ATTITUDES CAUSE BEHAVIORS - CROSS-LAGGED PANEL ANALYSIS

Cross-lagged panel correlations were computed between attitudes and behaviors with respect to college students' ratings of 4 issues: Jimmy Carter's presidential candidacy, Gerald Ford's candidacy, drinking, and religion. For all 4 issues, attitudes showed causal predominance over behaviors. These results are interpreted as supporting W. J. McGuire's (1976) views on the attitude-behavior relationship but as being contrary to A. W. Wicker's (1969) situational determinism and self-perception theory. H. C. Kelman's (1974) view of reciprocal causation between attitudes and behaviors is also discussed. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1979 American Psychological Association.