Theorists: Fishbein
Fishbein's work in the field of psychology and sociology composes a vast portion of attitude research among communication theory. Working alone, as well as with other attitude theorists, Fishbein's work contributes knowledge and information through his two theories discussed in this paper on relations between attitude and behavior.
Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) first distinguished attitudes from beliefs, stressing that beliefs are a critical factor in attitude formation. They furthermore stated that beliefs of an attitude object make up the cognitive portion of an attitude (19).
Ajzen and Fishbein's Theory of Reasoned Action (1980)
This theory suggests that individuals "deliberate about the wisdom of a given course of action." (10).
"We argue that people consider the implications of their actions before they decide to engage or not engage in a given behavior. For this reason, we refer to our approach as a "theory of reasoned action"...We make the assumption that most actions of social relevance are under volitional control and, consistent with this assumption, our theory views a person's intention to perform (or not to perform) a behavior as the immediate determinant of action" (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980, p.5).
Fishbein, along with Ajzen and other associates, Darroch (1971), Hornik (1970) and Carlson (1968), worked to develop a theory of relationships between attitude and behavior, consolidating the following predictive variables into one central framework (2):
Both Fishbein and DeFleur acknowledge behavior's likelihood of being the result of various determinants with attitude being a key factor (2).
Fishbein's theory is unique in the ways that he is concerned more with the prediction of behavior intentions rather than traditional overt behavior, most commonly dealt with by other sociologists (2).
| The first variable in his equation concerns attitude toward the performance of an act--not the attitude toward an object. He therefore does not measure attitudes toward a group of people, for example, but the attitudes toward participating in an act in relation to that group of people. |
| Fishbein does not have the problem found throughout the history of attitude theory studies of measuring a general attitude--which has been stated as a "poor predictor" of the attitude toward an object (2). |
| Fishbein uses the semantic differential scale for measuring attitudes rather than the Likert Scale. |
Thus, Albrecht and Carpenter feel that Fishbein's model is therefore noted for its applicability over others (2).
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