Theory of Planned Behavior


It was in the 1980s that researchers began using what would become known as the theory of planned behavior to anticipate when and where an individual would act on a particular intention. The idea intended to account for any behavior people might engage in. One is the subjective evaluation of the drawbacks and benefits of the outcome, as well as one's belief in the likelihood that the behavior will produce the desired result, all of which shape a person's actual intent to act.

What does Theory of Planned Behavior Explain?

The concept postulates three primary factors in creating an individual's behavioral intentions: the individual's attributes, the enabling conditions in their environment, and the individual's intentions. TPB holds that a person's interactions most accurately reflect their intellectual purpose when those interactions occur. The TPB has positively affected many health-related behaviors and intentions, such as drug use, tobacco and alcohol use, medical care utilization, and breastfeeding rates. Motivation (the desire to act) and innate talent are necessary for successful behavior, as proposed by the TPB. The definition of "drive the intent to behave" (behavioral control) Normative beliefs, behavioral beliefs, and control beliefs are the three main categories of beliefs.

Influence: Six Factors That Combine to Determine a Person's Impact

These are

  • A person's attitude is summed up by how they feel about an action. Being considerate of others calls for consideration of the consequences of one's actions.

  • Intention to act, also known as behavioral intention, is a metric for determining the likelihood that a given behavior will be performed in light of other motivating factors.

  • Subjective norms determine whether most people support a particular action. A person's sense of their social network and significant Others' approval is correlated with the behavior's in-formativeness.

  • What we call "social norms" are the standards of behavior commonly accepted in each society. It is assumed that outsiders in a group share the same social norms as members.

  • Perceived enabling or constraining conditions for a behavior's actual execution. A person's perception of their ability to influence these factors. Their behavior is affected by their sense of agency.

  • Individuals' perceptions of how easy or challenging it is to perform the Desired behaviors are referred to as "perceived behavioral control," which refers to the extent to which an individual believes they can regulate their own behavior varies with the circumstances and the task at hand.

Differentiating Between Theories and Real-World Applications

Bandura's idea of self-efficacy is reflected in Ajzen's (1991) "The Role of perceived behavioral control in the theory of planned behavior." Recently, the connection between self-efficacy and perceived behavioral control was confirmed by Fishbein and Cappella, lending credence to Ajzen's integrative paradigm. One's capacity for self-regulation can be assessed with a self-efficacy scale. Perceived behavioral control measures for a wide range of healthful activities have had to be developed by researchers from scratch. Considering how easy it is to go days at a time without wanting a cigarette, quitting smoking would be a breeze for anyone.

Reality vs. Behaviour

It is through deliberate action that a connection can be made between thoughts and feelings. So goes the reasoning: one's judgment of an action is predicated on one's ready access to relevant information. According to this theory, belief is the confidence that one's actions will lead to the desired outcome. One's disposition is influenced by subjective belief in the probability that a given action will result in a specified outcome. Beliefs can be easily accessed thanks to long-term memory. Outcome expectancy was developed due to expectancy-value theorists' opinions, speculations, or faith. Proponents of planned behavior draw parallels between an individual's favorable assessment of their actions and the benefits they may reap. People believe that highly rated behavior will make them feel safer and less at risk when they give it a high rating. If we have a poor opinion of ourselves, we will assume that the action will fail.

Repercussions on Society

Public sentiment can be seen as a gauge of the social impact of an issue. As with Cigarettes: For example, "All the family smokes, and it feels normal to start smoking," or "Anyone who smokes in front of a group of friends who do not smoke sometimes feels ashamed" are examples of subjective norms. There is no objective basis for the cultural norms that "everyone is against smoking" or "people automatically assume everyone is a non-smoker."

Strength

Free will and other aspects of human behavior that defy reduction to a set of observable characteristics are among the areas of inquiry pursued by TPB. It is unreasonable to expect that a person's limited self-control will allow their behavioral purposes to be the sole factor determining their actions. Why there are connections between behavioral intention and behavior can be explained by incorporating the concept of "perceived" behavioral control into the TPB. Considering its superiority to TRA in predicting health-related behavioral intentions, it is not surprising that TPB has gained popularity. In many areas of health care, such as condom use, leisure pursuits, physical activity, and diet, TPB has improved our ability to predict future behavior. TPB and TRA use the individual's adherence to social norms to explain the individual's behavior.

Limitations

  • Without verifying the individual's ability to carry out the desired behavior, we assume they have the requisite resources.

  • It ignores factors like fear, threat, mood, and experience that also affect a person's intention and motivation for certain behaviors.

  • Although it does, the effect of social norms is often overlooked because it needs to account for exogenous variables like income or location.

  • Although the concept of "perceived behavioral control" is helpful, it still fails to address whether or not individuals possess agency over their behavior.

  • It takes less time than is assumed for an idea to become a reality. Behavior is static and unchanging

Conclusion

Even though the TPB has been shown to improve people's health, it has flaws because it fails to account for the economy and the environment as potential contributors to well-being. Over several years, researchers have used a wide variety of TPB constructions but instead incorporated various other aspects of behavioral theory to develop a more unified model. The TPB has yet to show that it can consistently deal with systemic problems well

Updated on: 29-Dec-2022

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