Toward a Unified Framework for Attitudinal Interpretation in Education: Integrating Efficacy, Value, Norms, and Habit

Educational attitude research is theoretically diverse but methodologically fragmented, with most studies relying on single-mechanism models that limit how variation and stability in attitudes are interpreted. This paper proposes a unified interpretive framework that integrates four established accounts of attitudinal processes: Self-Efficacy, Expectancy–Value, Planned Behaviour, and Habitual Action. The framework organises these theories into four interpretive vectors: belief activation, value construction, normative alignment, and patterned enactment, situated within a layered structure that links antecedent conditions to attitudinal expressions.The framework’s methodological contribution lies in providing a structured basis for construct alignment, scale development, and interpretive analysis across quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods designs. Three illustrative vignettes drawn from a multi-phase STEM attitudes study demonstrate how the four vectors clarify demographic, contextual, and developmental patterns that single-theory approaches cannot fully explain.The framework is adaptable across domains and research designs, offering a systematic way to analyse attitudinal data by identifying the mechanisms through which beliefs, values, norms, and habitual processes interact. It supports more coherent interpretation, reduces reliance on single-theory attribution, and offers researchers a practical scaffold for investigating why attitudes shift, stabilise, or persist across educational contexts.