ABSTRACT
The search for moderators of the attitude-behavior relation was likely sparked by early accumulation of findings that not all attitudes actually prompt behavior. The present "Rocky Road" model views the sequence of contingent transformations from attitudes to wants, to goals, and ultimately to behavioral means as fundamental to understanding how human behavior unfolds. To address the additional steps that need to take place, the present, goal-systemic, analysis depicts a multiply contingent path between attitudes toward objects or states of affairs and behaviors related to those attitudes. Attainability through one's actions contributes to expectancy that one can reach the desired state and sufficiently high expectancy may result in goal formation. Granting sufficient degrees of desirability and attainability, a goal may be formulated but even that need not result in the initiation of behavior. Indeed, a close inspection of each of the many attitude strength studies demonstrating its relation to behavior inevitably reveals unarticulated goals lurking in the background.
