About Cigarette Smoking

Cognitive variables relating to both the health- and non-health-related conse-quences of smoking among 178 heavy, light, and nonsmoking college women were examined. Using Ajzen and Fishbein's (1980) theory of reasoned action, salient behavioral beliefs about the positive and negative outcomes of smoking, evaluations of these outcomes, salient normative beliefs about the prescriptions of important referents, and motivations to comply with these referents were selected and contrasted among the three groups of women. Heavy, light, and nonsmokers were found to differ significantly in their belief structures, particu-larly with regard to the non-health-related factors presumed to affect smoking decisions. Heavy and nonsmokers showed the most substantial differences with regard to most of the examined components, and light smokers did not consis-tently represent a middle ground. Light smokers concurred with heavy smokers as to the negative, but not the positive, consequences of smoking, and tended to feel less antismoking pressure from certain referents than either heavy or nonsmokers. Researchers generally agree that many fac-tors underlie a person's decision to smoke or not to smoke, For example, health, habitual, social, personality, and other psychological motives have been postulated to influence smoking behaviors (see, e.g., Cartwright &amp