Constructs of Each Model

  • Attitudes – This refers to the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of the behavior of interest. It entails a consideration of the outcomes of performing the behavior.
  • Experimental attitude – affective evaluation of behavior (feeling about behavior).
  • Instrumental attitude – cognitive evaluation of behavior (behavioral beliefs).
  • Behavioral intention – This refers to the motivational factors that influence a given behavior where the stronger the intention to perform the behavior, the more likely the behavior will be performed.
  • Subjective norms – This refers to the belief about whether most people approve or disapprove of the behavior. It relates to a person’s beliefs about whether peers and people of importance to the person think he or she should engage in the behavior.
  • Social norms – This refers to the customary codes of behavior in a group or people or larger cultural context. Social norms are considered normative, or standard, in a group of people.
  • Perceived power – This refers to the perceived presence of factors that may facilitate or impede performance of a behavior. Perceived power contributes to a person’s perceived behavioral control over each of those factors.
  • Perceived behavioral control – This refers to a person’s perception of the ease or difficulty of performing the behavior of interest. Perceived behavioral control varies across situations and actions, which results in a person having varying perceptions of behavioral control depending on the situation. This construct of the theory was added later, and created the shift from the Theory of Reasoned Action to the Theory of Planned Behavior.
  • Perceived norms: often refers to the social pressure one feels to perform or not perform a particular behavior
  • Injunctive norms – (similar to subjective norms) refers to the normative beliefs about what groups think one should do and motivation
  • Descriptive norms – is the perceptions about what groups in one’s social or personal networks are doing.
  • Personal agency – individual’s ability to originate and direct actions for given purpose
  • Self-efficacy – is when an individual’s belief in her/his effectiveness to perform the task that was assigned as well as presenting their skills
  • Perceived control – an individual’s control over behavioral conduct. An individual’s perception of the degree to which various environmental factors make it easy or hard to perform