Science attitude scales can be expected to predict science-related behavior. But A-B correspondence can seldom be expected to approach the r value of 1.00. Attitude and behavior covary to the degree that valid measurement and mediating variables are considered: Individual differences of subjects (e.g., high versus low self-monitoring); the social situation (e.g., direct experience); cognitive factors ('e.g., attitude accessibility in memory). Attitude and behavior are reciprocal; that is, attitude can follow behavior. Variables other than attitude, e.g., behavioral intention, previous behavior, and habit, may under some conditions better predict behavior. Also, a viable alternative to attitude testing may be direct appraisal of some science classroom behaviors through ethnomethodology.
0Attitude is not directly related to behavior Attitude and behavior are reciprocal A retrospective section followed and a summary for science educators completed the study.
Methodology1. This study began in the mid-1970's when I read Wicker's (1969) gloomy review of 31 A-B consistency studies and later while preparing other manuscripts (Shrigley, 1983b;Shrigley, Koballa and Simpson, 1988). The tenor of the times can be sensed in Abelson's (1 972) choice of titles: Are Attitudes Necessury?A used copy of Allan Liska's (1975) book of readings, The Consistency Controversy, launched the study. While on sabbatical I examined the A-B consistency research published in major sociopsychological journals over the last decade.Challenged by a colleague to examine more carefully our literature for consistency research, I surveyed the 1983-1987 issues of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Science Education, and School Science and Mathematics. Only eight references surfaced. A more significant finding may have been the discovery of a cadre of science educators who are quietly testing procedures on attitude measurement that could serve to narrow the A-B consistency problem, or bypass it altogether through the use of ethnomethodology.Other than the history section, primary sources were sought over secondary sources.The series of five A-B perspectives evolved only after the literature was analyzed and many formats were tried and discarded. The first perspective, attitude precedes behavior, dominated the A-B literature-almost demanding a solution. The second one, where Larkin (1980) redefines attitude as social behavior, would have been ignored had his viewpoint not encouraged me to consider testing behavior rather than attitude. Third, rerouting consistency through behavioral intention, Ajzen and Fishbein's (1980) theory of reasoned action seemed at times to be the sole solution to the A-B problem. Fourth, early on the counterintuitive perspective that behavior drives attitude seemed to have skirted the consistency issue. If attitude follows behavior, is not attitude measurement folly? Finally, the perspective of complementary opposites, published by Myers (1987) only weeks before the final draft of this report, was available to serve as a ...
