety. He told me that his real desire was to own a Breitling and he showed me some of the models that the company offered. For some reason from that day forward I took his endorsement that this particular watch was the one I had to own. It was a reliable timepiece of course, and even Air Force pilots used some of the models for navigation and obtaining positions via the satellites. This was reason enough for me because I could associate with men that I have always admired, those that flew airplanes. I felt it was a glamorous vocation.
When I thought I either deserved or needed this watch it measured face validity because it measured my desire to acquire it. However it seemed it was not a supportable validity. Unfortunately the emotional reasoning I used in making the decision to buy this expensive item had no construct validity. I suppose however that it had criterion validity for me because it made me feel satisfied. Since this was a unilateral decision there was no other sample for me to measure against except for the feeling that my peers treat themselves in similar fashion. As I sported this watch in the company of my business associates however they barely noticed my pride because they were as self absorbed as I was.
