Integrated Behavior Model

What is the Integrated Behavioral Model?

The Integrated Behavioral Model (IBM) brings together ideas from reasoned-action approaches to explain intentions and the conditions under which people act on them. It considers attitudes, perceived norms, and personal agency, together with the skills and environmental conditions needed for action.

Fishbein’s account (2008) explains that a favorable intention is more likely to lead to action when the person has the necessary skills and is not prevented by environmental constraints. Attitudes, perceived normative pressures, and perceived control or self-efficacy contribute to intention.

Skills, salience, constraints, and habit

The Health Behavior and Health Education companion also specifies knowledge and skills, salience of the behavior, environmental constraints, and habit. In this version, the behavior must be something the person can perform and has in mind; previous performance may make deliberate intention less central.

How IBM relates to reasoned action and planned behavior

In the Theory of Reasoned Action, normative beliefs concern social expectations. In IBM, perceived control concerns being able to perform the behavior.

The framework suggests different questions when someone does not want to act and when they want to act but cannot. Identifying an association among beliefs and intentions does not prove which intervention will change behavior. Specify the target action and examine the person’s actual circumstances.