Attitude
Attitude may be defined as a feeling or disposition to favor or to be against objects, persons, and sit-uations.According to N.L. Munn;
“Attitudes are learned predispositions towards aspects of our environment. They may be positively or negatively directed towards certain people, service or institution.”
Components of Attitude
Attitudes are simply expressions of much we like or dislike various things. Attitudes represent our evaluations, preferences or rejections based on the information we receive.
3 components of attitude are;
- Cognitive Component.
- Affective Component.
- Behavioral Component.
Factors Influencing Attitudes
By attitudes, we mean the beliefs, feelings, and action tendencies of an individual or group of individuals towards objects, ideas, and people.Attitudes involve some knowledge of a Situation.
However, the essential aspect, of the attitude is found in the fact that some characteristic feeling or emotion is experienced and, as we would accordingly expect, some definite tendency to action is associated.
There are a number of different factors that can influence how and why attitudes form. These are-
- Social Factors.
- Direct Instruction.
- Family.
- Prejudices.
- Personal Experience.
- Media.
- Educational and Religious Institutions.
- Physical Factors.
- Economic Status and Occupations.
Types of Attitudes
Attitude is something that lies between emotions and thought processing. It may be positive or negative.
In organizational behavior; three types of attitudes are;
- Job Satisfaction,
- Job Involvement, and
- Organizational Commitment.
Characteristics of Attitude
- Attitudes are the complex combination of things we tend to call personality, beliefs, values, behaviors, and motivations.
- It can fall anywhere along a continuum from very favorable to very unfavorable.
- All people, irrespective of their status or intelligence, hold attitudes.
- An attitude exists in every person’s mind. It helps to define our identity, guide our actions, and influence how we judge people.
- Although the feeling and belief components of attitude are internal to a person, we can view a person’s attitude from his or her resulting behavior.
- Attitude helps us define how we see situations, as well as define how we behave toward the situation or object.
- It provides us with internal cognitions or beliefs and thoughts about people and objects.
- It can also be explicit and implicit. Explicit attitude is those that we are consciously aware of an implicit attitude is unconscious, but still, have an effect on our behaviors.
- Attitudes cause us to behave in a particular way toward an object or person.
- An attitude is a summary of a person’s past experience; thus, an attitude is grounded in direct experience predicts future behavior more accurately.
- It includes certain aspects of personality as interests, appreciation and social conduct.
- It indicates the sum total of a man’s inclinations and feelings.
Barriers to Change Attitudes are;
- Prior Commitment.
- Insufficient Information.
- Balance and Consistency.
- Lack of Resources.
- Improper Reward System.
- Resistance to Change.
The Function of Attitudes
Attitudes can serve functions for the individual. Daniel Katz (1960) outlines four functional areas:
Knowledge
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. 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
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 the expression of our feelings, beliefs and values.
Adaptive
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.
Ego-defensive
The ego-defensive function 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 sports.
People whose pride have 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).
