Microsoft Word Socialized Choices 31-12 pod docx

Chapter 2 - Theoretical framework and hypotheses 
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mothers like, what they conceive of as possible, and what they perceive others 
expect them to do.  
Hypothesis 1: 
A mother’s labour market behaviour is based on her preferred number of work 
hours. 
2.7 
The influence of values and attitudes on preferences and 
behaviour 
The second part of the theoretical framework, and also second aim of this study, 
is to reveal the relationship between values and attitudes on the one hand, and 
work preferences on the other. In this light, the theory of Ajzen and Fishbein 
(1973, 1991, 2005) appears relevant again, and is therefore to be further 
explored.
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 The first assumption of the theory of planned behaviour is, as 
described above, that intention forms the immediate antecedent of actual 
behaviour. Secondly, intention is, in its turn, affected by attitudes towards 
behaviour, the subjective norm and perceived behavioural control (Ajzen and 
Fishbein, 2005, p.194).  
Attitudes towards behaviour 
Attitudes towards behaviour reflect the extent to which a person has a favourable 
or unfavourable evaluation or appraisal of the specific behaviour under 
examination. The concept takes account of instrumental (desirable-undesirable) 
and experiential (pleasant-unpleasant) aspects (Ajzen and Fishbein, 2005, p.199). 
As a general rule, attitudes based upon direct experience - the majority of cases 
for labour market behaviour, with the exceptions of adolescents - are more 
predictive of subsequent behaviour than attitudes based upon second hand 
information (Ajzen and Fishbein, 2005, p.180). Ajzen and Fishbein (2005) 
assume that automatic attitudinal activations take place when there is a strong link 
in memory that evaluates (positively or negatively) the object of the attitudes. The 
strength of the attitude thus relates to the strength of the association: the stronger 
the attitude, the more automatically and frequently accessible the association is 
from memory. “Strong attitudes involve issues of personal relevance and are held 
with great convictions or certainty. As a result they are assumed to be persistent 
                                                           
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  The model of planned behaviour is not fully used in this study. This study primarily concerns a 
sociological exploration to understand the heterogeneous employment pattern among Dutch 
mothers. More precisely: it is aimed at revealing recognisable patterns among groups of Dutch 
mothers by exploring underlying different decision-making and micro-socialization processes that 
have led to their current labour market behaviour. This topic is at the junction of psychology and 
sociology, therefore the theoretical framework is inspired by the model of planned behaviour, but 
the purpose of this study is not to apply the model thoroughly. 

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Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
48 
over time and be resistant to attack, to influence perception and judgements and 
guide overt behaviour” (Ajzen and Fishbein, 2005, p.187).  Preference theory of 
Hakim (2000, 2003a-d) appears to have some similarities with this part of the 
theory of planned behaviour. Yet, Hakim does not focus on preferences or 
intentions as mediating factors between attitudes and behaviour, rather puts the 
importance of personal life goal preferences (which can be best compared with 
attitudes to behaviour) directly in relation to labour market behaviour. In this 
study, however, it is argued that attitudes are closer (but not identical) to 
intentions (work preferences) rather than to behaviour. Later on, I will 
concentrate further on Hakim’s theory.  
Subjective and descriptive norms 
The second predictor of intention is a social factor termed subjective norms: 
whether a person expects to receive social approval or disapproval for performing 
a specific behaviour. Subjective norms could also be defined as the perceived 
social pressure from close ties. The theoretical notion corresponds with the 
contingent consistency theory, also formed under the discipline of social 
psychology, which suggest that the effect of attitudes on behaviour grow stronger 
in cases where a person perceives there to be social endorsement of their intended 
behaviour (Grube and Morgan, 1990; also Cialdini, et al. 1990 in Tiemeijer, 
Thomas and Prast, 2009, p.142). Grube and Morgan demonstrated in their large-
scale empirical study among Irish students that individuals will act upon a 
favourable attitude only if there is reasonable certainty that the behaviour will not 
be disapproved by personally significant referents (Grube and Morgan, 1990, 
p.330). The understanding of the impact of the perceived support from significant 
others on one’s behaviour also has important similarities with the theory of 
socialization and the theory of social learning (Bandura, 1977; Berger and 
Luckmann, 1967), both of which are described in more detail in the next section. 
The distinction between subjective norms and descriptive norms is also 
relevant. Descriptive norms refer to the perceived actual behaviour  of general 
others (Tiemeijer, 2012, p.64), whereas subjective norms can be defined as the 
perceived opinion about the preferred behaviour of significant others (Cialdini, 
Kallgren and Reno, 1991). For example, a descriptive norm could be: I think most 
mothers are working part-time, so I should do that as well. On the other hand, a 
subjective norm would be: most likely my parents will give me their approval if I 
work part-time and disapprove if I work full-time. This study expects that both 
types of social norm intertwine with work preferences, although the subjective 
norm will be seen to be more deeply rooted within people as a consequence of 
primary socialization. 

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