Spatial Choice and Constraints on Behavior

Abstract

This paper first examines the reasons for the limited success of empirical studies of movement behavior in documenting a consistent relationship between spatial behavior and its psychological antecedents. It then proposes an integrated conceptual framework to incorporate the mediating and determining role of constraints on spatial behavior. It is argued that acceptance of the implicit assumptions of utility maximization and volitional control has encouraged an undue emphasis on the attitudinal determinants of behavior to the detriment of its nonattitudinal components. Thus, model misspecification has compounded the inferential problems stemming from conceptual and operational ambiguities, from spatial aggregation, and from excessive dependence on a narrow range of linear models. By providing a flexible foundation for the reconceptualization of the processes underlying spatial decision making, recent developments in attitude theory are pointing the way toward redressing this imbalance in research efforts. Disaggregate models of travel, mobility, and migration behavior should account for the inconsistencies between thought and action, not ignore them. Models should thus be formulated within conceptual frameworks able to incorporate into existing psychological theories of behavior an operational formulation of the structural, social, and institutional constraints that account for the missing links between spatial behavior and its psychological antecedents.

The Persistent Effect of Geographic Distance in Acquisition Target Selection

“…The search process will typically only assess a fraction of the population of potential targets (reflecting arguments in Desbarats, 1983), and will be influenced by cognitive factors such as the need to simplify complex decisions (Duhaime and Schwenk, 1985;Tihanyi, Johnson, Hoskisson, and Hitt, 2003). Such factors will influence which targets are considered and evaluated in the process of decision making.…”

“…Search is both an optimal routing problem in which decision makers pick alternatives from the population, and an optimal stopping problem where decision makers choose which candidates to evaluate further (Maier, 1993;Miller, 1993Miller, , 1994Narula, Lentek, and Harwitz, 1987;Rogerson, 1990). Behavioral theory explores how decision makers create an effective set of alternatives from the population of potential alternatives (Desbarats, 1983) and how these alternatives are evaluated (Slovic, Fischoff, and Litchenstein, 1977) using psychological mechanisms such as satisficing behavior (Simon, 1957) that simplify complex decisions (Duhaime and Schwenk, 1985).…”

Hierarchical Information Integration Applied to Residential Choice Behavior

“…Compositional attitudinal scaling techniques are used to calculate the utility of residential options (e.g., Desbarats 1983). Such techniques assume that individuals can provide separate, independent utility values for each level of each attribute that influences evaluations of and choices among residential options; and, further, that individuals can directly estimate and report so-called "importance weights" for each influential attribute.…”

Electricity Supplier Switching: A Conceptual Model Based on Migration Theory

“…Gardner (1981), Desbarats (1983), and Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) as studies emphasizing subjective norms as a mooring factor of migration decision. There are additional studies in this respect.…”