Using theories to develop practice
‘ Theory ’ can seem like the opposite of ‘ practice ’ – something rather remote and inaccessible , even irrelevant . We ’ d like to introduce a few ideas that we think are particularly helpful and which provide frameworks that can be pretty easily transferred across into practice .
We hope that you will find that they make sense – not just because we have described them beautifully (!) but because you can see how they relate to , and help to explain , issues and challenges that you recognise from your own experience . The next step is then to use them in the design of your own approaches .
A brief overview of some theories will be provided here , but we have also included some references for more indepth reading if you find yourself inspired to read more . We ’ ve obviously not included all the theories that might be relevant - just a few that appealed to the innovators we engaged with and which seemed the most readily transferable into practice .
An accessible summary of these theories can be found at https :// www . rospa . com / rospaweb / docs / advice-services / road-safety / practitioners / evidencebased-intervention-guide . pdf .
The Theory of Reasoned Action
Developed to explain how and why individual behavioural choices ( like the decision to ‘ use ’ a mobile phone ) are made , the Theory of Reasoned Action ( TRA ) states that behavioural intention is the greatest predictor of behaviour , and that attitudes and perceived social pressure ( known as subjective norms ) influence that behavioural intention ¹. Attitudes exist in two forms according to this theory ; evaluation – the content of the attitude , and strength of belief – the level of belief in the attitude . Subjective norms can also be understood as existing in two parts ; normative beliefs - perceptions of others ’ expectations ( what we think other people think ) and motivation to comply – personal importance of others ’ expectations ( whether we care what these people think ).
Within our context , according to this model , risky attitudes and the belief that others accept risky behaviour ( or a disregard for the opinion of others ) may lead to risky road user behaviour . So we may expect people to be influenced by their own attitudes as well as by how they think others think about things .
You can find more relevant theory ( particulary criminological theory ) in the section all about offenders ( p57 +)
¹ Fishbein , M ., & Ajzen , I . ( 1975 ). Belief , attitude , intention , and behavior : An introduction to theory and research . Reading , MA : Addison-Wesley .
Many of our ‘ accessible academics ’ ( p146-154 ) are also experts in translating theories like these into practice .
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