ATTITUDINAL AND NORMATIVE PROCESSES IN HEALTH BEHAVIOR

Given the importance of the distinction between attitudes and subjecti ve norms for a variety of theories and interventions in social cogniti on and in the psychology of health, the present article presents a rev iew of the relevant literature. Criticisms raised against the distinct ion include conceptual arguments, large correlations between attitudes and subjective norms, crossover effects, and methodological issues. P oints in favor of the distinction include discriminant validity data, individual differences in the weights placed on attitudes and subjecti ve norms, experimental manipulations of attitudes and subjective norms , and cognitive clustering of the beliefs presumed to underlie attitud es and subjective norms. Finally, implications' of the distinction for recent research on interventions, social identity theory, and the sel f are considered.