From velleity to specific plans: How planning affects attitude, intention, behavior relations
Abstract
The theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) posited correspondent behavioral intention as the immediate determinant of volitional behavior and thus as the mediator of attitude-behavior relations. This experiment investigated the nature of behavioral intention. It was hypothesized that the quality of behavioral intention (from wish-like to well-formulated) varies as a function of planning. This study assessed four factors hypothesized to be indicators of a planning process: the formation of intentions relating to the specific, concrete details of performance, awareness of potential barriers to performance, awareness of scheduling requirements related to enactment, and ease of visualizing oneself performing the activity. Subjects in the study were, on Monday, encouraged to send a greeting card to a friend on the following weekend. A sub-group moderation effect was predicted such that those who intended to send the card and who engaged in planning would hold correspondent intentions more predictive of behavior than those who intended but had not engaged in planning. A significant moderation effect was found for intentions to engage in specific, concrete instrumental behaviors (no similar effect was found for attitudes toward instrumental behaviors). A marginal moderation effect was also found for awareness of specific barriers. Assessments were made five days and one day prior to the time targeted for sending the greeting card. No predicted increase in the specificity of plans was found between these two times, although it was found that many subjects had already formed specific plans at the earlier assessment. The underlying rationale for this experiment was based on research about the hierarchical structure of behavioral knowledge and behavioral control. From this perspective, it was hypothesized that knowledge of relatively concrete details about how to enact a behavior would enhance intention-behavior consistency. The findings suggest the need for further explication of the construct of behavioral intention and for further understanding of how it functions to mediate the relation between attitude and behavior.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Eagly, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Social psychology
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