title: Notes on prediction of behavioural change in evaluation of drug education.
abstract: Much drug education has, rightly or wrongly, been concerned, implicitly or explicitly, with affecting the probability of drug use. This note is concerned with the assumption, often underlying both the application of educational methods and their evaluation, that behaviour change is somehow caused by changes in attitude and can be predicted on the basis of changes in response to attitude scales. Evaluation results are discussed to demonstrate that attitude and behaviour do not necessarily co-vary as one might expect. A model of choice is outlined as a step towards a more adequate formulation that recognises the situational context of verbal and non-verbal behaviours.
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D001519:Behavior; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations