What is Attitde?

What is Attitde?

A predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person, or situation. Attitude influences an individual's choice of action, and responses to challenges, incentives, and rewards (together called stimuli).

Major Components Of Attitude

Four major components of attitude are:L
(1) Affective: emotions or feelings.
(2) Cognitive: belief or opinions held consciously.
(3) Conative: inclination for action.

(1). Cognitive Attitude - 

Cognitive Attitude our thoughts, beliefs, and ideas about something. When a human being is the object of an attitude, the cognitive component is frequently a stereotype, e.g. "welfare recipients are lazy" 

(2). Affective Attitude -

Affective Attitude feelings or emotions that something evokes. e.g. fear, sympathy, hate. May dislike welfare recipients. 

(3). Conative, or behavioral Attitude- 

Behavioral Attitude tendency or disposition to act in certain ways toward something. Might want to keep welfare recipients out of our neighborhood. Emphasis is on the tendency to act, not the actual acting; what we intend and what we do may be quite different.

How Do Attitudes Influence Behavior?

We tend to assume that people behave in accordance with their attitudes. However, social psychologists have found that attitudes and actual behavior are not always perfectly aligned. After all, plenty of people support a particular candidate or political party and yet fail to go out and vote.

Researchers have discovered that people are more likely to behave according to their attitudes under certain conditions:

• When your attitudes are the result of personal experience.

• When you are an expert in the subject.

• When you expect a favorable outcome.

• When the attitudes are repeatedly expressed.

• When you stand to win or lose something due to the issue.

In some cases, people may actually alter their attitudes in order to better align them with their behavior. Cognitive dissonance is a phenomenon in which a person experiences psychological distress due to conflicting thoughts or beliefs. In order to reduce this tension, people may change their attitudes to reflect their other beliefs or actual behaviors.

Imagine the following situation: You've always placed a high value on financial security, but you start dating someone who is very financially unstable. In order to reduce the tension caused by the conflicting beliefs and behavior, you have two options. You can end the relationship and seek out a partner who is more financially secure, or you can de-emphasize the importance of fiscal stability. In order to minimize the dissonance between your conflicting attitude and behavior, you either have to change the attitude or change your actions.

Attitude Change

While attitudes can have a powerful effect on behavior, they are not set in stone. The same influences that lead to attitude formation can also create attitude change.

• Learning Theory of Attitude Change: Classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning can be used to bring about attitude change. Classical conditioning can be used to create positive emotional reactions to an object, person or event by associating positive feelings with the target object. Operant conditioning can be used to strengthen desirable attitudes and weaken undesirable ones. People can also change their attitudes after observing the behavior of others. 

• Elaboration Likelihood Theory of Attitude Change: This theory of persuasion suggests that people can alter their attitudes in two ways. First, they can be motivated to listen and think about the message, thus leading to an attitude shift. Or, they might be influenced by characteristics of the speaker, leading to a temporary or surface shift in attitude. Messages that are thought-provoking and that appeal to logic are more likely to lead to permanent changes in attitudes.

• Dissonance Theory of Attitude Change: As mentioned earlier, people can also change their attitudes when they have conflicting beliefs about a topic. In order to reduce the tension created by these incompatible beliefs, people often shift their attitudes.

The Function of Attitudes

Attitudes can serve functions for the individual.  Daniel Katz (1960) outlines four functional areas: 

• Knowledge. (Attitude )

Attitudes provide meaning (knowledge) for life.  The knowledge function refers to our need for a world which is consistent and relatively stable.  This allows us to predict what is likely to happen, and so gives us a sense of control. Attitudes can help us organize and structure our experience.  Knowing a person’s attitude helps us predict their behavior. For example, knowing that a person is religious we can predict they will go to Church. 

• Self / Ego-expressive. (Attitudes)

The attitudes we express (1) help communicate who we are and (2) may make us feel good because we have asserted our identity.  Self-expression of attitudes can be non-verbal too: think bumper sticker, cap, or T-shirt slogan.  Therefore, our attitudes are part of our identify, and help us to be aware through expression of our feelings, beliefs and values. 

• Adaptive.  (Attitude )

If a person holds and/or expresses socially acceptable attitudes, other people will reward them with approval and social acceptance.  For example, when people flatter their bosses or instructors (and believe it) or keep silent if they think an attitude is unpopular.  Again, expression can be nonverbal [think politician kissing baby].  Attitudes then, are to do with being apart of a social group and the adaptive functions helps us fit in with a social group. People seek out others who share their attitudes, and develop similar attitudes to those they like.

• The ego-defensive function. (Attitude )

It refers to holding attitudes that protect our self-esteem or that justify actions that make us feel guilty.  For example, one way children might defend themselves against the feelings of humiliation they have experienced in P.E. lessons is to adopt a strongly negative attitude to all sport.  People whose pride has suffered following a defeat in sport might similarly adopt a defensive attitude: “I’m not bothered, I’m sick of rugby anyway…”.  This function has psychiatric overtones.  Positive attitudes towards ourselves, for example, have a protective function (i.e. an ego-defensive role) in helping us reserve our self-image. 

The basic idea behind the functional approach is that attitudes help a person to mediate between their own inner needs (expression, defense) and the outside world (adaptive and knowledge).

References

Hockenbury, D., & Hockenbury, S. E. (2007). Discovering Psychology. New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Myers, D. G. (1999). Social Psychology. McGraw-Hill College.

Smith, E. R. & Mackie, D. M. (2007). Social Psychology. London: Psychology Press.