Writing

REASONED ACTION AND PLANNED BEHAVIOR THEORIES Elsevier's Dictionary of Psychological Theories This speculation, formulated by the American psychologist Martin Fishbein (1936-) and the Polish-born American psychologist Icek Ajzen (1942-), concerns the relationship between attitudes and behavior, and states that a target behavior is determined by “behavioral intentions” that, in turn, are determined both by “attitudes to behavior” and “subjective norms.” The theory of reasoned action is a variant of expectancy-value theory in which behavior is influenced by the values of the possible outcomes weighted by the estimated probabilities of those outcomes, and first studied by the German-born American psychologist Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) in the 1940s. In reasoned action theory, an “attitude to behavior” is the individual's evaluation of the goodness or badness of performing the target action (that is, “attitudes to behavior” are determined by the person's beliefs about the consequences of the behavior multiplied by the evaluation of each consequence, and then summed); and a “subjective norm” is the person's perceived social pressure that is derived from perception of the degree to which “significant others” would prefer the person to perform the target action. The two components of “attitude to behavior” and “subjective social norm” are empirically determined, weighted values, and reflect the relative influence on behavioral intention of those variables. Even though the reasoned action theory is supported by empirical evidence, it is limited somewhat in that it applies only to behavior that is voluntary. However, an extended version of reasoned action theory, called planned behavior theory, attempts to correct this shortcoming. This latter theory incorporates a new construct called “perceived behavioral control” into the reasoned action theory equation, thus allowing predictions of actions to be made that are under incomplete voluntary or volitional control. Planned behavior theory proposes that perceived “behavioral control” is a function of the person's beliefs as to how likely it is that one has the opportunities and resources needed to perform the behavior (cf., buck fever effect - refers to a type of “nonbehavior” that happens to individuals in certain social situations when personal prior intentions and expectations of behavior do not occur after meeting an imagined situation in reality; the name buck fever derives from the hunting scenario where a novice hunter suddenly sees a deer/buck but makes no movements to shoot the animal). Thus, these two theories, reasoned action and planned behavior, jointly assert that the conscious intention to behave in a particular way depends on the person's attitude toward the behavior (i.e., the desire to act in that way or not), the subjective social norm (i.e., the beliefs about what others would think about the action), and one's perceived behavioral control (i.e., sensing one's ability to carry out the action). Ultimately, according to these theoretical perspectives, people may perceive barriers to behaving based on several of their own attitudes and cognitions. See also ATTITUDE/ATTITUDE CHANGE, THEORIES OF; EXPECTANCY-VALUE THEORY; INFORMATION INTEGRATION THEORY; LEWIN'S FIELD THEORY; PERSUASION/INFLUENCE THEORIES. REFERENCES Fishbein, M.; Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley Reading, MA. Ajzen, I.; Fishbein, M. (1977). Attitude-behavior relations: A theoretical analysis and review of empirical research. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 888-918. Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. Prentice-Hall Englewood Cliffs, , NJ. Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179-211. Madden, T. J.; Ellen, P. S.; Ajzen, I.(1992). A comparison of the theory of planned behavior and the theory of reasoned action. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 3-9. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. APA citation: Reasoned action and planned behavior theories. (2006). In J. E. Roeckelein (Ed.), Elsevier's dictionary of psychological theories. Elsevier Science & Technology. Credo Reference: https://ezproxy.gardner-webb.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/estpsyctheory/reasoned_action_and_planned_behavior_theories/0?institutionId=5562 Need a different citation style? Find it on Credo Online Reference Service