AS Psychology
Theory
of Reasoned Action
The roots of the Reasoned Action Theory come
from the field of Social Psychology. Social Psychologists attempt, among other
things, to explain how and why attitude impacts behaviour. That is, how and why
peoples beliefs change the way they act. The
study of attitude's influence on behaviour began in 1872 with Charles
Darwin. Darwin defined attitude as the physical expression of an emotion. In
the 1930's psychologists defined attitude as emotions or thought with a
behavioural component. This behaviour could be non-verbal (such as body
language) or vocally expressed. Psychologists of the time argued about what
should make up the term attitude. Social Psychologists theorised that attitude
included behaviour and cognition and that attitude and behaviour were
positively correlated. Gordon Allport proposed in 1935 that the
attitude-behaviour concept was multi -dimensional rather than uni dimensional,
as had previously been thought. Attitudes are multi dimensional systems
consisting of beliefs about the attitude object, feelings about the attitude
object and action tendencies toward the object. 1934 a Richard Lapiere studied
the attitudes of hotel manager's towards Chinese patrons. The study used a
questionnaire sent to hotel managers who had previously rented rooms to a
Chinese couple to determine their attitudes towards Chinese peoples in general.
The results showed that nearly every hotel manager, who had already rented a
room to a Chinese couple, said they would not rent a room to a Chinese person.
This study demonstrated that, as it stood, attitude was not a good predictor of
behaviour. By the late 1960's Social Psychologists no longer believed they had
a theory to explain the relationship between attitude and behaviour. It was in
this environment that Ajzen and Fishbein created the Theory of Reasoned Action
in1967.
The Theory
In basic terms, the Theory of Reasoned Action
says that a person’s behaviour is determined by their attitude towards the
outcome of that behaviour and by the opinions of the person's social
environment. Ajzen and Fishbein (1980, p62) proposed that a person's behaviour
is determined by his intention to perform the behaviour and that this intention
is, in turn, a function of his attitude toward the behaviour and his subjective
norm.
Reasoned Action Model - Azjen & Fishbein,
1975
Attitudes are made up of the beliefs that a
person accumulates over his lifetime. Some beliefs are formed from direct
experience, some are from outside information and others are inferred or self
generated. However, only a few of these beliefs actually work to influence
attitude. These beliefs are called salient beliefs and they are said to be the
"immediate determinants of a person's attitude" (Ajzen & Fishbein
1980, p63). An attitude, then, is a person's salient belief about whether the
outcome of his action will be positive or negative. If the person has positive
salient beliefs about the outcome of his behaviour then he is said to have a
positive attitude about the behaviour. And, vice-versa, if the person has a
negative salient belief about the outcome of his behaviour he is said to have a
negative attitude. The beliefs are rated for the probability that engaging in
the behaviour will produce the believed outcome. This is called the belief
strength. Next the perception of whether this outcome is positive or negative
is evaluated using a Likert, or similar, scale. These two factors, belief
strength and evaluation are then multiplied to give the attitude.
Subjective Norms are beliefs about what others
will think about the behaviour. They are perceptions about how family and
friends will perceive the outcome of the behaviour (normative belief) and the
degree to which this influences whether the behaviour is carried out
(motivation to comply). These two factors are multiplied to give the subjective
norm. It is important to note that subjective norms are formed only in relation
to the opinions of persons considered to be significant or important.
Intention(s) are the probability, as rated by
the subject, that he will perform the behaviour. This intention is made up of
the attitudes and subjective norms previously discussed. Fishbein proposed that
variables not included in the model could affect intention and, consequently,
behaviour. However, these variables must significantly affect the attitude or
normative belief component and their weights. These factors include demographic
variables and personality traits.
Behaviour, then, is the transmission of
intention into action.
An example:
Attitude: " I think drinking is bad for
my health"
Subjective Norm: " I bet my girlfriend wants me to stop
drinking"
Intention " I want to stop drinking"
Behaviour " I'm going to AA and I haven't had a drink in 6
weeks"
Limitations
One limitation of the theory comes from the
nature of the self-reporting used to determine a subjects attitudes. No direct
observation is used in the application of this theory, only self-reported information
is used. Self reported data is very subjective and is not necessarily always
accurate.
Ajzen and Fishbein noted that the theory was
limited by what they call correspondence. In order for the theory to predict
behaviour, attitude and intention must agree on action, target, context and
time. In order to predict specific behaviours the greatest limitation of the
theory stems from the assumption that behaviour is under volitional control.
That is, the theory only applies to behaviour that is consciously thought out
before hand. Irrational decisions, habitual actions or any behaviour that is
not consciously considered cannot be explained by this theory. For example,
Ajzen, Timko and White (82) found that people who are prone to vary their
behaviour depending on what situation they are in (high self monitors) are not
explained by the TRA. A high self-monitor does not always act on the intentions
he has.
To overcome these problems Ajzen proposed the
Theory of Planned Behaviour (Schifter & Ajzen, 85). The new theory
addresses the issue of behaviours that occur without a person's volitional
control. This theory is the same as the
Theory of Reasoned Action except for the addition of the Perceived Behavioural
Control component. The Perceived Behavioural Control component consists of
Control Beliefs and Perceived Power. These factors state that motivation, or
intention, is influenced by how difficult the task is perceived to be and
whether the person expects to successfully complete the behaviour.
To take the above example further –
“I’ve
tried giving up before, and it hasn’t worked, so why should it work this
time? Perhaps I’ll give AA a miss.”