Attitude

• Attitude is a tendency or predisposition to evaluate an object or symbol of that object in a certain way - Katz and Scotland
• Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference - Winston Churchill

Characteristics of Attitude

• Learnt: It is learned and is not innate.
• Abstract construction: It is a tendency to evaluate things in a certain way.
• Form of expression: It is an expression of favour or disfavour towards a person, place, thing or event.
• Observation: Attitude helps us define how we see situations and define how we behave toward the situation or object. 
• Summary of Experience: An attitude is a summary of a person’s experience; thus, an attitude is grounded in direct experience and predicts future behaviour more accurately.
• Reflect Personality: It includes certain aspects of the personality as interests, appreciation, and social conduct. It indicates the total of a man’s inclinations and feelings. 
• Point of View: An attitude is a point of view, substantiated or otherwise, true or false, which one holds towards an idea, object, or person.  
• Consent: It refers to one’s readiness for doing Work. 
• Depends on personal aspects: It may be positive or negative and may be affected by age, position, and education. Influence of attitude on behaviour 
• Mutable/ Fluctuating- It can vary from time to time.

Behaviour

• A person's response to a specific action, person or circumstance is referred to as his/her behaviour. It refers to how one conducts or controls themselves around others.
• Behaviour is a reflection of character and conduct.

Attitude and Behaviour

• The relationship between attitude and behaviour is thin. Attitude is an internal component of our cognition whereas behaviour is the manifestation (exhibition) of such attitude. Ex. -

• Attitude: Negative outlook regarding safety measures in Trains (Cognition- Trains do not adhere to safety standards)
• Behaviour: She does not travel by train (Manifestation: Avoid travelling by train)

• Attitude refers to how someone feels about something. For example, a person has a negative outlook toward social media. 

• Behaviour is how someone acts in response to their feelings. For example, That person has not installed social media applications like Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp etc.

Attitude as a guiding factor for an individual’s Behaviour

Steps to be taken to increase the correlation between Attitude & Behavior

• Emotional intelligence: It facilitates to act aptly depending upon the situation. Ex. An attitude of helping nature shows compassion behaviour for needy people.

• Introspection: People aware of their feeling shows better attitude behaviour correlation. 

• Attitude literacy: Identify good and bad attitudes through learning. 
• Connecting with conscience: To understand the reasons behind holding a particular attitude
• Integrity and truthfulness: This shows ways to motivate oneself and develop a positive attitude as well as behaviour.

Degree of Influence of Attitude on Behavior: 

• True vs Expressed attitude: An expressed attitude may not be a person’s true attitude because of the influence of other factors. 

• For Example-  India may have a negative attitude towards the Taliban but help them by sending essential items. 

• One Instance vs Aggregate: An individual act may be different from aggregate behavior.

• For Example- Our teachers who always active to teach us (Aggregate behavior) but sometime may become rude. (One instance)  

• Attitude strength: Stronger attitudes influence behavior more intensely. Attitudes formed through personal experience are stronger. Ex. Dog bite resists from feeding anything in future
• Economic Status and Occupations: Economic power and Occupations shape the attitude of a person. Ex. Wealthy people use their money carelessly.
• Educational and Religious Institutions: Secular character is imbibed while studying in schools. Ex. The patriotic curriculum of Delhi schools, imbibing an attitude of Nationalism.

Functions of Attitude

• Decision Making: Our choices are determined by how we assess the circumstances. Decision-making is facilitated by attitude.

• Ex. Attitude of citizen-centric governance of the Indian government led to the evacuation of students from Ukraine 

• Knowledge function: It helps individuals to organize and simplify information about the world. Ex. As smoking is injurious to health and hence we avoid smoking.
• Ego defensive function: It protects us from accepting real or bitter truths about our-self. 

• Ex. A civil servant urges the villagers to enroll their children in school as responsible fathers (ego-defensive), instead of engaging them in menial jobs.

• Adjustment Function: It helps people to adjust to the environment. Ex. A person patient starts doing exercise after being diagnosed with diabetic
• Utilitarian/Instrumental function: It leads to behaviour that optimizes one’s interest. Ex. If a person has a positive attitude for the gym then he is likely to engage in that.
• Self Awareness: It facilitates knowing the situation and act accordingly. Ex. An attitude of safety always motivates one to wear a helmet while driving.

Components of Attitude

Attitude Formation

There are the following factors which affect the formation of Attitude -

• Experience: Attitude can form because of direct experience or observation. Ex. Newly recruited jawans are disciplined by observing fellow colleagues

• Prejudice: An attitude could include prejudice, which occurs when we make assumptions about a situation before carefully considering all the available information.

• Ex. Media trial post suicide of Susant Rajput before the verdict of the court

• Media: It plays a major role in shaping people’s opinions and beliefs. Ex. Opinion Polls before the election helps in shaping people's opinion. 

• Direct expierence:  Ex. A person who has faced racism in his life develops a negative attitude towards it eg Mahatma Gandhi was evicted from the train by a white man making him stand against apartheid policies.

• Social Factors: Social institutions like family, region, caste, religion etc. affect the formation of Attitude. 

• Ex. Not accepting intercaste marriages, leads to honour killing.

• Politicisation of caste i.e. Giving votes to members of the same caste.

• Learning institution: Itlays the foundation of understanding and moral values and hence affects attitude formation.

• Role Modelling: People, particularly children, try to emulate the people they admire, and this includes accepting the attitudes held by these people as one’s own. 

• Ex. Children started emulating the action of ‘Shaktiman’ after watching the serial.

Moral Attitude

• It is based on moral convictions of what is right and what is wrong. Family, society, religion and education play an essential role in framing those moral convictions.
• All attitudes are not associated with Moral attitudes. Ex. Attitude towards Cricket matches has nothing to do with morality.

Characteristics of Moral Attitude

• Reverence: This attitude takes the highest rank in terms of deriving moral attitude, it stands for respecting things, actions or situations. Ex: Standing up in attention at times of National songs played in the theatre.

• Faithfulness: It is required when the sanctity of the human being needs to be weighed and measured. Ex. Husband shows faithfulness when getting married and even after that till they exist.

• Veracity: It conveys sincerity, loyalty, and a sense of accountability. A lack of honesty makes a person's personality crippled. 

• Ex. Pakistan has lost veracity after failing to curb cross-border terrorism despite multiple assurances.

• Goodness: It emanates from an intentional act of love. It is the fundamental mindset that facilitates practising generosity and charity.

Political Attitude 

• It refers to the emotional set with which an individual approach a political issue and which determines his line of conduct towards the issues.
• It can be learned. Ex. Radical, liberal, progressive, conservative or reactionary etc.

Factors Affecting Political Attitude:

• Religion: Many people cast their votes based on religious biases. Religion shapes our moral attitude which in turn shapes Political attitude. 
• Ex. People supported a Party which declared to prohibit same-sex marriage as it was against religious belief
• Economic Status: Middle class adhere to the capitalist system ideology, whereas the poor adhere to the socialistic ideology.
• Ex. Socialist people cast their votes for parties that promise freebies and subsidised services.
• Education: The political ideologies are significantly shaped by the curriculum and philosophy of the school.
• Ex. Military schools imbibe nationalist ideology among students from the beginning
• Social Media: Social media has emerged as a key propaganda tool which affects people's political ideas.
• Ex. Twitter and Instagram following guides political attitudes of youth
• Family: It helps to inculcate political ideology in their children. 
• Ex. Discussion on the political topic in family shapes the political attitude of kids
• Age: New generation like privacy, an independent lifestyle and liberal thoughts whereas old-generation people show rigidity in their thoughts. 
• Ex. New-gen youngsters support that candidate who promises individuality and freedom

Importance of Political Attitude

• Influence Political process: It determines how individuals engage in politics, who they support and which political parties they vote for. 

• • • Ex. People having Liberal political attitudes favour parties based on liberal thoughts.
• Represents Moral Attitude:Religion shapes our moral attitude which in turn shapes Political attitude.

• • • Ex. People develop moral attitude against living in relationships and support party which upholds their ideas.
• Determines values of Society: Societal values like service to the needy, and empowering the marginalized are evolved through political attitude. 

• Enforce Ethics in Politics: Positive political attitudes like tolerance, nationalism, and social service reinforce ethics in politics.

Democratic Attitude

• The attitude of authority that promotes people's participation in decision-making is called Democratic Attitude. 
• Compassion, tolerance, and inclusiveness are prioritized more than rules and restrictions.

• Merits of Democratic Attitude

• Strengthen democracy: Decision is based on the majority and hence strengthens the democratic system at the grass root level. Ex. Framing of legislation by including civil society 

• Accountable system: Authority is accountable to the public for their work. Ex. Cooperative society accountable to its members 

• Transparency: It promotes characteristics of transparency in working. Ex. All stakeholders know about the action

• Demerits of Democratic Attitude

• Delays in execution: Taking everyone on board takes considerable time. Ex. Electoral process

• Barrier in development approach: Every segment of society is tough to please. Such a mindset might occasionally impede the process of development. 

• Ex. Land pooling for infrastructural projects, clearance for Mining activities in Scheduled areas, because of mandatory consultation under the Forest Act 2006. 

Bureaucratic Attitude

• It refers to the attitude which precisely complies with norms, rules, and regulations. It weighs less importance to public opinion and the elected representatives.
• Merits ofBureaucratic Attitude

• Adherence to SoP: There is strict compliance with the standard operating procedure. Ex. The Mock drill before the beginning of voting in an election

• Quick decision: It involves less number of stakeholders, and hence a quick decision is possible. Ex. Army deployment during Disaster

• Easy to fix responsibility: Due to the hierarchical nature of the decision-making process, fixing responsibility is easy. Ex. Departmental punishment for any guilty

• Demerits ofBureaucratic Attitude

• Red Tapism: Decisions are not taken on a priority basis. Ex. Pending cases in courts

• Rigid outlook: They are opposed to changes in the system, leading to stagnation. 

• Indifference towards common citizen: This attitude shows apathy towards common people as rule is supreme and not citizens