Reasoned Action Theory

Question 1

Reasoned action theory

Answer 1

intention is the single predictor to carry out a voluntary behavior

Question 2

What are the four primary determinants of the RAT?

Answer 2

Ab- attitude towards behavior
IN- injunctive norm
DN- descriptive norm
PBC- perceived behavioral control

Question 3

Attitude toward behavior (Ab): definition, difference from attitude toward the object, how to assess it, two determinants

Answer 3

• general evaluation of the behavior
• while attitude toward the behavior is the evaluation of the act of buying a product, attitude toward an object is evaluation of the product
• assess it by respondents answering different scales- good-bad, desirable-undesirable, helpful- unhelpful
• bi- strength of existing belief
• ei- evaluation of belief

Question 4

Injunctive norm (IN): definition, how to assess it, its two factors, difference from descriptive norm

Answer 4

• person’s perception of whether other people who are important to them think they should/ shouldn’t do the behavior
• there are two factors that make up the injunctive norm:
  1. normative belief attributed to important person: My mom believes I (should——shouldn’t) bring the bike to NU.
  2. motivation to comply with important other: Generally speaking, do you want to do what mom is saying? (comply—–not comply)
• while the injunctive norm is based on person’s perception of whether people who are important to her think she should/ shouldn’t do behavior, descriptive norm is based on person’s perception if a lot of people perform the behavior

Question 5

Perceived behavior control (PBC): definition, questionnaire, how its different from other 3 components

Answer 5

• perceived behavioral control is a person’s perception of how easy or difficult it is to perform a behavior. Do I have control over it?
  Can assess it with questions with scale:
• How easy is it to perform this behavior?
  very easy———not easy at all
• If I wanted to perform this behavior, I easily could.
  strongly agree——strongly disagree
• How much control do you have over this behavior?
  complete control—-absolutely no control

Question 6

Do the 4 components influence intention equally?

Answer 6

• No. If PBC is too low, then none of the other 3 components make a difference in influencing intention

Question 7

How can we assess the relative weights of Ab, IN, DN, PBC?

Answer 7

• no way to assess weights for single person, but can do it systematically for a group of people
• Look at the correlation between the 4 components and intention. The components that are more strongly correlated with intention receive higher weights

Question 8

What does research evidence suggest about predictability of intention from four components?

Answer 8

Evidence suggests that intention is influenced by these 4 factors. Therefore RAT is very trustworthy and predicts intention well.

Question 9

How do you assess the belief strength and belief evaluation of Ab?

Answer 9

• belief strength- providing statements, and having respondent fill out numerical scale with bipolar adjectives: true-false, likely-unlikely
• belief evaluation- semantic differential evaluative scales . Good-bad, favorable-unfavorable

Question 10

How can you influence Attitude toward behavior?

Answer 10

• increase belief strength of existing positive belief, decrease belief strength of existing negative belief
• (belief evaluation) increase favorability of existing positive belief and negative belief
• add new positive salient beliefs, reconfigure salient beliefs to make positive dormant ones salient

Question 11

What are the determinants of IN? How can they be assessed?

Answer 11

• motivation to comply: Generally speaking, how much do you want to comply with what mom is saying? a lot—not at all
• normative belief attributed to person: Mom thinks I should—-shouldn’t be independent.

Question 12

How can you influence injunctive norm?

Answer 12

• change normative belief attributed to person
• change motivation to comply
• influence views of salient other
• introduce new salient referent
• change salience of existing referents- make one dormant, make one salient

Question 13

Descriptive norm: definition, determinants, messages used for

Answer 13

• you’re influenced by what other people are doing
• we don’t know the determinants
• messages: tax complaint, recycling, voting

Question 14

Descriptive norm: how to influence it, ways influencing it doesn’t always work

Answer 14

Influence it

• tell them what other people are doing
• influence what other people are doing/communicating

How it isn’t always successful

• referent group may not be appropriate
• information may not be plausable/ believable

Question 15

Perceived behavioral control: definition, determinants, messages used for

Answer 15

• you’re influenced by how easy or hard a behavior is
• we don’t know the determinants
• recycling, voting

Question 16

How to influence Perceived behavioral control

Answer 16

1. Removing obstacle to behavior
   - informational obstacle
   - substantive/material obstacle
2. Inducing successful performance of behavior
   - “If I’ve done it before, practiced, trained, I can do it again.”
3. Exposing person to vicarious success of behavior
   - “If they can do it, so can I.”

Question 17

When can you change the relative weights of components of reasoned action theory to influence intention? Which components? Under what conditions does it work? Is this strategy widely applicable?

Answer 17

• usually, we don’t have to change relative weights of components because they’re positively correlated (all are negative, or all are positive)
• but, if we want to influence intention, we change the emphasis/ weighting on IN, DN, or Ab
• Ex- I’m don’t have the intention of climbing mount everest even though everyone is (DN), and mom and dad think I should do it (IN), but I don’t think it’s a good idea (Ab). I’m putting more emphasis/ weight on Ab
• If I want to make myself climb mount Everest, I don’t need to change my attitude toward climbing it. I merely need to put more emphasis on DN and IN, and less emphasis on Ab

Question 18

What three factors influence how behavioral intention corresponds to behavior?

Answer 18

1. How you measure intentions and assess their behavior
2. Temporal Stability of Intentions
3. Explicit planning

Question 19

How does measuring intentions and assessing behavior influence how behavioral intention corresponds to behavior?

Answer 19

• the more specific you are with how you measure your intentions (Diet coke, rather than cola) makes correlation between behavioral intention and behavior stronger
• For example, you you ask people whether they’re likely to drink a cola. The next day, you ask them in a survey, did you drink a Diet Coke. Here, we’d expect a weaker correlation because of how we assessed differently intentions and behaviors.

Question 20

How does temporal stability of intentions influence how behavioral intention corresponds to behavior?

Answer 20

• temporal instability- the instability of our intentions over time
• predicted value of behavioral intention will decrease over time
• certain intentions (ones that are important to us) are more stable

Question 21

How does explicit planning influence how behavioral intention corresponds to behavior?

Answer 21

• specifies when and where you’re going to perform an action
• planning doesn’t increase PBC
• turns abstract intention into something concrete

Question 22

Under what conditions is the relationship between behavioral intention and behavior the strongest?

Answer 22

• specific way to measure intentions
• short time between intention and behavior
• intention is important to you
• explicitly plan