Research on the relation between attitude and behavior is examined in light of the correspondence between attitudinal and behavioral entities. Such entities are defined by their target, action, context, and time elements. A review of available empirical research supports the contention that strong attitude-behavior relations dre obtained only under high correspondence between at least the target and action elements of the attitudinal and behavioral entities. This conclusion is compared with the rather pessimistic assessment of the utility of the attitude concept found in much contemporary social psychological literature.

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To examine how well the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior predict condom use, the authors synthesized 96 data sets (N = 22,594) containing associations between the models' key variables. Consistent with the theory of reasoned action's predictions, (a) condom use was related to intentions (weighted mean r. = .45), (b) intentions were based on attitudes (r. = .58) and subjective norms (r. = .39), and (c) attitudes were associated with behavioral beliefs (r. = .56) and norms were associated with normative beliefs (r. = .46). Consistent with the theory of planned behavior's predictions, perceived behavioral control was related to condom use intentions (r. = . 45) and condom use (r. = .25), but in contrast to the theory, it did not contribute significantly to condom use. The strength of these associations, however, was influenced by the consideration of past behavior. Implications of these results for HIV prevention efforts are discussed.Because condom use can prevent infection with HIV and other STDs, health agencies have designed various interdisciplinary efforts, oriented by behavioral prediction models, to persuade people to use condoms consistently. For example, the health belief model (Becker, 1974;Rosenstock, 1974) posits in part that increasing perceptions of vulnerability to HIV infection should increase precautionary behavior. Yet a recent quantitative synthesis found that chronic perceived vulnerability to HIV infection in members of high-risk groups is insufficient to motivate protective actions (Gerrard, Gibbons, & Bushman, 1996; but see Bryan, Aiken, & West, 1996). The limited support for the perceived-risk hypothesis suggests a need for other behavioral models of HIV-risk-related behavior.In the present article, we modeled condom use behavior on the basis of two general theories of behavior: (a) the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977, 1980Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and (b) the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1988(Ajzen, , 1991 Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Dolores Albarracín, Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611. albarrac@psych.ufl.edu. HHS Public Access Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript Ajzen & Driver, 1991;Ajzen & Madden, 1986;Schifter & Ajzen, 1985). Given that these models have predicted a wide range of behaviors successfully (see reviews by Ajzen, 1991; Eagly & Chaiken, 1993;Sheppard, Hartwick, & Warshaw, 1988) and have served as a basis for several HIV prevention efforts (e.g., Kamb, Dillon, Fishbein, Willis, & Project RESPECT Study Group, 1996; Kamb et al., 1998), we expected that they would also be valuable to predict condom use (cf. Sheeran & Orbell, 1998). The large number of studies that have now examined these models in relation to condom use (see Albarracín & Fishbein, 1993) and the variability of the findings suggest that a quantitative synthesis of this literature would prove valuable. Therefore, the purpose of the pre...

A distinction is made between multiple-act and single-act criteria, and it is argued that multiple-act criteria can be viewed as behavioral attitude measures. Theoretical considerations led to the conclusion that traditional measures of attitudes towards an object are consistently related to multipleact criteria but have no systematic relationship to single-act criteria. One major problem appeared to be the selection of relevant or valid single-act criteria. Application of standard attitude scaling procedures is viewed as a possible solution to this problem. It is shown that different scaling methods imply different definitions of validity. Although of theoretical importance, this approach is shown to have practical limitations. An alternative approach is suggested, leading to the construction of linearity and validity indexes. The linearity index is shown to be predictive of the degree of attitude-behavior relationships, and validity is shown to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for linearity.

'Tailoring' refers to any of a number of methods for creating communications individualized for their receivers, with the expectation that this individualization will lead to larger intended effects of these communications. Results so far have been generally positive but not consistently so, and this paper seeks to explicate tailoring to help focus future research. Tailoring involves either or both of two classes of goals (enhancing cognitive preconditions for message processing and enhancing message impact through modifying behavioral determinants of goal outcomes) and employs strategies of personalization, feedback and content matching. These goals and strategies intersect in a 2 x 3 matrix in which some strategies and their component tactics match better to some goals than to others. The paper illustrates how this framework can be systematically applied in generating research questions and identifying appropriate study designs for tailoring research.

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