Volition and the theory of planned behaviour: How to fill the gap between intention and performance?

peer reviewedThis study evaluated the contribution of implementation intentions over the constructs of the theory of planned behaviour in testing a confirmatory model explaining the relationships between antecedents of academic achievement for university students. It was found that the effects of intention to perform and its classic antecedents on exams performance were mediated by implementation intentions with a considerable increase of amount of explained variance above the contribution of the constructs of planned behaviour theory. This paper is organized as follows. We first introduce the construct of intention, particularly in the context of the well documented model of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). The limitation of this model will be explained and a basic distinction it does not consider will be pointed to: forming an intention vs. implementing it. Then we present the Heckhausen and Gollwitzer's Action Phases Model (APM) and the construct of implementation intention. The results of experimental and correlational researches on the predictive power of this construct, especially in the educational domain, will be discussed. Thirdly, we propose an integrative model which fills the gap between TPB and performance by introducing implementation intentions from unwanted inner states. Fourthly, we give the results of an experimental research aiming in testing this model conducted in an educational settings and using a confirmatory design (Structural Equation Modelling). In the end, we insist on the implication of these results for students