Hellenic Journal of Psychology, Vol. 2 (2005), pp.

243-259

THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR AND HEALTH BEHAVIOURS:

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL
ISSUES
Bojan Bilic
CITY College, Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract: The paper critically analyses the capacity of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to predict
health behaviours. However, rather than focusing on specific health behaviours, the paper employs them as
a framework for exploring the underlying methodological and theoretical issues that can interfere with both
the reliability and the validity of the findings based on the TPB. It is argued that although the TPB can be
regarded as an effective and parsimonious model for predicting health behaviours, there are serious
conceptual problems that call for further research. Also, the final section of the paper outlines general
difficulties in explaining human behaviour that will probably cause the TPB to be incorporated into a larger
integrative model of human action.

Key words: Health behaviour, Human action, Theory of planned behaviour.

Address: Bojan Bilic, CITY College, 24 Proxenou Koromila Str., Thessaloniki 546 22, Greece. Tel.: +30-
2310-325143. E-mail: b.bilic@city.academic.gr

*Published in English.