BEHAVIOR AVAILABILITY AND BEHAVIOR PREFER ENCE - A FORMAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE PREDICTION OF QUALITATIVE BEHAVIORAL EVENTS

The presented paper deals with constructing models for predicting beha vior in situations which do not uniquely define a set of different pos sible behaviors. A formal frame is designed which can be applied as a conceptual basis for constructing models of this kind. The formal fram e rests upon the assumption that in this kind of situations the person 's behavior depends upon two aspects: the first aspect concerns behavi ors the person in question can imagine as possible behaviors (availabi lity of behavior) and the second aspect the behavior the person will j udge as the relatively best behavior (preference of behavior). In the first part of this paper the formal frame is stepwise developped, subs tantiated and discussed with respect to its logical function in resear ch. In the second part an empirical investigation refering to this fra me is presented.