Any action or behavior that has negative consequences for a group or society

Anticipation of one's own actions' effects drives goal-directed behavior. In multitasking environments, the learning of stable action-effect associations seems particularly important, because establishing reliable response-effect associations for multiple competing tasks may help to differentiate between these tasks and thereby improve task-switching performance. Action-effects not only have cognitive, but also motivational aspects and often the consequences of our actions are hedonically marked. Thus, the anticipated hedonic quality of action-effects may also become part of the task representation, and positive and negative affect may distinctly modulate task-switching performance. We report a pre-registered experiment (N = 120) designed to examine how positive, negative, and neutral valence of action-effects impact performance in a cued task-switching paradigm. Pictures from the IAPS database were used to manipulate the action-effects' valence. Affective valence determined reaction times: participants who learned positive or negative action-effects responded faster than participants in the control condition. In particular, task-switch trials were faster in both conditions than in the control condition, while task-repetition trials were comparable across valence conditions. Our results further suggest that performance improvements in the positive and negative valence conditions occurred for different reasons. Negative action-effects expedited responses specifically for the task that produced the unpleasant outcome, while positive affect more generally promoted performance of both tasks. These findings point toward distinct roles of positive and negative valence of action-effects in regulating multitasking performance.

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) started as the Theory of Reasoned Action in 1980 to predict an individual's intention to engage in a behavior at a specific time and place. The theory was intended to explain all behaviors over which people have the ability to exert self-control. The key component to this model is behavioral intent; behavioral intentions are influenced by the attitude about the likelihood that the behavior will have the expected outcome and the subjective evaluation of the risks and benefits of that outcome.  

The TPB has been used successfully to predict and explain a wide range of health behaviors and intentions including smoking, drinking, health services utilization, breastfeeding, and substance use, among others. The TPB states that behavioral achievement depends on both motivation (intention) and ability (behavioral control). It distinguishes between three types of beliefs - behavioral, normative, and control. The TPB is comprised of six constructs that collectively represent a person's actual control over the behavior.

  1. Attitudes - This refers to the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of the behavior of interest. It entails a consideration of the outcomes of performing the behavior.
  2. Behavioral intention - This refers to the motivational factors that influence a given behavior where the stronger the intention to perform the behavior, the more likely the behavior will be performed.
  3. Subjective norms - This refers to the belief about whether most people approve or disapprove of the behavior. It relates to a person's beliefs about whether peers and people of importance to the person think he or she should engage in the behavior.  
  4. Social norms - This refers to the customary codes of behavior in a group or people or larger cultural context. Social norms are considered normative, or standard, in a group of people.
  5. Perceived power - This refers to the perceived presence of factors that may facilitate or impede performance of a behavior. Perceived power contributes to a person's perceived behavioral control over each of those factors.
  6. Perceived behavioral control - This refers to a person's perception of the ease or difficulty of performing the behavior of interest. Perceived behavioral control varies across situations and actions, which results in a person having varying perceptions of behavioral control depending on the situation. This construct of the theory was added later, and created the shift from the Theory of Reasoned Action to the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Any action or behavior that has negative consequences for a group or society

Limitations of the Theory of Planned Behavior

There are several limitations of the TPB, which include the following:  

  • It assumes the person has acquired the opportunities and resources to be successful in performing the desired behavior, regardless of the intention.
  • It does not account for other variables that factor into behavioral intention and motivation, such as fear, threat, mood, or past experience.
  • While it does consider normative influences, it still does not take into account environmental or economic factors that may influence a person's intention to perform a behavior.
  • It assumes that behavior is the result of a linear decision-making process, and does not consider that it can change over time.
  • While the added construct of perceived behavioral control was an important addition to the theory, it doesn't say anything about actual control over behavior.
  • The time frame between "intent" and "behavioral action" is not addressed by the theory.

The TPB has shown more utility in public health than the Health Belief Model, but it is still limiting in its inability to consider environmental and economic influences. Over the past several years, researchers have used some constructs of the TPB and added other components from behavioral theory to make it a more integrated model. This has been in response to some of the limitations of the TPB in addressing public health problems.

Is known as any action or behavior that has negative consequences for a group or society an effect of structures that fosters social instability?

Definition of Dysfunction (noun) Any action or behavior that has negative consequences for a group or society; an effect of structures that fosters social instability.

What is social dysfunction in sociology?

According to sociologist Robert K. Merton, social dysfunction is an undesirable consequence that results when the structure of a social system is maladapted to the functions it is intended to perform. Social dysfunctions may be manifest, latent, or both.

Who used the term social dysfunction?

3 Social Dysfunctions Heiner Koch The conservative tendency of functionalism lies in its functionally ex- plaining institutions as sustaining (existing) society.