The Theory of Planned Behaviour Flashcards
What is attitude?
An affective evaluation toward some object of our attitude. Has an emotional affective tone to it - are we negatively or positively disposed to it.
Is there evidence of a gap between attitudes ad behaviour?
LaPiere (1934). Travelled around the US with a young Chinese couple. Visited 251 establishments, were treated well in all but one. Later LaPiere wrote asking whether they would accept guests of Chinese race - 92% indicated they would not. Shows a mismatch between people’s attitudes and their behaviour. This is the typicality effect - when asked to imagine, their prototype was not matched to the actual people they met: lack of correspondence.
What is an example of the importance of measurement methods?
Davidson and Jaccard (1979). Questionnaire about birth control methods. Measures of general attitudes to very specific attitudes. 2 years later, asked if they had used birth control pills since the interview. Initial attitude did not correlate with their use of contraception when the questions were general - if questions were more specific this correspondence was a lot stronger. Shows will get better correspondence if measure things properly.
What is the theory of reasoned action?
Ajzen and Fishbein (1980). Behaviour is predicted by peoples intentions, and their intentions are predicted by their attitude and subjective norm (people perception of what to do/what not to do, social influence of what they think other people think they ought to do). Attitude and subjective norm have their own beliefs - attitudes are predicted by beliefs about outcomes of actions.
What are behavioural beliefs and outcome evaluations?
Behavioural beliefs refer to a persons’ beliefs than an action/behaviour leads to certain outcomes. Outcome evaluations refer to a person’s evaluations of those outcomes.
What is the expectancy-value framework?
The perceived likelihood of a certain behaviour leading to a certain outcome.
Can we change people’s attitudes and behaviour?
The theory is about relationships between different variables, not about attitude change. If want to change people’s attitudes, change something about framework of beliefs. This gives indication about where to target intervention, not how to do it.
What is subjective norm?
A person’s perception of the social pressures to perform or not perform the behaviour in question.
What are normative beliefs?
A person’s beliefs that specific individuals or groups think they should or should not perform the behaviour (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980).
What is motivation to comply?
Motivation to comply with each salient referent (Fishbein and Ajzen, 2010).
What is the theory of reasoned action?
The importance of the nature of the ‘attitude object’. The principle of compatibility - make sure measuring both attitudes and behaviour at the same level. Should specific things clearly (be specific and will get a much better correlation between attitudes and behaviour).
What did Ajzen highlight was a problem with the theory of reasoned action?
Developed to deal with volitional behaviours (behaviours that are under your control). Not all behaviours are under your full control - therefore wanted to modify the theory to account for this.
What is the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991)?
Adds a measure of perceived behavioural control. Behaviour will be influenced by intention and perceived measure of control. External constraints on behaviour have an impact on behaviour.
What is perceived behavioural control?
People’s perceptions of the degree to which they are capable of, or have control over, performing a given behaviour. The person’s beliefs as to how easy or difficult performance of the behaviour is likely to be.
What are explicit and implicit measures of attitude?
Explicit measure: problems of social desirability biases. People may express a certain view that may not match their internal attitude due to social desirability bias.
Implicit measure: may not express influences, but make associations with certain categories based on past experiences.
