The term attitude refers to the degree of favoring or disfavoring an object, person, issue, idea or some action.

Attitude is an indicator of whether an individual likes or dislikes something. If a person favors or likes something, it means that he has a positive attitude towards it. If a person disfavors or dislikes something, it means that he has a negative attitude towards it.

Some people may have a positive attitude towards a thing while others may have a negative attitude towards the same thing. For instance, some people have a positive attitude towards living in urban areas because they think it provides them with modern facilities. On the other hand, some people may have a negative attitude towards living in urban areas because they think it increases their exposure to air pollution due to the excessive number of automobiles and factories in urban areas.

Attitude is an important concept in psychology because it is a predictor of behavior of an individual. For instance, the people having a positive attitude to living in rural areas will prefer to live in rural areas with a natural and pollution-free environment.                                                                                                                           

Generally, people have either a positive or negative attitude towards a thing. For instance, some people may view women suitable for managerial jobs while others may not view women suitable for managerial jobs. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes, a person may also have a combination of positive and negative attitudes towards something. It is called ambivalence. For instance, a girl may know that putting on too much makeup (cosmetics) may be harmful to facial skin in the long run, however, she yet prefers to put on makeup to look prettier. This is a state of ambivalence where the individual has a negative as well as a positive attitude towards putting on makeup. Another example is that a smoker knows that smoking is injurious to his health but at the same time, he has to smoke due to his addiction to it. In such a case, a smoker is in a state of ambivalence in terms of his attitude towards smoking behavior.

Attitudes towards something can vary in its strength such as extremely favorable, moderately favourable or unfavorable. In research, the attitude is usually measured by using a five- or seven-point Likert scale. This helps in understanding how much a specific behaviour of an individual is attributable to his attitude.

Attitudes are embedded in an individual’s personality. The main sources of attitude formation are personal experience with things, the influence of family, teachers, peers, electronic and print media and so on.

An attitude is not simply the expression of liking or disliking. It also involves the factors that lead to the expression of liking and disliking and the resultant behaviour according to the attitude. 

An attitude is a complex psychological construct that comprises the following three components:

1. Cognitive
2. Affective
3. Behavioral

These three components are interrelated and influence each other. The cognitive and affective components are internal to a person whereas the behavioral component is observable.

The cognitive component refers to knowledge, information, facts, and thoughts that an individual has in his mind about something. These information and facts are gained by the learning process. The sources for learning can be a personal experience, family, teachers, peers, media and so on. These information and facts (that an individual has in his mind) become the basis for whether he will like or dislike a thing.

For instance, a person has the knowledge that fish is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for heart and brain health, he would develop a positive attitude towards including fish in daily diet. Similarly, if a person comes to know that excessive consumption of high carbohydrate foods leads to diabetes and other health complications, he will develop a negative attitude towards the consumption of high carbohydrate foods.

It is important to note that sometimes an individual may have incomplete or inaccurate knowledge about something which may shape their attitude based on false or biased generalization.

The affective component refers to the feelings and emotions of liking or disliking something. These feelings and emotions arise from the cognitive component of attitude. For instance, a person has knowledge (cognitive factor) of bad consequences of excessive consumption of sugar on health, he would express the feeling of disliking (affective component) towards excessive consumption of sugar. The affective component is simply the expression of liking or disliking associated with the attitude. Another example: a person knows that vegetables are rich in antioxidants good for health (the cognitive component), he or she would express a favourable feeling and emotions (affective component) towards intake of vegetables. 

The behavioral component is the way a person acts towards an object based on cognitive and affective components of attitude. It is simply the behaviour part of attitude. For instance, a person knows that he excessive consumption of sugar results in diabetes and other health issues (cognitive factor), he expresses disliking towards excessive intake of sugar (affective factor), and he avoids consuming sugar by not including sugary beverages or foods containing sugar (in any form of carbohydrates) in his diet (the behavioral component).

Another example: a person knows the health benefits of taking physical exercise (cognitive factor), he expresses his liking for taking physical exercise (affective factor) and he joins the gym for exercise and goes for a walk on daily basis (the behavioral component).

All three components generally work in a harmony with one another. However, in some cases, the behaviour component may precede the cognitive and affective component. In such a case, the cognitive factor is modified to bring the network of three components into harmony. For instance, a student knows that a good amount of sleep is essential for his health and that one should avoid waking till late at night. However, if the same student keeps awake till late at night and he may justify it by thinking that he has to work on his college project and thus, it has some productive outcome for him and it's okay to wake till late in the night.