THE IMPORTANCE OF ANTICIPATED EMOTIONS IN THE INTENTION TO DO THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO

Abstract

The fundamental objective of this work is to ascertain the importance of emotions in the intention of doing the Camino de Santiago. The sample comprises 312 subjects from Europe and the Americas aged between 18 and 80 years. The results show that positive anticipated emotions emerge as a variable to be taken into account within the explanatory model, since they increase its predictive capacity (SR2 = 1.6%) and the relationship thereof is also direct and significant with intent (ß = .09).

Headnote

Abstract: The fundamental objective of this work is to ascertain the importance of emotions in the intention of doing the Camino de Santiago. The sample comprises 312 subjects from Europe and the Americas aged between 18 and 80 years. The results show that positive anticipated emotions emerge as a variable to be taken into account within the explanatory model, since they increase its predictive capacity (SR2 = 1.6%) and the relationship thereof is also direct and significant with intent (ß = .09).

Keywords: attitudes, anticipated emotions, moral norm, restorative potential, theory of planned behaviour, intention to do the Camino de Santiago

1.Introduction

The history of the Camino de Santiago dates back to King Alfonso IIs pilgrimage from Oviedo to venerate the remains of Apostle St James found in Compostela, thus officially becoming the first pilgrim and inaugurating the route of the so-called Camino Primitivo [Primitive Way]. From the eighth century to the present, an endless stream of walkers of different races, ages, gender, continents and social status have come to Santiago de Compostela (Spain) along the different routes, carrying motivations of different types in their backpacks: some recreational, others religious and for many it is a combination of both. The aim of this work is to ascertain the variables that have a bearing on the intention to do the Camino de Santiago, taking into account that in recent years and according to the data collected in the Office of the Pilgrim of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain), participation has been increasing exponentially, making the different routes of the Camino de Santiago among the world's most travelled. From psychology in general, and from social psychology in particular, our interest lies in determining the variables that influence the intention to do the Camino de Santiago and discovering which of them are involved in its undertaking, i.e. what exactly drives or encourages pilgrims to walk hundreds of kilometres to earn their Compostela pilgrimage certificate.

As Bosnjak, Ajzen, and Schmidt (2020) point out, from a psychosocial perspective, one of the theories that have provided the greatest empirical support for the explanation of the intention of conduct has been the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). In accordance with this theory, the immediate determinant of behaviour is behavioural intention. This, in turn, is determined by the attitude towards the behaviour, the subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. Nonetheless, there are factors which can limit the subjects' desire to follow a determined behaviour. Accordingly, perceived control, along with intention, is also considered to be an immediate determinant of behaviour.

One further advantage of the TPB is its capacity for incorporating additional relevant influences. Since the formulation of the theory, a large number of studies have been conducted which have included different variables with the aim of increasing the explanatory power thereof. In this work, additional emotional variables have been incorporated, given that they have functioned in other studies, those referred to above, and to date have never been included in the scope of study of the Camino de Santiago.

Here, it should be noted that the consideration of emotions in the setting of this theory is not new. Ajzen himself, in a study from 2013 in collaboration with Sheikh, examined the 'anticipated emotion' variable within the framework of the TBP. Despite these authors concluding that this variable has a significant bearing on intent, they also assert that its contribution is merely residual, meaning that it would not require a measure of its own as it would be included in the measure of attitude. However, the behavioural intent studied here can have a high emotional involvement that is difficult to address in its entirety from a socio-cognitive model, such as the TBP, which considers the individual from a basically rational perspective. In the setting of social psychology, recent studies support the inclusion of emotional variables into the original model (Durán, Ferraces, Rodríguez, and Sabucedo 2016, Durán, Ferraces, Rodríguez, Río, and Sabucedo 2017).

Moral norm differs from the subjective norm insofar as the latter is subject to self-approval and not to the approval of others. Owing to the characteristics of the behaviour studied here, and the existence of certain studies that have found a modest, although direct and significant contribution with the intention of carrying out other kinds of intentions by introducing this variable into the explanation of the model (Jellema, Abraham, Schaalma, Gebhardt, and Empelen 2013, Durán et al. 2016), it was also decided to incorporate it in the proposal for our explanatory model.

Owing to the foregoing, the principal objectives of this study can be specified as follows: 1) to ascertain the contribution of variables inherent in TBP in the explanation of the intention to undertake the Camino de Santiago; 2) to ascertain the possible contribution that the variables incorporated into the original model contribute in the explanation of said intention; and, 3) to specify the type of explanatory relationship established between the different variables.

2.Method

2.1.Participants

For the study, a sample of N = 312 participants aged between 18 and 80 years was used, with 58% female and 42% male. The mean age ranges between the age bands of 18 to 30 years (31.4%) and 45 to 60 years (30.8%), with 51.3% from Spain and 42.9% of Latin America comprising the majority of the sample.

2.2.Measures

In order to conduct this research, a questionnaire was constructed on the basis of the instructions specified by Ajzen (2006), Ajzen and Sheikh (2013) and Durán (2016, 2017).

Five-point Likert scales have been used to measure the variables, except in the case of attitudes for which a semantic differential was used. The corresponding limits will be specified in each specific case.

To measure Attitude toward the Behaviour, we used an item comprising five pairs of adjectives, taking into account the two components in the overall evaluation of the individual, and referred to by Ajzen as an instrumental component (harmful-beneficial) and another more experimental component (pleasant-unpleasant), respectively. The following item was used: "In my opinion, doing the Camino de Santiago would be..., harmful/beneficial, pleasant/unpleasant, useful/useless, good/ bad, fun/boring".

To measure the Subjective Norm, 4 items were prepared, with the aim of including those expectations that subjects believe are held by their significant groups: "Most people you care about think that (you should/should not) do the Camino at least once in your life." The people you care about expect you to do the Camino de Santiago on some occasion," (extremely unlikely/ extremely likely). "The people whose opinion you value (would approve/disapprove) of you doing the Camino de Santiago." "The people whose opinion you value (have not done the Camino de Santiago/have done the Camino de Santiago)".

According to Ajzen (2001), a direct measurement of Perceived Behavioural Control must reflect both the individuals' confidence in their capabilities of performing the behaviour under study (self-efficacy) and their belief that they have control over behaviour, i.e., that their actions have something to do with their behaviour or not (controllability). According to these authors, the scale for behavioural control must contain these two types of items. On the basis thereof, 4 items were used, 2 based on self-efficacy: "For you, doing the Camino de Santiago on some occasion is, ... (ranging from 'totally possible' to 'totally impossible'). "If you wanted, you could do the Camino de Santiago at some point in your life" (between completely false and completely true); and 2 items based on controllability: "How much control do you think you have over the fact of doing the Camino do Santiago on some occasion?" (ranging from 'I have no control' to 'I have full control'). "It is almost entirely up to you to do the Camino Santiago on some occasion" (between 'totally disagree' and 'totally agree').

To ascertain Intention, 2 items were used: "I intend to do the Camino de Santiago". "I will try to do some of the stages." With the response options ranging from 'highly improbable' to 'highly probable' for the former, and from 'definitively false' to 'definitively true' for the latter.

To measure Anticipated Emotion, 1 item was used, containing 5 emotions, both positive and negative, which are evaluated, like those referred to above, on a five-point scale, where 1 = not at all and 5 = totally. "What do you think you would feel if you did the Camino de Santiago: anger, enthusiasm, fear, joy, or confidence?"

2.3.Procedure

The wording of each item was presented clearly and precisely, in a manner that allowed subjects to provide value judgements, thus offering different opposing alternatives, ranging from the most favourable to the most unfavourable, depending on different categories or response options. Each subject responded to both Likert (1-5) and semantic differential scales. In order to analyse the results obtained, a numerical value was assigned to these categories, whilst always maintaining the internal coherence of the trait to be measured.

To avoid stereotypical responses, the various items were combined with each other, so that not all statements denoting positive or favourable perceptions were placed on one side, i.e., at the beginning or end of the questionnaire or opposite those which indicated a more negative or unfavourable perception than the previous ones.

The questionnaire was implemented using the Google Forms platform and distributed on-line, in order reach as many participants as possible in the dissemination thereof.

The participation of individuals was voluntary and anonymous and, given the pandemic that is currently raging, the instrument was applied via email and social networks, sending the questionnaire to different organisations and groups, and allowing them to manage the dissemination themselves, so that none of the information related to the participants under study was handled by or made available to us.

2.4.Data analysis

To establish the possible dimensionality of both anticipated and evoked emotions, an exploratory factorial analysis was performed. It was then verified that the data complied with the assumption of multivariate normality and an analysis of the a internal consistency coefficients and the correlations between the variables was conducted. Two hierarchical regressions were subsequently performed to verify whether the variables incorporated into the original model increased the explained variance and predicted intention better. A path analysis was then performed with AMAN 20 to ascertain the type of relationships that were established between all the variables.

3.Results

Table 1 shows the descriptives, the a internal consistency coefficients and the correlations between variables. The a internal consistency coefficients are all of a high magnitude (between .72 and .92). It can also be observed that all the variables analysed have significant relationships with the dependent variable, except for negative anticipated emotions. The correlations of attitude (AT) (r2 = .62), Subjective Norm (SN) (r2 = .61) and positive anticipated emotion (PAE) (r2 = .55) and the correlation between positive anticipated emotions and attitude (r2 = .69) should be highlighted.

With regard to the hierarchical regression data in the prediction of Intentions (Table 2), in Step 1 it is observed that the TPB variables are all significant and account for 50.6 % of the variants (F (2,309) = 83.46; p = .0001). In Step 2, PAE and Moral Norm (MN) were included. The former was added to the regression equation as a new predictive variable, once again increasing the variance by 1.6 % (F(1,297) =52.01;p = .0001). However, MN does not enter this equation. In addition to being the one that provides the greatest expansion power, the latter model also shows that the built-in emotional variable contributes modestly but significantly in improving the original model's predictive capacity.

Considering the initial results, a path analysis was carried out to help better understand not only the contribution of each one of the variables analysed, but also the type of relationships which were established between them, above all with the incorporated affective variable. Figure 1 shows the causal model indicating the value of the coefficients that estimate the effects involved, as well as the statistical significance thereof. These are standardised (ß) coefficients obtained through regression techniques. In the resulting model, it can be seen that there is a direct influence of AT (ß = .38), PBC (ß = -.25) and PAE (ß = -.09) on the Intention. The SN also exercises an indirect influence on the intention to do the Camino through PBC. Total variance explained is 72 % and the model fit is good (x2 = 4,60; g.l. = 2; p = .001; x2/ g.l. = 7.30; GFI = .996; CFI = .993; RMSEA = .067 [.038- .102]); SRMR=.018 (<.05).

4.Discussion

Traditionally, it has been debated whether the possible influence of emotions is captured in the concept of attitude towards behaviour. These results would seem to transcend this debate, as not only can one clearly observe the need to differentiate between them, but it is also patent that emotions not only assume part of the role played by Attitude towards behaviour and Perceived Behavioural Control in explaining the behavioural Intention, but it also emerges as a direct and significant variable in relation to Intention. Thus, not only would this debate be clearly limited, since no reference whatsoever is made therein to the relationship between emotion and behavioural control, but it may also even be artificial, or at the very least questionable, insofar as our data point towards the relevance of the emotional component and, hence, would justify the inclusion thereof into a more complete model for predicting behaviour such as that analysed in this study. Hence these variables cannot be reduced to simple residual and insignificant relationships already included in Attitude and Perceived Behavioural Control. This direct relationship opens up a new field in which to investigate these contributions beyond the TPB model.

Thus, from the results of the hierarchical regression and the path analysis, we can extract a number of different considerations. On the one hand, the inclusion of positive emotional variables is shown to contribute significantly to increasing the variance explained for the proposed model. Thus, the subjects who intend to do the Camino de Santiago are those who have a positive attitude toward doing it, who anticipate positive emotions when visualising it, who anticipate the possibility of doing so - with which the relevance of the emotional component seems to confirm the importance of its consideration in a model, irrespective of whether this model already includes an attitudinal measure as well -, and who consider themselves to have the control necessary to be able to carry it out (PBC). Doing the Camino de Santiago implies not only willingness, but also the perception that one is fit enough to undertake the hundred kilometres required to earn the Compostela. The Subjective Norm has an indirect relationship with intent through Perceived Behavioural Control. This would seem to indicate that our participants do not perceive the need for their most significant environment to have done the Camino to have the intention to do so. Here it should be noted that, as far as this sample is concerned, norms of moral obligation are not fundamental in doing the Camino. Although there are many different reasons why people decide to do the Camino de Santiago, it seems that the personal obligation to carry it out does not have a bearing on their decision. We could therefore assume that the intention to do the Camino de Santiago is linked more to emotional components and to attitudinal matters or feelings of effectiveness and controllability of the action than to components of experience and/or moral and social influence.

In the knowledge that these results will need to be tested in more extensive samples, one of the major limitations we continued to encounter when conducting this study was that related with study of emotion. There is an enormous degree of heterogeneity when defining emotional evaluations between different studies (Conner 2013). There is a great deal of multiplicity, both in the selection thereof, the measures employed to evaluate them, and in the temporal perspective (some evoked and others anticipated), which makes it extremely difficult to make comparisons with the results from other studies.

A further limitation is the fact that the study focuses on behavioural intention and not on the behaviour itself. This is principally because, as Ajzen (2013) has already pointed out in his studies, if emotions are indeed related, they would be more related with the intention of performing a behaviour than with the behaviour itself. Given that in his study strong emphasis has been placed on explaining emotions, we have opted for the study of intention. Future research will necessarily also include the study of behaviour itself as an important variable to be taken into account, and the observation of what may be happening in such a step as decisive as that of the intention-behaviour relationship.

Another of the limitations we encountered when conducting this study is the dearth of scientific literature on this topic, this being the first study to address the undertaking of the Camino de Santiago from a psycho-social perspective.

Sidebar

Received 12 May 2020, accepted 28 May 2021, printed and available online 10 September 2021

Acknowledgements

This article was supported by the Government of Galicia through Grant GI-1456 for Consolidation Reference Groups.

Addresses:

Mar Durán

Faculty of Psychology Department of Social and Basic Psychology and Methodology University of Santiago de Compostela C/ Xosé María Suárez Núñez, s/n Campus Vida 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain Tel.: [phone] E-mail: [email protected]

César San Juan

Faculty of Psychology Department of Social Psychology and Behavioural Science University of the Basque Country C/ Pz Elhuyar, 2 20018 San Sebastián, Spain

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