Present Commitments: Their Relationship To One's Acceptance of Community Change and Programs

Abstract

This study developed and tested a model for analyzing learn ing situations and communities prior to implementing programs. Tested and supported with qualifications in a rural Wisconsin community, this model proposes that present behavioral commit ments could be used to predict commitments to new social ideas and potential educational programs. The present and past commit ments were both socio-economic (i.e., investments in local prop erty) and social psychological (i.e., interactions with others on new issues). Attitude intensities toward the new ideas operationalized the commitments to the new ideas. The socio-economic type com mitments predicted commitments to the new ideas better, thus suggesting that adult educators who wish to know the probable success and acceptance of a program must analyze their program ming situations to learn behavioral commitments people have already made.