Value of the Theory of Planned Behavior - Research Paper Example

Generally, the Theory of Planned Behavior explains the connection between mind-set and performance. The theory was offered by Icek Ajzen in 1985. It is considered to be one of the most analytical cogency theories. It is used in the investigations of the connections between conditions, mindsets, purposes and behaviors in different areas such as advertisement, medical care, etc. A great number of such investigations has already been held. The given paper will discuss the eight articles, which provide the information about such investigations. As the topic is worth-discussing, each article will be analyzed and the general recommendations will be defined on the basic of the implemented research. Theory of Planned Behavior and Exercise Introduction The Theory of Planned Behavior was initially offered by Icek Ajzen in 1985. The theory is based on the Theory of Reasoned Action offered by the same scientists ten years earlier, and actually represents the continuation and expansion of it. This theory was based on different theories and stated that if individuals assess the recommended actions as helpful, and if they listen to the people they consider to be important to them, this leads to formation of the definite purpose. A fact that the attitudes and individual conditions and behavioral objective are closely connected was proved by many investigations. However, there is still an opposing idea that was offered after some of the investigations were held. This idea implies that behavioral objective not always results in real performance of due to the different limitations. Specifically, in view of the fact that behavioral objective can’t determine the future way of actions in case if the person does not implement the needed control over his actions, Icek Ajzen offered the Theory of Planned Behavior where he added a construct called “perceived behavioral control” (PBC). This way the scientist improved his previous Theory of Reasoned Action, because it was determined that with the help of Theory of Planned Behavior it is really possible to forecast behavior connected with people’s health. The TPB model represents a very effective instrument for analyzing people’s behavior. Therefore, it is widely applied in the investigations connected with health. The TPB is often used by the investigators in order to define obesity factors in fat people. The main goal of such studies is usually to stop obesity in adults and children. The studies presented in the given paper apply The TPB in order to find the factors that determine people’s behavior related to their exercise and food consumption. Literature review As it was mentioned above, the Theory of Planned Behavior as well as the Theory of Reasoned Action is widely applied in different researches connected with people’s health as the most important and widely discussed issue. The articles discussed in the present work apply these models in order to evaluate people’s behavior in relation to physical training and healthy food consumption. The research presented by Janet Roden “Validating the revised Health Belief Model for young families: Implications for nurses’ health promotion practice” is based on the data obtained by the investigation held previously. During the previous investigation the interrogation of family members was implemented. Parents were interrogated about their children’s health and how much attention it is paid to health in their family. The research made the detailed analysis of the received data. The analysis was made through MANCOVA. The goal of the research was to prove the correctness of adding two components: “perceived behavioral control” and ‘behavioral intention’ to Health Belief Model. Research outcomes supported such improvement of the model and proved that families with different economic and social conditions have many differences in control over health of their children. Further interrogation and research of model components is recommended The authors of the article “Older Women and Exercise: Theory of Planned Behavior Beliefs” written by Vicki S. et al (2003) state that in spite of acknowledged advantages of physical training, the way of life of aging women is still inactive. Further discussing the benefits of exercises will lead to more efficient public health promotion and will certainly increase the interest to physical training in aging women. This investigation analyzed the connection between theory of planned behavior, physical training and behavior of aging fair sex representatives. The participants were 225 aging fair sex representatives. All the interrogated women stated that physical training is useful, but it is difficult because of exhaustion, and the lack of time. The outcomes showed that in order to increase exercise in older women it is essential for them to believe that they are able to overcome the difficulties connected with training. A very interesting research was presented by Gretchen et al (1998). The results are presented in the article called “An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Exercise Among Older Adults”. This research was also connected with aging people and exercise. 105 aging people were started visiting exercise class and their behavior was evaluated one, three and nine months later. The results showed that, unfortunately, the purpose does represent and can’t be considered as a reliable predictor of real exercise behavior. The direct evaluation of personal attitudes, individual conditions and PBC implemented during the research could not explain people’s behavior, while the indirect evaluation gave more definite results. During the recent research held by Louis et al (2009) 154 undergraduates were interrogated about their behavior concerning healthy food consumption. It was done with the help of the theory of planned behavior. Particularly, individual conditions and PBC are investigated in connection with stress. The results can be applied for investigations including the PBM and the investigation of connection of stress and harmful food consumption, for actions directed at changing undergraduates’ food consumption habits. The article by Schmiege et al “Distinctions between Worry and Perceived Risk in the Context of the Theory of Planned Behavior” included the worry and risk in Theory of Planned Behavior model. The results of the investigations showed that worry positively influenced the goals implementation while risk perception only prevented actions. Chatzisarantis, Nikos L. D., Biddle, Stuart, J. H. (1998) reminded that the TPB was offered by Ajzen (1985) in order to develop the TRA and made it applicable in the situations when the actions can’t be completely controlled. Nevertheless, recent investigations do not research the problem of the targets’ stability that represents a limit of the TRA. Therefore, the one goal of the research described in the article titled ‘Functional significance of psychological variables that are included in the Theory of Planned Behavior: A Self-Determination Theory approach to the study of attitudes, subjective norms, perceptions of control and intentions” was to approach the study of the purpose stability theoretically by addressing statements connected with the theory of self-determination. The next goal of the research was to investigate on the basis of self-determination theory the practical meaning of attitudes, individual conditions and PBC through the study connected with free time exercises. As the research of practical meaning needs the tools evaluating behavioral control, the creation of these tools were implemented. The results of the investigation proved the importance of behavioral control. Moreover, individual conditions were revealed in order to show the possibility of control implementation in different situations. The outcomes were analyzed in connection with TRA and TPB as well as the Theory of Trying. Suggestions for theory improvement were made as well. Kelly Arbour, and Kathleen Marting Ginis presented a very interesting study made in 2004. The results are presented in the article titled “Helping Middle-Aged Women Translate Physical Activity Intentions Into Action: Combining the Theory of Planned Behavior and Implementation Intentions”. The goal of the study was to answer the question if women with fulfillment purposes act in correspondence with their intentions connected with their physical activity. Forty-seven representatives of fair sex took part in the experiment. Evaluation of Theory of Planned Behavior model components and self-schedule effectiveness were implemented during eight weeks. The results showed that intentions still represent a reliable predictor of the behavior of fair sex representatives. The research presented by Christopher Armitage and Mark Conner (1999) had several goals. The first was to use the TBP to healthy food consumption; to find the distinctions between the goal implementation and control over actions. The third goal was to analyze if self-identity should be added to the model and if it can be helpful. The next goal was to reveal viewpoints, which may create helpful way of influence. The results of the research emphasized the need of using plenty of methods while assessing the behavior. Conclusions from Literature All the articles discussed in this paper emphasize the value of the Theory Of Planned Behavior. It is demonstrated that this theory help take into account individuals’ volitional actions, which are not paid attention in the previous Theory of Reasoned Action. The research proved that person’s behavioral purpose really should not be considered the reliable predictor of behavior in situations when a person is not able to control his behavior completely. Introduction of "perceived behavioral control" help determine the connection between behavioral purpose and real performance. The investigations showed that the Theory of Planned behavior really can help forecast health-connected behavioral purpose. It meliorated the possess of purpose forecasting in different areas connected with health such as exercise and healthy food consumption. Moreover, the articles testify that TPB and TRA help explain the person’s social behavior by taking into account social standards. According to Chatzisarantis, “With respect to PBC, results of the path analysis revealed the intention ± PBC path not to differ significantly across groups under investigation, though in the single-group analyses PBC predicted intention significantly only in the autonomous group. Therefore, PBC can cover both the controlling and informational dimensions of functional significance. In discussing the concept of control and self-efficacy, Deci and Ryan (1985) claim that perceptions of control are very important for a behavior to be intentional irrespective of personal experience of motivation. Therefore, individuals may intend to act because they evaluate positively gains in outcomes or in the behavioral experience itself. However, if control of the behavior is problematic, PBC is expected to predict intention” (Chatzisarantis, 1998). All the eight articles discussed the topics connected with health. The topics of five of them are connected with exercise. Two of these five articles discuss the problem of the aging people and exercise. The researchers made a conclusion that it is necessary to increase exercise in aging people because their intentions to take exercise classes are usually not realized due to different reasons, very offer due to fear and lack of time: “In this study, normative beliefs predicted exercise intention but no exercise behavior, which fails to support this component of the theory of planned behavior for exercise in older women. Significant others may influence one’s intention to perform socially desirable behavior. The lack of association between normative beliefs and exercise behavior is consistent with studies reporting a lack of relationship between social support or social influence and exercise” (Vicki S. et al, 2003). The authors also emphasize the importance of social influence. This influence if also emphasized in the article by Janet Roden where she discusses how the family influences children’s health. This includes healthy food consumption and exercise. The author concluded that the family influence is crucial and it depends on the social position of the family: “The constructs of PBC and BI demonstrated that they could differentiate health behaviors for the two socioeconomic regions in western Sydney, suggesting that socioeconomic difference influences families in terms of control over their child’s health and the initiation of health behaviors for their child” (Roden, 2004). Two articles investigated the factors of risk and stress as the constructs of Theory of Planned Behavior. The results of the article by Louis et al (2009) can be applied for investigations including the PBM and the investigation of connection of stress and harmful food consumption, for actions directed at changing undergraduates’ food consumption habits: “They [results] support the utility of examining life stress as a variable that may impact on decision making, not just in the domain of healthy eating, but across decision-making studies more broadly”. (Louis et al 2009) The results of the investigation presented by Schmiege et al (2009) showed that worry positively influenced the goals’ implementation while risk perception only prevented actions: “Although they were correlated with each other, worry and risk tended to be differentially related to the TPB constructs, and these distinctions have the potential to inform further theory development, as well as the design of behavioral interventions” (Schmiege et al, 2009). The investigations presented in the given articles are very relevant because today healthy way of life became a top priority of American medical practitioners and researchers. The connection between the behavior control and obesity as the cause of many diseases is clearly determined and the next step is to reveal the factors, which determine the behavior. Notwithstanding that the advertising tries to make us believe that it is possible to, for example, easily loose weight during one day, there is no way to do that. Attaining and preservation of healthy body demand a number of behavior alterations, which imply changing the way of thinking about food consumption and active way of life: doing morning exercises, visiting gymnasium. It is useful to get experts’ consultation for instance, the advice of a nutritionist or physician. It is necessary to remember that changing the behavior is a complicated but reachable goal. It is possible to define the general recommendations: establish achievable aims for your food consumption and exercises. For example, determine the real weight amount that you can lose during a definite period of time; fix your everyday behavior in order to control the alterations. Make necessary notes in your notebook in order to see the progress. It will help control the behavior and make it correspond to the intentions; try to make other people take part in your diet or exercises. For example if you have a diet, make your children also eat healthy food; distinguish and try to change bad and pessimistic way of thinking and mind-set connected with your goal; work out the way to overcome difficulties. For instance if you have diet think what you will eat in the restaurant if you are invited. There are plenty of healthy food you can taste; Actively communicate with your doctor, nutritionist, or physical training instructor. Do not hesitate to apply for advice; Think about the pleasant result of your efforts. There are many factors that prevent us from the implementation of our goals. However, when these goals are related to our health we should try to overcome the difficulties. Some investigations are already made in order to help us understand why we do not do what we were going to do. Further research is needed in order to improve the model and reveal new problems people meet on their way to healthy life. Works Cited Roden, Janet. (2004). Validating the revised Health Belief Model for young families: Implications for nurses’ health promotion practice. Nursing and Health Sciences, 6, 247–259; Vicki S. Conn, Ph.D., R.N.,Toni Tripp-Reimer, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, and Meridean L. Maas, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN. (2003). Older Women and Exercise: Theory of Planned Behavior Beliefs. Public Health Nursing Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 153–163; Brenes G., Strube I., and Storand. (1998). An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Exercise Among Older Adults. M. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 24; Louis, Winnifred R., Chan, Marc K.-H., Greenbaum, Seth. (2009). Stress and the Theory of Planned Behavior: Understanding Healthy and Unhealthy Eating Intentions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39, 2, pp. 472–493;. Schmiege, Sarah J. Bryan, Angela, Klein, William M. P. (2009). Distinctions Between Worry and Perceived Risk in the Context of the Theory of Planned Behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39, 1, pp. 95–119; Chatzisarantis, Nikos L. D., Biddle, Stuart, J. H. (1998). Functional significance of psychological variables that are included in the Theory of Planned Behavior: A Self-Determination Theory approach to the study of attitudes, subjective norms, perceptions of control and intentions. European Journal of Social Psychology Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 28; Arbour, Kelly, Marting Ginis Kathleen A. (2004). Helping Middle-Aged Women Translate Physical Activity Intentions Into Action: Combining the Theory of Planned Behavior and Implementation Intentions. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 9, 3, pp. 172-1 87; Armitage, Christopher, Conner, Mark. (1999). Distinguishing Perceptions of Control From Self-Efficacy: Predicting Consumption of a Low-Fat Diet Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 1, pp. 72-90; Read More