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The Theory of Planned Behavior

In: Philosophy and Psychology

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The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)
TRA posits that individual behaviour is driven by behavioural intentions where behavioural intentions are a function of an individual's attitude toward the behaviour and subjective norms surrounding the performance of the behaviour. Attitude toward the behaviour is defined as the individual's positive or negative feelings about performing a behaviour. It is determined through an assessment of one's beliefs regarding the consequences arising from a behaviour and an evaluation of the desirability of these consequences. Formally, overall attitude can be assessed as the sum of the individual consequence x desirability assessments for all expected consequences of the behaviour. Subjective norm is defined as an individual's perception of whether people important to the individual think the behaviour should be performed. The contribution of the opinion of any given referent is weighted by the motivation that an individual has to comply with the wishes of that referent. Hence, overall subjective norm can be expressed as the sum of the individual perception x motivation assessments for all relevant referents.
How the Theory of Planned Behaviour Works
The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was developed by Ajzen in 1988. The theory proposes a model which can measure how human actions are guided. It predicts the occurrence of a particular behaviour, provided that behaviour is intentional. The model is out lined in the next figure and represents the three variables which the theory suggests will predict the intention to perform a behaviour. The intentions are the precursors of behaviour. Ajzen and Fishbein formulated in 1980 the theory of reasoned action (TRA). This resulted from attitude research from the Expectancy Value Models. Ajzen and Fishbein formulated the TRA after trying to estimate the discrepancy between attitude and

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