Spatial effects include spatial heterogeneity and spatial dependence. Spatial heterogeneity refers to structural relations that vary over space, either in a discrete or categorical fashion (for instance, urban vs. rural, or according to an urban hierarchy), or in a continuous manner (such as on a trend surface).

Our time on earth is limited, or temporal. A less common word, temporality also means “having limited time,” and it rhymes with mortality! (Don’t remind us.) Temporal implies “of this earth,” too — temporal boundaries keep us from being able to fly around the clouds, but spiritual beings can zing around at will.

1 of or relating to time. 2 of or relating to secular as opposed to spiritual or religious affairs.

Microculture refers to the specialized subgroups, marked with their own languages, ethos and rule expectations, that permeate differentiated industrial societies. List the major cultural, microcultural, and demographic trends that affect consumer behavior.

Situational influences include surroundings, time, reason for purchase, and the buyer’s mood and condition. Psychological influences partly determine people’s general behavior, thus influencing their behavior as consumers.

The situational factors involve five categories: physical surroundings, social surroundings, temporal perspective, task definition, and antecedent state.

Because we are profoundly influenced by the situations that we ar e exposed to, our behavior does change from situation to situation, making personality less stable than we might expect. And yet personality does matter—we can, in many cases, use personality measures to predict behavior across situations.

In situation ethics, right and wrong depend upon the situation. So a person who practices situation ethics approaches ethical problems with some general moral principles rather than a rigorous set of ethical laws and is prepared to give up even those principles if doing so will lead to a greater good.