In this essay, it will be discussed to which degree the attitudes can predict behaviour. Attitudes are overall feelings about someone or something. But can they be used foretell behaviour?
It can be argued that attitudes, especially the ones that are easily accessible can be used to predict behaviour. “Accessible attitudes are those that can be recalled from memory more easily and can therefore be expressed more quickly” (Eagly & Chaiken, 1998 as cited in Hogg & Vaughan, 2014). Fazio, Ledbetter, Towles-Schwen conducted a few experiments to investigate whether the participant with accessible attitudes could detect changes faster than those with less accessible attitudes. In the first experiment, the goal was to allow participant to get correct …show more content…
A subjective norm is “the person’s perception that most people who are important to him think he should or should not the behaviour in question.” (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). A study was done by Baker, Little, and Brownell (2003) to distinguish the role of social norms in predicting adolescent eating and health behaviours. In the first session they presented their participants with questionnaires about attitude, beliefs, norms, intentions about eating and health. In the second session, 2 week later, they assessed the participants’ behaviours. They found that the adolescents who perceived their eating and health habits very unimportant to others, and those whose friends and family didn’t eat healthy did not have positive eating and health behaviours. In another study, Fishbein (as cited by Cialdini & Trost, 1998) found that the men in undergraduate degree are more likely to engage in premarital intercourse if their families and close friends expect it of them. Both of these studies prove that human behaviour is heavily influence by social norms. Thus behaviour can be predicted using social norms; especially in countries will far more influential and strict social …show more content…
The theory of planned behavior presented by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980, 1974), which is different than their theory of reasoned action, states that in addition to subjective norms and attitude, the behaviour has to be perceived to be under control or as mentioned in Ajzen’s paper (1991) “a behavioral intention can find expression in behavior only if the behavior in question is under volitional control”. The factors that can affect person’s control over their behavior are money, time, skill, and behaviour of other. In a study done by Madden, Ellen, and Ajzen, (1992) the participants were asked to list 10 behaviors, which ranged from hard to control to easy to control. “These result indicate that increased precision in the prediction of intentions and target behaviour could be achieved by assessing perceived behavioral control over the behaviour.” (Madden, Ellen & Ajzen, 1992). Perceived control over behaviors enhanced the prediction of intention and actions, thus improving the predictions of the
It can be argued that attitudes, especially the ones that are easily accessible can be used to predict behaviour. “Accessible attitudes are those that can be recalled from memory more easily and can therefore be expressed more quickly” (Eagly & Chaiken, 1998 as cited in Hogg & Vaughan, 2014). Fazio, Ledbetter, Towles-Schwen conducted a few experiments to investigate whether the participant with accessible attitudes could detect changes faster than those with less accessible attitudes. In the first experiment, the goal was to allow participant to get correct …show more content…
A subjective norm is “the person’s perception that most people who are important to him think he should or should not the behaviour in question.” (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). A study was done by Baker, Little, and Brownell (2003) to distinguish the role of social norms in predicting adolescent eating and health behaviours. In the first session they presented their participants with questionnaires about attitude, beliefs, norms, intentions about eating and health. In the second session, 2 week later, they assessed the participants’ behaviours. They found that the adolescents who perceived their eating and health habits very unimportant to others, and those whose friends and family didn’t eat healthy did not have positive eating and health behaviours. In another study, Fishbein (as cited by Cialdini & Trost, 1998) found that the men in undergraduate degree are more likely to engage in premarital intercourse if their families and close friends expect it of them. Both of these studies prove that human behaviour is heavily influence by social norms. Thus behaviour can be predicted using social norms; especially in countries will far more influential and strict social …show more content…
The theory of planned behavior presented by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980, 1974), which is different than their theory of reasoned action, states that in addition to subjective norms and attitude, the behaviour has to be perceived to be under control or as mentioned in Ajzen’s paper (1991) “a behavioral intention can find expression in behavior only if the behavior in question is under volitional control”. The factors that can affect person’s control over their behavior are money, time, skill, and behaviour of other. In a study done by Madden, Ellen, and Ajzen, (1992) the participants were asked to list 10 behaviors, which ranged from hard to control to easy to control. “These result indicate that increased precision in the prediction of intentions and target behaviour could be achieved by assessing perceived behavioral control over the behaviour.” (Madden, Ellen & Ajzen, 1992). Perceived control over behaviors enhanced the prediction of intention and actions, thus improving the predictions of the