ATTITUDE FORMATION : HOW ATTITUDES DEVELOP
Attitudes are a result of beliefs. Beliefs about the object, feelings towards the object, behavioral intensions regarding the object and actual behavior thus shown are all steps towards attitude formation. For example, if employees believe that their current job will provide them with experience and training a positive attitude is developed in them towards the job. There are four process in attitude formation. It is similar to how beliefs are formed.
They include:-
1. Past experience: People develop attitude on the basis of their past experience.
2. Available Information: A piece of information that is happy will influence the beliefs. This will consequently affect the attitude formation. For eg: If an employee hear about the promotion of many people in an industry his attitude changes.
3. Generalization : Generalization comes from similar situations or events. Eg: No one in a job is promoted. This will give a general feeling that there is no promotion. The most important thing to remember about attitude formation is that it is learned. Family, friends, experiences co-workers, are involved in attitude formation.
ATTITUDE DEVELOPMENT : In early development stage (infant) attitudes exist in their most primitive form, as simple pleasant or unpleasant states of the infant. Some of these feelings are results of satisfied or unsatisfied biological needs. Others are produced by pleasurable or unpleasurable responses from mother, father or siblings. An infant gains pleasure from being helped and protected. But a child in the early period of walking is likely to resent and reject the helping hand. Developmental changes produce changes in child attitude with objects and situations. Child’s attitude towards authority figure is an important element of socialization. It determines his behaviour in school. A rebellious attitude towards authority (teacher, principal, peer group) can bring conflicts. Teacher can influence the attitude of a child considerably. Attitudes of Children have their origins in the family relationships at home. The parental attitude of ‘acceptance – democratic’ seemed to facilitate growth and development more than others. Attitudes developed during the preschool years are associated with the general culture. Day to day experiences and the child’s perception of them have a strong influence on the development of attitude. Attitude develops moment by moment. Some of them are formed without direction. Others are a result of careful planning by a person or persons who desires to encourage the development of attitudes. Much of citizenship training is a matter of attitude formation. Emotional attitude play great role in one’s life. Children should gain unbiased attitude through content mastery. School becomes a very important factor in the development of existing attitude and to create new ones. Teachers play a great role in this respect. An individual‘s attitude is determined by various developmental factors.
They are as follows :-
1. Physical growth and development: This is responsible for poor emotional and social adjustment. Social adjustment has important effects on the formation of attitude.
2. Intellectual development: The components of intelligence like memory, understanding, thinking, and reasoning play a significant part in attitude formation. This is because they help in gaining perceptual experience.
3. Emotional Development: Emotions play a dominant role in converting behavior into attitudes.
4. Social Development: Social interaction is a key to attitude formation at any age of human development. Social attitudes can be picked up from respective groups.
5. Ethical and Moral Development: Individuals enhancing their feelings of self-esteem try to develop those attitudes that increase his values and ideals. In attitude formation, both home and family environment plays a leading role. Attitude offers great possibilities for successful achievement as well as failure in life. They are an important motivator of behavior and influence all human values.
WHEN AND WHY DO ATTITUDES INFLUENCE BEHAVIOUR: How attitudes are formed and how are they changed? They are an important determinant of behavior. The link between attitudes and behavior is quite weak. Therefore, knowing some one’s attitude was not very useful in predicting their behavior. There is a gap between one’s attitude and behavior on many occasions. Attitudes often do exert important effects on our behavior. Research findings show the possibility of predicting people’s behavior from their attitudes. Social psychologists made progress in understanding the link between attitude and behavior. Attitude–Behavior Link : Lapierre (1934) conducted a study to understand the attitude-behavior link. During those days, social psychologists generally defined attitudes in terms of behavior. Allport (1924) defined attitude as tendencies to behave in certain ways in social situations. Lapierre studied the relationship of attitude and behavior by travelling with a young Chinese couple. His results indicated a sizable gap between attitudes and behavior between what people say and what they actually do.
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(1)When situational constraints moderate the relationship between attitudes and behaviour
(2) when situational pressure shapes the extent to which attitudes can be expressed.
(3) when attitudes are powerful and strong. The term attitude is used in describing people, and in explaining their behaviour. eg: “He has a poor attitude”, “I Like her attitude”, etc. Attitudes are complex cognitive processes, that influence life. Attitude and behavior has a relationship. In gaining a clear understanding of the relationship between attitude and behaviour both the causes and effects of attitude need to be examined. Fishbein and Ajzen, have done a study in this respect. Accordingly, the beliefs about the object provides the attitude. The behavioral intentions describes what the person is inclined to do. The actual behavior is a function of attitudes and other many factors.
How do attitudes guide behaviour : In late 1960s, social psychology was experiencing serious crisis. Many studies concluded the fact that the link between attitudes and behaviour is actually quite weak. This means knowing someones attitude was not very useful in predicting their overt behaviour. Later studies support the fact that our attitudes often do exert important effects on our behaviour Research findings in this respect supported the possibility, of predicting people’s behaviour from their attitudes. The attitude behaviour link : Study was conducted by Lapiere (1934). His study results indicated that there is a sizable gap between attitudes and behaviour. That is between what people say and what they actually do. Later studies indicated that attitudes do indeed influence behaviour. It is the type of attitude that matters in behaviour. Ambivalent attitudes are weaker predictors of behaviour. Recent research in this area, concluded that when attitudes are not ambivalent, that is, when attitudes have no positive and negative feelings–attitudes do indeed predict behaviour. Situational constraints moderate relationship between attitudes and behaviour.
There are several aspects of attitudes that guide behaviour :
(1)Attitude origin – Evidence indicates that attitudes on basis of direct experience have stronger effects on behaviour.
(2) Attitude strength. The stronger the attitudes are, the greater their impact on behaviour.
(3) Attitude specificity. This is the extent to which attitudes are focused on specific objects. Attitude behaviour link is stronger when attitudes and behaviors are measured at same level of specificity. Beliefs of Object Attitude Behavior Attitudes seem to influence behavior through two different mechanisms. When we can give careful thought to our attitudes, intentions derived from our attitudes strongly predict behavior. In situations, where we cannot engage in deliberate thought, attitudes influence behavior.
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