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Chapter 2 - Theoretical framework and hypotheses 
49 
Perceived behavioural control 
The third determinant of intention is the degree of perceived behavioural control, 
corresponding to the extent to which a person feels able to enact the behaviour, 
which itself is related to the supposed ease or difficulty of performing the 
behaviour. It is an understanding based on past experiences as well as on 
expected hindrances and obstacles (Ajzen, 1991). This concept is related to the 
concept of perceived self-efficacy which refers to a person’s judgments 
concerning how well one can execute the courses of action required to deal with 
future situations (Bandura, 2001). Behavioural control also affects the behaviour 
directly, and is therefore considered more important within the decision-making 
process towards action compared to attitudes and subjective norms (see figure 1). 
In this study, perceived behavioural control can be compared with the more 
sociological notion of self-agency, as will be further explored in chapter 3. As a 
general rule, the more positive and robust (consistent and easily accessible in 
memory) the attitude and expected approval (subjective norm) towards the overt 
action, and the greater the perceived behavioural control, the stronger will be the 
effect of intentions on the performed behaviour (Ajzen, 1991).  
Behavioural, normative and control beliefs 
The third theoretical part of the theory of planned behaviour, and certainly the 
least developed and empirically explored area, is the view that salient beliefs 
influence attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. Such 
beliefs are also referred to as accessible beliefs (Sutton, French, Hennnings, 
Mitchell, Wareham, Griffin, Hardeman and Kinmonth, 2003, p.235). Three kinds 
of primary belief are distinguished: behavioural beliefs (assumed to influence 
attitudes toward behaviour), normative beliefs (which constitute the underlying 
determinants of subjective norms) and control beliefs (which provide the basis for 
perceptions of behavioural control) (Ajzen, 1991). Once again, the strength of the 
given belief contributes to the likelihood of the intention being fulfilled. The last 
part of the theory holds that these behavioral, normative and control beliefs can 
all be the result of various background factors, such educational level, income, 
religion or personality.  
Behavioural beliefs are defined as 
the negative and positive views about 
engaging in specific behaviours
. Accordingly, respondents are asked to consider 
both the advantages and disadvantages, or costs and benefits, of performing the 
behaviour of interest (instrumental focus).  Similarly they are asked whether they 
would like or dislike the behaviour in question (affective focus) (Ajzen and 
Fishbein, 1991, p.191). In other words, behavioural beliefs relate to the 
desirability of the outcome of behaviour in people’s minds, which also can be 
defined as intrinsic beliefs. Normative beliefs concern the underlying wishes of 
individuals to behave consistently with the expectations people who are important 
to them. And control beliefs are the set of more general beliefs behind 

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Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
50 
behavioural control, which consider the availability of necessary resources and 
opportunities, based for example on the experiences that friends have had with 
the intended action. 
Figure 1. Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) 
 
The definition of behavioural beliefs has some similarities with the more 
sociological concept of values, which is one of the key concepts of this study. As 
a result, I pay extra attention to the concept of behavioural beliefs. Van Deth and 
Scarbrough (1995) define values as being motives and ideals that are considered 
worthwhile to pursue. Values are often not concrete, but can be understood as 
some basic underlying dispositions that conduct attitudes of individuals in a 
specific context (Van Deth and Scarbrough, 1995, p.38).  “Values only get to see 
‘the light of day’ by their contributions to the formulation of attitudes” (Van Deth 
and Scarbrough, 1995, p.40). Examples of values that include perceived 
consequences of mothers’ labour market behaviour are: “A child that is not yet 
attending school is likely to suffer if its mother has a job”, or, “Overall, family 
life suffers if the mother has a full-time job”. These general beliefs or values are 
clearly distinct from more concrete and personal attitudes (or attitudes to 
behaviour), such as: “I work in order to be economically independent” or “I want 
to work, because I would go mad if I stayed home with the kids all day”. 
Within this study, values are viewed as the elements behind attitudes, which is 
in accordance with the above sociological perspective of values and attitudes, as 
well as being in line with the theory of Ajzen and Fishbein (Becker, J.W. et al., 
1983, p.19-20). Nevertheless, empirical research on this theoretical distinction, 
implying a causal relationship between values and attitudes, is scarce.
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 Also, 
                                                           
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  Van Deth and Scarbrough (1995) assumed theoretically that values are predictable for attitudes, 
but they use the value concept heuristically and not empirically. They view values as the 

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Chapter 2 - Theoretical framework and hypotheses 
51 
Ajzen and Fishbein admitted that despite there being sufficient empirical 
evidence for there being significant relations between the different types of 
beliefs towards attitudes, norms and perception of control, the exact form of these 
relations remains uncertain. There is certainly room for improvement here, and 
more work is required at the conceptual level to explain the effect of general 
values or beliefs on attitudes and specific behaviours (Ajzen, 1991, p.206; Ajzen 
and Fishbein, 2005). Sutton et al. (2003) concluded that this last stage within the 
model of planned behaviour has received relatively little attention from 
researchers (p.235). As a result, a criticism of the theory of planned behaviour is 
linked to the principle of correspondence between the object of values or beliefs, 
attitudes and intention, which, for respondents to questionnaires, are particularly 
difficult to distinguish. As a result, strong correlations are to be expected, and yet 
these are of less importance scientifically (Swanborn, 1996, p.38).  
The theory of planned behaviour has further critics, who address the problem 
of causality and insufficient consideration of external constraints. Yet because the 
character of this criticism resembles that of the opponents of the supposed causal 
attitudinal-behavioural relationship within sociological labour market studies, I 
will firstly address similar sociological theories about the impact of (general) 
values and (personal) attitudes on behaviour, before proceeding to concentrate on 
the critics of Ajzen and Fishbein’s theory. 
Sociological views on the impact of values and attitudes on employment patterns 
Hakim (2000, 2003a-c) was one of the first sociological scholars to argue that 
women’s decisions about how much to work are based on their personal sex role 
and work attitudes, which are defined as personal lifestyle preferences. Hakim 
stressed that individual attitudes have important short-term and long-term impacts 
on labour participation. Due to various social and economic changes that started 
in the late 20th century, such as the contraceptive revolution, the equal 
opportunity revolution and the expansion of white collar occupations, individual 
lifestyle preferences today play a more important role in mothers’ decisions to 
participate in paid work and to make use of childcare arrangements than macro-
level institutions do (Hakim, 2000). Hakim also claimed that attitudinal factors 
have become more important than institutions and structures in explaining female 
employment, although institutions and structures still play some part as well. 
“Preferences do not express themselves in a vacuum, but within the context of 
local social and cultural institutions” (Hakim, 2000, p.168). And yet ideas about 
labour market participation and childcare are now becoming decisive factors for 
participation in childcare arrangements. “For example, one young woman 
                                                                                                                                    
conceptions of the desirable, which are not directly observable but are evident in moral discourse 
and relevant for the formulations of attitudes. The observable patterns of behaviour based on 
attitudes are seen as evidence of constraints. The constraints are in themselves not directly 
observable, but it is the assumption of constraint, on their part as researchers, that explains the 
consistencies between several attitudes (p.40-46).
 

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