Essay on Attitude

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Attitudes are evaluative statements, either favorable or unfavorable about objects, people, or events. They reflect how we feel about something. Definition of Attitude:
An attitude can be defines as “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. Formation of Attitudes:

Attitudes may be learned from the experiences we have. These include mostly mundane events such as being praised by our parents for expounding “liberal” attitudes, but also major life and world events. The basic processes through which we learn attitudes remain the same throughout life, though as we grow older the attitudes we learn may be more complex, and the ones we already hold may become more resistant to change. The processes through which our experiences create attitudes are all related to “learning” which is a basic human process. A final source of attitudes is the culture in which a child grows up. Culturally prevalent prejudices are generally reflected in prejudiced.

Components of Attitudes:
Researchers have assumed that there are three components of attitudes: Cognition, affect and behavior. The Cognitive component is a description or belief in the way things are. It sets the stage for the more critical part of an attitude its affective component. Affect is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude. Finally affect can lead to behavioral outcomes. The behavioral component of attitude describes an intention to behave in a certain way towards someone or something. Viewing attitudes as having three components is helpful in understanding their complexity and the potential relationship between attitudes and behavior.


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