Theory of Planned Behaviour

The Theory of Planned Behaviour is built out of a number of constructs. The first construct is the attitude towards the act or behaviour. That is, an individual’s belief of whether a certain behaviour or act makes a positive or negative contribution to that person’s life. A second construct is called subjective norm. This construct focuses on everything around the individual. In other words his or her social network, cultural norms, group beliefs and so on. A third construct is called perceived behavioural control. This construct refers to a person’s belief of how easy or hard it is to display a certain behaviour or act in a certain way. We can use the theory to predict that if a person has a positive attitude towards an act or behaviour, and they are surrounded by favourable social norms and they have a high level of perceived behavioural control, these are the best predictors for forming a behavioural intention and in turn, they will lead to the person actually displaying the behaviour