Addiction: Theory Of Planned Addiction Flashcards
Outline the theory of planned behaviour.
- It was proposed by Ajzen. It helps us to understand how humans can change a behaviour such as quitting addiction.
- The model claims that behaviour is determined primarily by intentions. Intentions represent a persons motivation to engage in a behaviour (e.g quitting smoking). The strength of an intention is determined by the overall strength of three factors: attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control.
- An attitude is formed by what a person believes to be the outcome of the behaviour and the importance they attach to this outcome.
- Intentions are also influenced by subjective norms. These reflect an individuals beliefs about whether others believe the individual should engage in the behaviour.
What are the two aspects of subject norms?
> Descriptive norms: refers to what a person believes about how often other people engage in the behaviour in question. (E.g. the smoker thinks that no one around them likes smoking)
Injunctive norms refer to the persons beliefs regarding what other people think about the behaviour in question. (E.g. no one around the smoker smokes).
What are perceived behavioural control?
- PBC refers to the extent to which a person believes that they are capable of changing their behaviour. Believing that changing a behaviour will be easy raises PBC and increases a persons intention to carry out the behaviour.
- PBC plays a role TPB as it also possible for external factors to directly force or prevent behaviours, regardless of the intention, depending on the degree to which a behaviour is actually controlled by the individual, and the degree to which perceived behavioural control is an accurate measure of actual behavioural control. Put simply, a person may believe they can perform a behaviour, but their perception may not be accurate.
What research is there to support the theory of planned behaviours claim about the role of intentions in changing addictive behaviour?
For example, Kelly (2011) surveyed 168 alcoholics and found that their intention to seek further
treatment after their initial detox with the Salvation Army was significantly correlated with how they
responded to the attitude and perceived behavioural control (PBC) questions on the questionnaire.
Given that the TPB predicts that intentions are a product of attitudes and PBC, these findings
support the TPB’s account of how individuals form an intention to change their addictive behaviour.
However, this evidence only provides limited support for the TPB, as it does not show that the
intention to seek further treatment was correlated with actually accessing further treatment, so it’s
unclear whether the TPB can explain genuine behavioural change. This issue is evident in Armitage
and Conner’s (2001) meta-analysis, which showed that the TPB was successful in predicting intention
to change rather than predicting actual behavioural change.
What is a methodological issue with the research into the theory of planned behaviour?
Most of the research into the TPB relies on the use of self-report measures to collect data on factors relevant to the TPB, such as attitudes and beliefs about the views of significant others, followed by a correlation analysis to see if these factors are associated with actually giving up an addiction. The use of self-report data is problematic as social desirability bias may lead addicts to give answers that make their addictive behaviour appear less bad than it really is, meaning the self report data does not reflect their actual behaviour or thinking around their addiction. This means the supporting research for TPB may lack validity. Furthermore, the reliance on correlational research limits conclusions about the TPB’s effectiveness in explaining why addicts change their behaviour. Correlation does not imply causation; for example, while a correlation between an attitude and a behavioural change could imply the attitude caused the behavioural change, it’s also possible that the direction of causation could be reversed, with the behavioural change leading to a shift in attitudes.
How is the TPBs explanation for behavioural change in addiction entangled with the free will determinism debate?
The TPB is predicted on the idea that people will engage in a behaviour if they form an intention to change i.e., they make a conscious choice to change their behaviour. Therefore, the TPB’s emphasis on the role of volitional control in changing addictive behaviour
means that it aligns with the free will side of the free will-determinism debate. However, this perspective has been challenged by hard deterministic accounts of addiction. For example, the recovery organisation Alcoholics Anonymous adheres to the ‘disease model of addiction’, which views alcoholism as a ‘disease’ involving uncontrollable behaviour. This hard deterministic account of addiction challenges the TPB’s claim that addicts can change their addictive behaviour through forming an intention.
