JK college of BBA & BCA

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ATTITUDES:An attitude is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person,

place, thing, or event (the attitude object). Prominent psychologist
Gordon Allport once described attitudes "the most distinctive and
indispensable concept in contemporary social psychology.".
Attitude can be formed from a person's past and present.
Attitude is also measurable and changeable as well as influencing
the person's emotion and behavior.
In lay language, attitude may refer to the distinct concept of mood,
or be especially synonymous with teenage rebellion.
Definitions of Attitude:An attitude can be defined as a positive or negative evaluation of
people, objects, event, activities, ideas, or just about anything in your
environment, but there is debate about precise definitions. Eagly and
Chaiken, for example, define an attitude "a psychological tendency
that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree
of favor or disfavor." Though it is sometimes common to define an
attitude as affect toward an object, affect (i.e., discrete emotions or
overall arousal) is generally understood to be distinct from attitude
as a measure of favorability.
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This definition of attitude allows for one's evaluation of an attitude

object to vary from extremely negative to extremely
positive, but also admits that people can also be conflicted or
ambivalent toward an object meaning that they might at different
times express both positive and negative attitude toward the same
object.
It is very necessary as well as difficult to defineattitudes because the
variety of published definitions and descriptions is endless
In a very precise way, an attitude can be defined as persistent
tendency to feel and behave in a particular way toward some
objects
Some important definitions of Attitudes are as given below:According to G.W. Allport, Attitudes is a mental and neutral state
of readiness organised through experience, exerting a directive or
dynamic influence upon the individuals response to all objects and
situation with which it is related.
According to Bernard Social attitudes are individual attitudes
directed towards social objects and individuals attitudes strongly
inter-conditioned by collective or groups contacts.
By attitude we mean the beliefs, feelings and tendencies of an
individuals or group of individuals towards objects, ideas and
peoples. Quite often persons, objects or ideas become associated in
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the minds of individuals and as a result attitudes become complex

and multidimensional.

Opinion and attitude?

An opinion is your point of view; how you see things. While an
attitude is how you act upon a situation. These two are related in a
sense that your attitude can depend on your opinions. For example, if
you think that doing this certain something is a waste of your
time( opinion), then you might act irritable or annoyed (attitude
towards something.)
Attitudes and opinion are used closely with each other.But there is a
basic difference in these terms.
According To Thurston. opinions are expressions of attitudes.
Attitudes tend to be generalised predisposition to react in some way
towards objects or concepts. Opinion, on the other hand, tend to be
focused on more specific aspects of the objects or the concepts.
McCormicks and Tiffin observe that the measurement of attitudes
is generally based on the expression of opinions. But we should
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JK college of BBA & BCA

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distinguish between attitude scale which, like a thermometer or

barometer, refeclts the generalised level of individuals attitudes
towards some objects or concepts and opinion surveys, which
typically are used to elicit the opinions of people toward specific
aspects of, for example, their work situation."

In general, an opinion is a judgment, viewpoint, or statement about

matters commonly considered to be subjective, i.e. based on that
which is less than absolutely certain, and is the result of emotion or
interpretation of facts. What distinguishes fact from opinion is that
facts are verifiable, i.e. can be objectively proven to have occurred.
An example is: "America was involved in the Vietnam War" versus
"America was right to get involved in the Vietnam War". An opinion
may be supported by facts, in which case it becomes an argument,
although people may draw opposing opinions from the same set of
facts. Opinions rarely change without new arguments being
presented. It can be reasoned that one opinion is better supported by
the facts than another by analyzing the supporting arguments. In
casual use, the term opinion may be the result of a person's
perspective, understanding, particular feelings, beliefs, and desires.
It may refer to unsubstantiated information, in contrast to knowledge
and fact.

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Attitude-behaviour relationship
The effects of attitudes on behaviours represents a significant
research enterprise within psychology. Two theoretical approaches
have dominated this research: the theory of reasoned action and, its
theoretical descendant, the theory of planned behaviour, both of
which are associated with Icek Ajzen. Both of these theories describe
the link between attitude and behaviour as a deliberative process,
with an individual actively choosing to engage in an attitude-related
behaviour. An alternative model, called MODE for "Motivation and
Opportunity as Determinants" was proposed by Russell H. Fazio,
which focuses on motivations and opportunities for deliberative
attitude-related behaviour to occur. MODE is a Dual process theory
that expects deliberative attitude-behaviour linkages - like those
modelled by the theory of planned behaviour - only occur when
individuals have motivation to reflect upon their own attitudes.
The theory of reasoned action (TRA), is a model for the prediction
of behavioural intention, spanning predictions of attitude and
predictions of behaviour. The subsequent separation of behavioural
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intention from behaviour allows for explanation of limiting factors

on attitudinal influence (Ajzen, 1980). The Theory of Reasoned
Action was developed by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen (1975,
1980), derived from previous research that started out as the theory
of attitude, which led to the study of attitude and behaviour.

Attitude and behaviour are two quite different things. Attitude is a

person's inner thoughts and feelings, while behaviour is usually an
outward expression of attitude, but the two are not always related.
Tell about the times your attitude and behaviour have differed
For instance, psychopaths are people whose attitudes are composed
of low morality. However, this does not mean that they always
commit immoral acts. Psychopaths are usually intelligent, so they
know that even though there will be no moral consequences for
them, there will still be legal consequences to deal with. This
knowledge, in addition to their attitude, governs their behaviour.
When a person's attitude and behaviour differ, dissonance will likely
result, and a change in attitude or behaviour will be the probable
outcome.
Attitudes and beliefs
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Though closely related with with each other, a difference can be

made between attitudes and beliefs
Beliefs is a hypothesis concerning the nature of the objects, more
particularly, concerning ones judgement of the probability regarding
their nature. Beliefs reveals what one suppose to be true. Beliefs may
also be explained as the cognitive components which reflects the
manner in which an objects is perceived

Components of attitudes.
a. Cognitive - 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"
b. Affective - feelings or emotions that something evokes. e.g. fear,
sympathy, hate. May dislike welfare recipients.
c. behavioural - tendency or disposition to act in certain ways
toward something. Might want to keep welfare recipients out of our
neighbourhood. Emphasis is on the tendency to act, not the actual
acting; what we intend and what we do may be quite different.
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Bibliography
1. www.wikipedia.org

2. www.books.google.co.in
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3. www. onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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