Test of a model of message‐attitude‐behavior relations

The research reported here tested McPhee's dual focus model of message‐attitude‐behavior relations. McPhee's first focus was to reject Fishbein's enduring internal construct criterion by demonstrating that variables lacking cross situational predictive power can significantly add to the explanatory power of a model. This research found that personal normative beliefs and perceived environmental constraint, variables lacking in cross situational predictive power, significantly added to the variance already explained by attitude‐towards‐the‐act and social normative beliefs in behavioral intention. Motivation to comply was seen as expendable. McPhee's second focus was on the change relationships of three predictors of behavioral intention. Specifically, McPhee posited a linear relationship between message variables conceptualized in terms of the accumulated information ratio and the change relationships of attitude‐towards‐the‐act, personal and social normative beliefs. Even though the manipulations were assessed to be sufficiently strong, support was not forthcoming.

Notes

Ms. Fairhurst is Assistant Professor of Communication, University of Cincinnati.