Categorizing common behavioural antecedents as expressed in everyday language

In an effort to explore the meaning of action‐relevant constructs and to uncoverphenom‐ enological similarities and differences among commonly hypothesized antecedents of people's actions, 222 subjects in two studies categorized a variety of statements expressing motivations for doing things (e.g. I'd like to do it, I will do it, I'll try to do it). Cluster and principal‐components analyses yielded an interpretable structural representation consisting of seven different behavioural antecedents: attitudinal determinants of behaviour, social‐normative pressures, self‐efficacy considerations, weak motivational incentives to act, behavioural attempts to reach a goal, intentional influences on behaviour, and volitional considerations reflective of a determination to act. The results are related to previous attempts at specifying distinct antecedents of action, and implications are drawn for future research on the aetiology of human behaviour.