Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

Summary

The original insight of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) was that people do what they intend to do. Intentions result from attitudes towards a behavior, and from what people that an individual cares about want him or her to do. When confidence about being able to perform the behavior was added to the model, TRA became the Theory of Planned Behavior. Factors like personality and ethnic background factors were influential only in their impact on attitudes and social pressure and confidence. An even later version, the Integrated Behavioral Model (IBM) (Fishbein, 2000), went beyond perceptions to add actual environmental barriers and skills and abilities to the model. IBM is not ranked by TheoryPicker, but may help you think about your behavior challenge more broadly.

Authors

Martin Fishbein, Issac Ajzen

Seminal references

Fishbein M, Ajzen I. Belief, attitude, intention & behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1975.

Azjen I, Driver BL. Prediction of leisure participation from behavioral, normative, and control beliefs: an application of the theory of planned behavior. Leisure Science 13:185–204, 1991.

Fishbein M. The role of theory in HIV prevention. AIDS Care 12(3):273-278, 2000.

Fishbein M, Cappella JN. The role of theory in developing effective health communications. Journal of Communication 56:S1-S17, 2006.

Major constructs

(Original)

• Attitudes (based on behavioral beliefs and evaluation of behavioral outcomes)
• Subjective Norms (based on normative beliefs and motivation to comply)
• Behavioral Intention

(Added)

• Perceived Behavioral Control (based on beliefs about the likelihood and power of specific facilitators or barriers to a behavior and one’s overall confidence that he or she could perform it)

Examples

Busse P, Fishbein M, Bleakley A, Hennessy M. The Role of Communication with Friends in Sexual Initiation. Communic Res. 2010 Apr 1;37(2):239-255. PubMed PMID: 20613973; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2897170.

Bleakley A, Hennessy M, Fishbein M, Jordan A. Using the Integrative Model to explain how exposure to sexual media content influences adolescent sexual behavior. Health Educ Behav. 2011 Oct;38(5):530-40. Epub 2011 May 23. PubMed PMID: 21606378.

Sjoberg S, Kim K, Reicks M. Applying the theory of planned behavior to fruit and vegetable consumption by older adults. J Nutr Elder. 2004;23(4):35-46. PubMed PMID: 15149939.

Baker HJ, Butler LT, Chambers SA, Traill WB, Lobb AE, Herbert G. An RCT study to evaluate a targeted, theory driven healthy eating leaflet. Soc Sci Med. 2010 Dec;71(11):1916-20. Epub 2010 Sep 29. PubMed PMID: 20970233.

Major advantages

• Comes with a formative (exploratory) research procedure called “elicitation research” (see Middlestat et al. for an example) that can help narrow the focus of an intervention and its outcome evaluation.
• Its theoretical constructs are clearly specified and their measures fully described here.
• Has explained a substantial amount of change in behavior in hundreds of studies.

Major Criticisms

• Like the HBM, the TPB has been criticized as “reductionistic.”
• Like the HBM, the TPB is subject to the “irrational man/behavioral economics” criticism.
• TPB explicitly excludes habit.¹

Resources

National Cancer Institute, Theory at a Glance (see pages 16-18)

University of Twente, Theory of Planned Behavior