Canonical correlates of the theory of reasoned action for students choosing to major in engineering

The present study was designed to determine whether the Theory of Reasoned Action variables of behavioral beliefs, evaluation of behavioral outcomes, normative beliefs, and motivation would be plausible in explaining how students choose to major in engineering. The study was also designed to identify the relationship extraneous variables regarding age of decision, high school academic rank, gender, race, parental education, size of community, and selected demographic variables of their permanent residence (size of community and distance to school) of students choosing to major in engineering at Auburn University with the Theory of Reasoned Action variables.; The sample for this study included 2,132 students who entered Auburn University as freshmen in the pre-engineering program fall quarters between 1997 and 2000. As a part the entrance requirement, students in the pre-engineering program complete a 248-question survey called the College Freshman Survey, Engineering Form developed by Halpin and Halpin (1996). A total of 19 questions were used from the College Freshman Survey, Engineering Form addressing what were potential influences to their decision to major in engineering.; Principal factors extraction with varimax rotation was performed using principal axis factoring analysis on the 19 questions relating potential influences to major in engineering. The resulting four factors were representative of the Theory of Reasoned Action model regarding behavioral beliefs (beliefs about outcome and evaluation of outcome) and subjective social norms (social referent and motivation to comply). Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients were computed on the survey questions relating to the four factors. Coefficients ranged from .4872 to .7893, with the greatest reliability being found for behavioral beliefs and the least for normative beliefs.; The canonical correlation (R_C = .310) between a Theory of Reasoned Action canonical variates and a canonical variate for extraneous variables was contained in the first canonical function explaining 9.6% of the shared variance. The first canonical root structure coefficients indicated that those who have normative beliefs (.566) are less inclined to choose a major in engineering because of behavioral beliefs (−.542) and evaluation of behavioral outcomes (−.572). Further, students choosing to major in engineering were found to be White (.612), males (−.756), and whose father's have higher educational levels (.442).