Sexual Self-Regulation Toward Attitude Snyder & DeBono, 1985 posited a connection between attitude and individual differences

in self-regulation. High self-Regulators are people who continually regulate their relation with the environment around them, adjusting their behavior to fit the social demands. Such people tend to agree with such items as In different situations and with different people, I often act like very different persons. In contrast, low self-regulators are less pragmatic in focus: Instead of maintaining awareness of their relations to the social environment, they focus on principles endorsed by the self. As a result, low self-regulators base their behaviors on relevant inner sources such as values, feelings, and dispositions. They tend to agree with such items as My behavior is usually an expression of my true inner feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. With regard to attitude functions, DeBono and Snyder concluded that high self-regulators are more likely to exhibit social-adjustment attitudes, whereas low self-regulators exhibit utilitarian or non value-expressive attitudes. The relationship between self-regulation and attitude function is correct, adolescents whose sexual self-regulation is high are more able to adopt to persuasive massages from significant others as it aims at protecting the social image of the individual and others, whereas low sexual self-regulation adolescents are more inclined to messages other than their immediate others Snyder & DeBono, 1985.

The implication is that attitudes can be directly predictive of behavior when they are univalent; however, when attitudes are ambivalent, behavior is determined by other variables such as behavioral intentions.

The weakness of the link between norms and behavior even led Ajzen (1991) to conclude that personal factors are the primary determinants of behavior.