Social‐psychological Approaches to Understanding Addictive Behaviours: attitude‐behaviour and decision‐making models

Summary This paper reviews a number of psychological theories of decision‐making and attitude‐behaviour relations that have been applied, or are potentially applicable, to addictive behaviours. The theories discussed (subjective expected utility models, Fishbein and Ajzen's theory of reasoned action, and the Health Belief Model) are expectancy‐value formulations in which the key concepts are the expectancies or subjective probabilities concerning the outcomes of a given action and the subjective values or utilities attached to those outcomes. Potential criticisms of this approach are considered in the course of reviewing the theories and the research bearing on them. It is concluded that the theories discussed are a rich source of ideas that may be used to further our understanding of addictive behaviours but that their potential has so far been largely untapped. In particular, studies are required that involve experimental manipulation and/or repeated measurement of beliefs and attitudes.