EVALUATION OF THE THEORY OF REASONED ACTION WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF PREVENTING HIV INFECTION
Background on the Model and Theorists
In the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Fishbein and Ajzen (1975, p. 17) propose that attitudes and subjective norms combine to determine behavioral intentions, which in turn cause volitional behaviors. This theory remains the dominant theoretical framework in the attitude-behavior literature (Olson & Zanna, 1993, p. 131). The TRA is used to predict behavior in many contexts, and the model frequently serves as the standard to which new ideas and theories involving attitude and subjective norms are compared.
Recent applications of the TRA have been diverse (Olson & Zanna, 1993, p. 131). The TRA has been used successfully to predict intentions or behaviors associated with smoking (Norman & Tedeschi, 1989, pp. 543-558), seat belt use (Stasson & Fishbein, 1990, pp. 1541-1557), applying for a nursing program (Strader & Katz, 1990, pp. 141-150), and performing testicular self-examinations (Steffen, 1990, pp. 681-702).
The TRA can be considered an expansion of the Health Belief Model (Campbell, et al., 1995, pp. 457-464). In addition to describing an individual's beliefs about health threats and behaviors, the TRA includes the components of subjective social norms about those health behaviors, thus describing a more complete sociocultural context for the behaviors.
Relation of the Model to the Metaparadigm Nursing
The four central concepts of this metaparadigm are person, environment, health, and nursing (Fawcett, 1989, p. 216). The TRA is relevant to person, environment, and health more so than to nursing. Person refers to the individual receiving careùthe patient. The person is a human being; a unity that can be viewed as functioning biologically, symbolically, and socially. Environment is envisioned within the contexts of (1) environmental factors and elements, which are considered to ...