Biomedical subjects

Icek Ajzen

Publications and source records attributed to Icek Ajzen.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Theory-based behavior change interventions: comments on Hobbis and Sutton.

Hobbis and Sutton (this issue) suggest that Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) techniques can be used in interventions based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Although this suggestion has merit, CBT is only one of many applicable methods for producing belief and behavior change. Moreover, CBT's primary purpose is to help people carry out intended behaviors, not to influence intentions, and that it is more useful in face-to-face than in community-level interventions. Contrary to Hobbis and Sutton's critique, TPB can accommodate core beliefs or fundamental assumptions, but the theory suggests that interventions targeted at such beliefs are less effective than interventions targeted at behavior specific beliefs.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy↗

PubMed2004

Questions raised by a reasoned action approach: comment on Ogden (2003).

In her critique of social cognition or reasoned action models, J. Ogden (see record 2003-05896-016) claimed that such models are not falsifiable and thus cannot be tested, that the postulated relations among model components are true by definition, and that questionnaires used to test the models may create rather than assess cognitions and thus influence later behavior. The authors of this comment challenge all 3 arguments and contend that the findings Ogden regarded as requiring rejection of the models are, in fact, consistent with them, that there is good evidence for the validity of measures used to assess the models' major constructs, and that the effect of completing a questionnaire on cognitions and subsequent behavior is an empirical question.

Behavioral Medicine↗

PubMed2004

Explaining the discrepancy between intentions and actions: the case of hypothetical bias in contingent valuation.

An experiment was designed to account for intention-behavior discrepancies by applying the theory of planned behavior to contingent valuation. College students (N = 160) voted in hypothetical and real payment referenda to contribute $8 to a scholarship fund. Overestimates of willingness to pay in the hypothetical referendum could not be attributed to moderately favorable latent dispositions. Instead, this hypothetical bias was explained by activation of more favorable beliefs and attitudes in the context of a hypothetical rather than a real referendum. A corrective entreaty was found to eliminate this bias by bringing beliefs, attitudes, and intentions in line with those in the real payment situation. As a result, the theory of planned behavior produced more accurate prediction of real payment when participants were exposed to the corrective entreaty.

Adolescent↗