Attitudes have four important functions: 1) knowledge function, 2) ego defensive function, 3) value expressive function, and 4) adjustment function.

An individual has certain needs which should be fulfilled so that he may become a functional member of society. Therefore, he develops specific attitudes to fulfil these needs. The aforementioned four functions of the attitudes are basically the needs of an individual which motivate him to develop specific attitudes for their fulfillment.

Every individual needs to understand the external world in a meaningful way. For instance, an individual should know the nature of people and things around him to become a functional member of the society. This need includes getting knowledge about material things, people, abstract entities (e.g., values and norms), formal learning (school or college education), practical learning (e.g., learning to drive a car or to play a specific game) and so on.

This need can be seen in the sense of curiosity in individuals to know and explore things. To fulfill this need, the individual develops specific attitudes to get knowledge. Moreover, these attitudes work in a goal-specific manner. For instance, if an individual does not need to drive a car, he may not wish to learn how to drive a car. Another example: an individual may join a college to get formal education but gets admission only in the academic program of his interest.

This function helps an individual protect his ego or self-image from harm, shame, or threat. An individual wants to maintain his self-image. However, there are sometimes situations that may cause him a sense of guilt or shame. In such situations, the individual develops ego-defensive attitudes to minimize their sense of guilt or shame. For instance, a smoker knows that smoking is injurious to his health and is a socially unacceptable habit, but he still smokes due to his addiction to it. In such a case, the smoker may develop an attitude to justify his smoking habit by saying to himself that there is no problem in smoking because many other people also smoke. By developing such an attitude, the smoker justifies a bad habit to maintain his self-image and to escape the sense of shame.

The instances of ego defensive function can also be noticed when we usually develop attitudes to justify our small wrong acts in our routine life. This function of attitude has its roots in the psychoanalytic principles of Freud. The defense mechanisms such as denial, rationalization, projection, and repression are used to protect our ego. 

The value expressive function enables an individual to express his central values and beliefs. Every individual holds a set of values and beliefs. Most values and beliefs are acquired through interactions and experiences with others in society. These are shared values and beliefs which become part of one’s personality and identity. An individual develops certain attitudes for the expression of these shared values and beliefs. For instance, most individuals express a preference, liking and support for their shared values and beliefs such as dressing style and ways of greeting others in accordance with norms and values of culture.

In addition to the shared values and beliefs, some specific values and beliefs are also held by individuals. For instance, a vegetarian person would show a favourable attitude towards eating vegetables and an unfavourable attitude towards meat consumption. Likewise, people have their specific choices in terms of products they use in their routine. For instance, if an individual believes that a mobile phone, made by a specific company, is best in battery time, camera result and other features. He would express a favourable attitude towards buying that phone such as that he would suggest it to a friend who intends to buy a new phone.

The adjustment function of attitude helps people to adjust to their environment. To be well-adjusted in an environment means to be able to receive pleasurable or rewarding experiences from others and to avoid punishments or unpleasant experiences from others. For adjustment function, the individual develops certain attitudes to maximize their pleasurable experience and to minimize their unpleasant experience in an environment or a group.

For instance, a young girl knows that her parents want her to study, therefore, when her parents come to her room by chance, she would start studying her book to make her parents happy and to get pleasurable experience in the form of appreciation from her parents. 

This function of attitude can also be seen in situations where we go with the choices of others though they may be slightly different from our choice. For instance, in a gathering with friends at a restaurant, an individual may order the same type of food that the other friends also order because everyone in the group prefers to emphasize it. In order to not look weird or unadjusted, the individual may go with the choices of his friends rather than expressing his own choice while ordering the type of food.