Attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual''s like or dislike for an item.
Attitudes are positive, negative or neutral views of an "attitude object": i.e. a person, behaviour or event. People can also be "ambivalent" towards a target, meaning that they simultaneously possess a positive and a negative bias towards the attitude in question.
Attitudes comes from judgments. Attitudes develop on the
ABC model (
affect, behavioral
change and cognition). The
affective response is a physiological response that expresses an individual''s preference for an entity. The
behavioral intention is a verbal indication of the intention of an individual. The
cognitive response is a cognitive evaluation of the entity to form an attitude. Most attitudes in individuals are a result of
observational learning from their environment. The link between attitude and behavior exists but depends on human behavior, some of which is irrational. For example, a person who is in favor of blood transfusion may not donate blood. This makes sense if the person does not like the sight of blood, which explains this irrationality.
Contents
1 Implicit and explicit attitudes
2 Philosophical aspect
3 Attitude formation
4 Factors that affect attitude change
5 Attitude in the workplace
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Implicit and explicit attitudes
There is also considerable research on "implicit" attitudes, which are unconscious but have effects (identified through sophisticated methods using people''s response times to stimuli). Implicit and "explicit" attitudes seem to affect people''s behavior, though in different ways. They tend not to be strongly
associated with each other, although in some cases they are. The relationship between them is poorly understood.
Philosophical aspect
Attitude may also be seen as a form or appearance that an individual assumes to gain or achieve an egotistic preference, whether it is acceptance, manifestation of power or other self-centered needs. Attitude may be considered as a primitive attribute to the preservation of the self or of the ego.
Attitude formation
Unlike personality, attitudes are expected to change as a function of experience. Tesser (1993) has argued that hereditary variables may affect attitudes - but believes that they may do so indirectly. For example, if one inherits the disposition to become an extrovert, this may affect one''s attitude to certain styles of music. There are numerous theories of attitude formation and attitude change. These include:
Consistency theories, which imply that we must be consistent in our beliefs and values. The most famous example of such a theory is Dissonance-reduction theory, associated with Leon Festinger, although there are others, such as the balance theory of Fritz Heider.
Self-perception theory, associated with Daryl Bem
Meta programs, associated with Neuro-linguistic programming
Persuasion
Elaboration Likelihood Model associated with Richard E. Petty and the Heuristic Systematic Model of Shelly Chaiken.
Social judgment theory
Balance theory
Abundance theory
Intellect
Factors that affect attitude change
Attitudes can be changed through persuasion. The celebrated work of Carl Hovland, at Yale University in the 1950s and 1960s, helped to advance knowledge of persuasion. In Hovland''s view, we should understand attitude change as a response to communication. He and his colleagues did experimental research into the factors that can affect the persuasiveness of a
message:
1. Target Characteristics: These are characteristics that refer to the person who receives and processes a message. One such is intelligence trait intelligence - it seems that more intelligent people are less easily persuaded by one-sided messages. Another variable that has been studied in this category is self esteem. Although it is sometimes thought that those higher in self-esteem are less aded, there is some evidence that the relationship between self-esteem and persuasibility is actually curvilinear, with people of moderate self-esteem being more easily persuaded than both those of high and low self-esteem levels (Rhodes & Woods, 1992). The mind frame and mood of the target also plays a role in this process.
2. Source Characteristics: The major source characteristics are expertise, Trust trustworthiness and Interpersonal attraction/attractiveness. The credibility of a perceived message has been found to be a key variable here (Hovland & Weiss, 1951); if one reads a report on health and believes it comes from a professional medical journal, one may be more easily persuaded than if one believes it is from a popular newspaper. Some psychologists have debated whether this is a long-lasting
effect and Hovland and Weiss (1951) found the effect of telling people that a message came from a credible source disappeared after several weeks (the so-called "sleeper effect"). Whether there is a sleeper effect is controversial. Received wisdom is that if people are informed of the source of a message before hearing it, there is less likelihood of a sleeper effect than if they are told a message and then told its source.
3. Message Characteristics: The nature of the message plays a role in persuasion. Sometimes presenting both sides of a story is useful to help change attitudes.
Attitude in the workplace
When it comes to Human Resource Management and recruiting, in recent years hire for attitude became a well known mantra. Several commercial tests such as the LAB Profile, Nowhere is your positive attitude more required and appreciated by others than your workplace. There are sound reasons for this: about 30% of an employee’s waking hours are spent at the workplace. Without some positive people around, this time could become troublesome.
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