AO1 - Theory of Planned Behaviour

• The theory of planned behaviour asserts that our behaviour can be predicted from our intentions. TPB describes how a set of 3 interacting beliefs can influence our intentions and the possibility of behaviour change, so the theory can be used to predict whether therapy will be effective or not
• 1. Attitudes - An addicted person's attitudes are a combination of favourable and unfavourable opinions about their addiction

  • Positive attitudes e.g. gambling is exciting, increase intention to gamble and negative attitudes decrease intention to gamble
  • If any individual has more negative attitudes towards their addiction than positive will form an intention to gamble less
• 2. Subjective norms - These are the addict's beliefs about whether others approve of the addictive behaviour

  • If an addicted person believes that the people who matter most to them disapprove of the addictive behaviour, then this would make them less likely to intend to engage in the addictive behaviour and therefore less likely to actually gamble/smoke and more likely to intent to change their addictive behaviour
• 3. Control - How much control a person feels they have over their own behaviour and ability to change influences their intention, this is based on:

  • Internal factors e.g. how determined or confident they are
  • External factors e.g. support from other people, time to invest in therapy
  • Past experiences e.g. if they have successfully given up before
• Control is the most important part of the model as without the control, a person is still vulnerable to addiction

  • All 3 interacting components need to be present to influence a person's intentions to stop their addiction - if one component is missing they will not have an intention to stop so therapy will not be offered
• Application of the stages:

  • Attitudes - adverts, leaflets that highlight the negative impact of an addiction on things like health/finance in order to change potential positive attitudes to negative ones
  • Subjective norms - Campaigns such as Talk to Frank can highlight that peers can overestimate the extent of substance abuse in their peer group, it must be from a credible source
  • Control - Increase the individual's self-efficacy by encouraging a positive outlook, it emphasises areas where they have had resilience to overcome challenges