Attitude Formation

An attitude is a negative or positive evaluation of an object. It has an aspect of liking or disliking, favoring or not favoring an object. For example, a vegetarian person has a negative attitude towards beef consumption. Attitude influences human behavior towards an object. For instance, a vegetarian would avoid eating beef.

Different people can have different attitudes towards the same thing. For example, some people view legalizing abortion as a good thing because they think it is a way to get rid of unintended birth. But many people also view legalizing abortion as a bad thing, because they think that the fetus baby has a right to life.

The process of attitude formation has the following two explanations:

1. Determinants of Attitude Formation
2. Theoretical Perspectives

   DETERMINANTS OF ATTITUDE FORMATION

The determinants of attitude formation are given below:

1. Socialization
Socialization is a life-long process of learning through which an individual learns from his parents, other family members, friends, peers, teachers, mass-media and anything in the surrounding. This learning shapes an individual’s personality and overall perception of things. We learn about the choices, preferences, liking, disliking, attitudes and opinions of other people regarding different things which also shape our attitudes towards these things. We acquire certain information and facts which make us believe that a thing is good or bad. Hence, socialization is a basic determinant of attitude formation.

2. Personal Experiences
Apart from learning from others, our personal interactions with others and experiences with things shape our attitudes towards certain things. We form a positive attitude towards a thing if we have a pleasant experience with it. Similarly, our bad experiences lead to the formation of our negative attitude towards things.

3. Needs Satisfaction and personal interest
If a thing or an idea fulfills our needs satisfactorily, we form a positive attitude towards it. For instance, a student has a positive attitude towards the use of the internet for his studies because it serves his academic needs. Certain things which do not fulfill our need, we form a negative attitude towards them.

An individual’s personal interest and gains may also influence his attitude towards a thing. For instance, some shopkeepers may deliberately hoard (store secretly) consumables (e.g. sugar) to create its shortage in the market in order to raise its prices. Those shopkeepers have a positive attitude towards hoarding consumables because it increases their profit. At the same time, the people, who have to pay higher prices for buying these consumables, have a negative attitude towards the practice hoarding consumables by shopkeeper for raising their prices.

4. Mass Communication – Electronic & Print Media:
Electronic and Print media has a significant role in the attitude formation of people. Every day the sources of mass communication bombard us with certain information which has an impact on our attitude towards the thing. Media inform us about the good and bad aspects of things which influence our opinions regarding things. Our positive or negative attitude towards a politician is mostly the outcome the news we get through the media. Similarly, the advertisements on media are made to influence our attitude positively towards a product to enhance its sale.

5. Personality traits
Every individual has different personality traits such as aggressiveness or jovialness, introvertial or extrovertial traits, intelligence level, perceptual traits and so on. These characteristics influence the way an individual perceives a thing or an idea. An extrovert person will have a positive attitude towards social gatherings, parties and ceremonies. On the other hand, an introvert person will have a negative attitude towards social gatherings. Similarly, different people may perceive a thing differently which is also a cause of the difference in attitudes of people towards the same thing.

6. Rational Analysis
Attitude formation is also the outcome of our rational analysis of things. We analyse things and weigh their pros and cons to make our choices. Observing things in our daily life in this way lead to formation of a negative or positive attitude towards different things.

7. Culture
Our cultural norms, values, traditions, beliefs and preferences also form our attitude towards a thing. People form a positive attitude towards culturally approved practices. Similarly, people form a negative attitude towards culturally disapproved and discouraged practice. Our cultural norms and values are reflected in our attitudes. For instance, the dress and food choices are good examples.  

8. Accessible Information
Availability of information or accessibility to the available information is also a determinant of attitude formation. Attitudes are formed on the basis of what we know about an object. The accessible information reflects the pros and cons of an object or a practice; which shape our attitude towards it. For example, knowing the policy preferences and strategies of a politician will lead to our positive or negative attitude towards the politician. Similarly, which type of information is available also influence attitudes formation. If more information is available which presents bad aspects of a practice, it will lead to a negative attitude formation towards the thing. Some information may be deliberately shared to shape people attitude towards a thing in some intended manner.

9. Religious beliefs
Every religion has its teachings, beliefs, prohibitions and injunctions, which influence an individual’s attitude towards specific things and practices.

10. Stereotypes
A stereotype is a wide-spread belief about a thing or a practice. It may be a true or a false judgment that is accepted by the majority of the people. There may be a negative or a positive stereotype towards an object, practice, a gender or an ethnic group which shape the people’s attitude towards it accordingly. For example, some bad things may be associated with an ethnic group - which are mostly false – but when it becomes widely accepted belief (stereotype), this may influence people's attitude towards that ethnic group negatively.

   THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF ATTITUDE FORMATION

The Learning Theory explains the process of attitude formation as follows:

   Learning Theory

The Learning theory is a product of the works of many Psychologists including Albert Bandura, Hovland, Janis, Doobs and others. This theory explains how an individual learns different things through social interactions with others.

According to the Learning theory, attitudes are formed as a result of the following three modes of learning.

1. Classical Conditioning
2. Instrumental Conditioning
3. Imitation or Observation

1. Classical Conditioning

It is also called learning by association. Attitudes are learnt by associating good or bad characteristics to an object. Associating bad or good attributes to an object may be based on the personal experience of the individual or his knowledge about the pros and cons of the object.

An individual form a negative attitude towards a thing, to which he associates negative characteristics. For example, an individual may associate bad characteristics to junk foods, such as that it contains a high amount of carbohydrates and fats, and thus, it causes obesity and health complications. This individual will have a negative attitude towards junk food consumption. On the other hand, if another person, associates good characteristics to junk foods, such as that it has a good taste; and that it has high energy and so on. Such an individual may form a positive attitude towards junk food consumption.

2. Instrumental Conditioning

It is called learning through reinforcement – punishments and rewards. A positive or negative attitude towards an object is formed on the basis of the consequences of coming across that object. Anything that gives you a positive consequence, you would develop a positive attitude towards it. For example, a student studying devotedly gets high marks, wins a prize and is appreciated by others for his high marks. He develops a positive attitude towards studying books..

Similarly, any negative consequence of some action leads to the formation of a negative attitude towards it.

3. Imitation or Observation

Attitudes are formed by imitating and observing others. We observe the preference, choices, and attitudes of other people towards different things which may also shape our own attitudes towards those things. We imitate others in developing a specific attitude towards a thing. This means that we may simply copy the attitudes of others towards a thing, and our such attitude formation may not be primarily based on our personal assessment of things.