Theory of planned behaviour and religiosity in coping with the covid 19 pandemic in Malaysia

Research dealing with various aspects of the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1987) is reviewed, and some unresolved issues are discussed in coping of COVID 19 disease in Malaysia. In broad terms, the theory is found to be well supported by empirical evidence. Intentions to perform behaviors of different kinds can be predicted with high accuracy from attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control; and these intentions, together with perceptions of behavioral control, account for considerable variance in actual behavior with religiosity aspect. Attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control and religiosity are shown to be related to appropriate sets of salient behavioral, normative, and control beliefs about the behavior, but the exact nature of these relations is still uncertain. Expectancy. value formulations are found to be only partly successful in dealing with these relations. Optimal rescaling of expectancy and value measures is offered as a means of dealing with measurement limitations. Finally, inclusion of past behavior in the prediction equation is shown to provide a means of testing the theory*s sufficiency, another issue that remains unresolved. The limited available evidence concerning this question shows that the theory is predicting behavior quite well in comparison to the ceiling imposed by religiosity elemen of COVID 19 disease in Malaysia. Keywords-theory of planned behavior, religiosity, COVID 19 disease 1 Research Centre for Quran and Sunnah, Faculty of Islamic Studies, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. 2 Research Centre for Theology & Philosophy, Faculty of Islamic Studies UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia, Email: zaizul@ukm.edu.my 3 Senior Lecturer, Sharia Research Centre, Faculty of Islamic Studies and Institute of Islam Hadhari, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. Email: izhar@ukm.edu.my 4 Research Centre for Theology & Philosophy, Faculty of Islamic Studies and Institute of Islam Hadhari, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. Email: a_yunusl@ukm.edu.my 5 CITRA University and Institute of Islam Hadhari, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. 6 Research Centre for Quran and Sunnah, Faculty of Islamic Studies, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. 7 Faculty of Islamic Studies. Universiti Sultan Azlan Shah, Perak, Malaysia 8 Research Centre for Da‟wah and Leadership, Faculty of Islamic Studies, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. 9 Centre for Education, Dakwah and Islamic Civilization Studies, Faculty of Contemporary Islamic Studies, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin 10 Department of Aqidah and Islamic Thought, Academy of Islamic Studies, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. 11 Research Centre for Quran and Sunnah, Faculty of Islamic Studies, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. 12 Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Melaka Campus, Malaysia. International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Vol. 24, Issue 01, 2020 ISSN: 1475-7192 Received: 22 Sep 2019 | Revised: 13 Oct 2019 | Accepted: 15 Jan 2020 5563