Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
United States--Army--Recruiting, enlistment, etc; United States--Army; United States--Army--Reserve Officers' Training Corps; Attitude (Psychology); College students--Attitudes; Human behavior; Prediction (Psychology); Recruiting and enlistment; Academic theses;
Abstract
Young adults' expressed interest toward joining The Unites States Armed Forces has been decreasing since the 1990's. This downward trend has negatively influenced the recruitment of enlisted soldiers into the military as well as the enrollment of young adults into officer production programs like the Reserve Officer Training Course (ROTC). In an attempt to understand and overcome the effects of this trend, behavioral scientists have begun using behavioral theories to predict young adults' intention toward joining the military. One theory that has been frequently used to predict intention and behavior is Ajzen's theory of planned behavior. Ajzen' s theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1988, 1991) has been successfully used to predict a wide variety of behaviors, including volunteering and career seeking. Further, several recent studies have used the theory of planned behavior to predict enlistment related behaviors. However, Ajzen's theory of planned behavior has not been used to predict enrollment into an officer producing program, such as ROTC. This study examines the ability of Ajzen's theory of planned behavior as well as two modifications of the theory of planned behavior to predict college students' intention to join an Army ROTC program. One hundred and seven students at a medium size Midwestern university completed an online questionnaire as participants of this study. The first hypothesis examined in this study was fully supported. Ajzen's theory of planned behavior explained 32% of the variance in students' intention to join an Army ROTC program. Further, each of the independent variables within Ajzen's theory of planned behavior (attitude toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceive behavioral control) were significant predictors of intention to join an Army ROTC program. The second and third hypotheses examined in this study were not supported. Knowledge related to joining an Army ROTC program was not found to moderate any of the relationships within Ajzen's theory of planned behavior. Attitude importance was not found to moderate the relationship between attitudes and intention to join an Army ROTC program. These results suggest that Ajzen's theory of planned behavior can be used to predict complex, non-repetitive behaviors, such as joining an Army ROTC program.
Year of Submission
2009
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Michael Gasser
Second Advisor
Adam Butler
Third Advisor
Helen Harton
Date Original
2009
Object Description
1 PDF file (106 leaves)
Copyright
©2009 Jason Hornberg
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Hornberg, Jason, "A Test of Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior: Predicting Students’ Intentions Toward Joining an Army ROTC Program" (2009). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2948.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2948
Comments
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