The Proposition of a General Version of the Theory of Planned Behavior: Predicting Ecological Behavior
Kaiser, F., & Gutscher, H. (2003). The proposition of a general version of the theory of planned behavior: Predicting ecological behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33(3), 586-603. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb01914.x.
The present paper explores whether the theory of planned behavior (TPB) must abandon the notion that perceived behavioral control (PBC) has a direct influence on behavior. In a cross-sectional survey of 895 Swiss residents, our hypothesis was tested by means of structural equation models. Applied specifically, PBC turned out to be a significant direct predictor of one's performance. A general version of the TPB based on aggregated measures, however, revealed PBC's direct influence on behavior to be nonsignificant and, presumably, a non-universally applicable and thus non generalizable part of the theory. Intention determined 51% to 52% of people's ecological behavior, which supports the claim of a strong attitude-behavior relation. Attitude, subjective norms, and PBC, the 3 TPB components, account for 81% of intention's variance.
