Attitude in psychology

2. The Iceberg
How much do you see of an iceberg???

3. The Iceberg ONLY
10% OF
ANY
ICEBER
G IS
VISIBL
E. THE
REMAI
NING
90% IS
BELOW
SEA
LEVEL.

4. The Iceberg phenomena is also applicable
on human beings … especially in their
behaviour
The Iceberg

5. The Iceberg
SEA LEVEL
KNOWLEDGE
&
SKILLS
ATTITUDE
UNKNOWN
TO OTHERS
KNOWN
TO OTHERS

6. Concept
 An attitude is a hypothetical construct
that represents an individual's degree of
like or dislike for an item.
 Attitudes are generally positive or
negative views of a person, place, thing,
or event this is often referred to as the
attitude object.
 Attitude which represent ones belief,
feeling and ideas ,action, tendency
towards object and ideas.
 When a person feels about something
,about a place, commodity and a situation
or an idea is called attitude.

7. Definition
 An attitude is a readiness to respond in
such a way that behaviour is given a
certain direction. (Travers).
 According to Whittaker an attitude is
defined as a predisposition or readiness to
respond in a pre-determined manner to
relevant stimuli.

8. Nature of Attitude
• Attitudes have a subject-object relationship.
It is related to specific objects, persons,
groups, institutions, values etc.
• Attitude are learned. They are not inherent
or innate in individual. It depend on the life
training and circumstances.
• It is relatively enduring states of readiness. It
helps us in making proper responses.
• It helps in motivation.
• It is different according to stimuli.
• It ranges fro strongly positive to strongly
negative.

9. Cognitiv
e
Emotional
Component
s
Behavioral
Component
s
Components of Attitude

10. Cognitive Components- The Belief , Information, Knowledge
and information.
Eg-If a Person does not like or negative attitude about the
nuclear bomb ,In interview if he asked about the nuclear
bomb he give negative points only means he does not like
the nuclear bomb that means his belief and information is
negative for that.
Affective Components- Feelings, Sentiments and moods of
emotions towards a particular object
Eg-Wanted to go for a night shift job rather that a General
Shift Job
Behavioral Components-Way of thinking ,Behaving and
feelings
Eg-If some one like the Principal of the college his attitude is
made by feelings and behavioral aspects

11. Development of Attitude
• Attitudes are leant and acquired through
the following sources.
1. Integration of experiences: acquired from
different experiences of different people
from different sources. Attitude of
Hindus towards Muslims and vice versa.
2. Differentiation of experiences: when new
experiences are acquired they are
differentiated or segregated from the old
acquired one and more specific attitude
is formed.

12. Development of Attitude
• Attitudes are leant and acquired through
the following sources.
1. Trauma o dramatic experience: After
effect of any trauma or incident. A
shopkeeper may develop negative
attitude towards students if his shops
were burnt by students during a strike.
2. Adoption of the available attitudes: a
readymade approach. Following friends,
teachers, parents, community etc.

13. Factors Influencing Attitude Formation
A. Factors within the individual
 Physical growth and development: poor health,
poor adjustment may develop poor attitudes.
 Intellectual Development: Factors such as
memory, understanding, thinking capacity,
reasoning ability etc.
 Emotional Development: Factors such as
emotional maturity social adjustment, social
approval etc.
 Social Development: Factors such as Social
interaction may create antisocial attitudes.
 Ethical and Moral Development: God is one or
many. Concept of values and ideals.
A. Factors in the Environment:

14. Factors Influencing Attitude Formation
B. Factors in the Environment:
 Home and Family: values and concepts in the
family, attitude of the family members. Faulty
upbringing of the child unhealthy family
relationship.
 Social environment. School, teachers, classmates,
teaching methods, curriculum and subjects etc. it
also include religious groups, social clubs, mass
media, celebrities, advertisements, newspaper etc.

15. Behavior and attitude
 Attitudes can be favorable or unfavorable or
negative or positive and represent predispositions
to react or respond to certain stimuli.
 Negative attitude towards a religion will color the
reactions towards the religion.
 Positive attitude towards a political party will
appreciate its policies, functions, and
governances.
 Positive or negative attitude towards social evils
such as untouchability, dowry, child marriage,
remarriage, population control, environmental
protection etc will alter their behavior too.
 A students listens to the teacher to whom she has
a positive attitude.

16. Attitude & Behavior
SEA LEVEL
BEHAVIOR
VALUES – STANDARDS – JUDGMENTS
ATTITUDE
MOTIVES – ETHICS - BELIEFS
KNOWN
TO OTHERS
UNKNOWN
TO OTHERS

17. Behavior and attitude
Positive attitude:
The predisposition that results in desirable
outcomes for individuals and organizations.
Negative attitude:
The tendency of a person that result in an
undesirable outcome for individuals and
organizations.

18. Attitudinal Change
 Providing proper education. Both curricular
and coo curricular or formal and informal
education.
 Making use of propaganda machinery: It is
an information, especially of a biased or
misleading nature, used to promote a
political cause or point of view. Mainly used
but organizations and government to
increase the rating. Eg. Creation of violence
in Kashmir makes the state always hotter
both for politics and religious purpose.

19. Attitudinal Change
 Using fear inducing mechanism:
Punishment, rules, legal aspects. Eg. The
laws on atrocities against women make us
to behave properly with women.
 Use of modeling technique: Setting an
example. Good films, serials, social and
political figures can set themselves as an
example for making attitudinal change in
others.
 Direct personal experiences: Eg. If you are
helped by a person of another religion
during a communal violence then attitude
towards that religion also changes.

20. Attitudinal Change
 Bringing desired changes in beliefs and
values. Since the attitudes are associated
with beliefs and values it is better to educate
a person to modify his beliefs and values in
order to change the attitude. Eg. If a person
possess a negative attitude towards
caste/religion because of his sheer
ignorance and false beliefs, he may be
helped with proper education to change the
attitude.

21. Barriers to Changing an Attitude
 Cognitive Dissonance- When a person
behaves in a fashion that is inconsistent
with his or her attitude, Means he or she
knows it is wrong but still continue to
inconsistency . Eg. Belittling the evidence
about smoking and cancer. Most people
think that human data are correlational.
 Prior Commitment-Means the belief is
unchanged and unwilling to change.
 Insufficient Information- Eg. Two Way
Communication is not possible from TOP
Management and Workers which creates a
negative attitude.

22. Psychometric assessment of
Attitude This can be done in two ways.
a. Direct Method
b. Indirect Method.
 Direct Method.
1. Questioning and interview technique:
asking the individual directly how he
feels about a subject.
2. Check List: asking to mark those
statements from a list with which he is in
agreement.
3. Attitude Scale: These are described as the
following.

23. Thurston’s Attitude Scale
 These are also known as equal appearing
intervals scale.
 A large number of statements representing a
variety of opinions on a subject are collected.
 These statements are given to a number of
judges who will sort the statements into two
categories very favorable to very unfavorable.
 The finished scale then consists of the clearly
defined opinions on the subject.
 Each of these are assigned a value based on
the median scale positions given by the
judges. (order of arrangement ie from 1 to
11)

24. Thurston’s Attitude Scale
 Below given one example to understand the
attitude of people towards temple.
Items Scale Value
I believe the temples are the greatest institution in India today
I believe it is necessary/essential to go temple for living/life
| believe in in what temple teaches but with mental
reservations
I believe in religion but seldom go to temple
I do not get any benefit from attending temple service but I
think it helps some people.
I think the temples are parasites in a society.

25. Thurston’s Attitude Scale
The attitude towards going to temple can be
determined as such as these
Items Scale Value
I believe the temples are the greatest institution in India today 0.2
I believe it is necessary/essential to go temple for living/life 1.5
| believe in in what temple teaches but with mental
reservations
4.5
I believe in religion but seldom go to temple 5.4
I do not get any benefit from attending temple service but I
think it helps some people.
5.7
I think the temples are parasites in a society. 1.0

26. Likert Attitude Scale
 Likert (1932) developed the principle of
measuring attitudes by asking people to
respond to a series of statements about a
topic, in terms of the extent to which they
agree with them, and so tapping into the
cognitive and affective components of
attitudes.
 Respondents may be offered a choice of five
to seven or even nine pre-coded responses
with the neutral point being neither agree
nor disagree.
 In constructing such a scale a number of
items concerning a particular subject are
collected.

27. Likert Attitude Scale
 The individual is asked to indicate the
degree of his agreement or disagreement
with each item on a five point scale.
 A: Agreement, SA: String Agreement, I:
Undecided, D: Disagreement, SD: Strong
disagreement.
 Scores are given from 1 to 5 depends on the
type of questions. Scores are analyzed.
 Below given one example
Items Response
We should be willing to fight for our country whether
it is in the right or in the wrong.
SA, A, I, D, SD
Our country should never declare war again under
any circumstances
SA, A, I, D, SD

28. Indirect Method: Assessment of Attitude
 Verbal expression of attitude has limitations.
One may conceal real attitude.
 Overt behaviour is not always the true
expression of their attitude towards a thing.
 In these circumstances we use projective
techniques. These are measurement methods in
disguised manner.
 The examinee may not know the real purpose of
the test and may blindly answer. An intelligent
interpretation of these tests can determine right
attitude.
 These techniques are mostly used also for
personality assessment and hence it will be
discussed in the next unit.

29. The Choice is YOURS
•With a Bad attitude
you can never have a positive day
•With a Positive attitude
you can never have a bad day
“Things are the way you think they
are, because you think they are
that way.”