Mini Courses of GS IV: Attitude
Mini Courses of Ethics, Integrity, Attitude, Aptitude and case studies for IAS Mains Examination
:: ATTITUDE ::
Whenever we interact with others it seems that we are involved in finding out what each other thinks, in telling each other our opinions and beliefs or in trying to change someone else’s. If we know someone’s attitude about something, we feel we are in a better position to predict and explain what they will do, feel or think in a given situation. An attitude is “a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols.” An attitude is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person, place, thing, or event (the attitude object). Prominent psychologist Gordon Allport once described attitudes lithe most distinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary social psychology. Attitude can be formed from a person’s past and present. Attitude influences the behavior of the individuals. Attitude is a usual way of doing things. Successes and failures in life depend upon the attitude of the individuals. If attitudes are positive, then human relations will be positive. And positive human relations are necessary for a successful life.
Attitude is a disposition to approach an idea, event, person, or an object. It is a tendency to act in one was or the other toward an ‘attitude object’ or something CT (i.e. idea, event, person, object, food, Steps of colour. and furniture. virtually everything). It is easy to see therefore that the study of attitudes is central to the study of people in social situations. How you see others stereotyping, prejudices, attraction, voting, which subjects you study, your hobbies and interests, which TV programmes you watch, religious views, political views, who your friends are, whether you attribute blame/ responsibility to someone, how you make decisions in a group-all of these are areas of social psychology and all of them reflect attitudes that you hold.
STRUCTURE OF ATTITUDES
Attitudes structure can be described in terms of three components.
- Affective component: this involves a person’s feelings/ emotions about the attitude object. For example: “I am scared of spiders”.
- Behavioral (or conative) component: the way the attitude we have influences how we act or behave. For example: “I will avoid spiders and scream if I see one”.
- Cognitive component: this involves a person’s belief/ knowledge about an attitude object. For example: “I believe spiders are dangerous”.
TYPES OF ATTITUDES
Attitude is something that lies between emotions and thought processing. Attitud e may be positive ornegative. If someone has good feelings about something e.g. towards his/her work, or people, men it is positive attitude otherwise it would be negative.
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Positive attitude: The predisposition that results in desirable outcomes for individuals and organizations can bedescribed as positive attitude. Positive attitudes are rewarded. It mean s the individual is encouraged to do the same thing in future.
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Negative attitude: The tendency of a person that results in an undesirable outcome for individuals and organizations can be described as negative attitude. Negative attitudes are punish ed in order to discourage the same action in future.
DEFINITIONS OF ATTITUDE
| Allport 1935 | An attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situati-ons with which it is related. |
| Rokeach 1968 | A learned orientation, or disposition, toward an object or situation, which provides a tendency to respond favourably or unfavo-urably to the object or situation |
| Mednick et al 1975 | An attitude is a predisposition to act in a certain way towards some aspect of one’s environment, including other people |
| Bern 1979 | Attitudes are likes and dislikes |
LIST OF ATTITUDES
In the broader sense of the word there are only three attitudes, a positive attitude, a negative attitude, and a neutral attitude. But in general sense, an attitude is what it is expressed through. Given below is a list of attitudes that are expressed by people, and are more than personality traits which you may have heard of, know of, or might be even carrying them: Acceptance, Confidence, Seriousness, Optimism, Pessimism, Interest, Independent, Jealous, Courteous, Cooperative, Considerate, Gratitude, Cheerful, Inferiority, Condescending, Happiness, Frankness, Respectful, Authority, Sincerity, Persistent, Honest, Sincere, Sympathetic, Responsible, Realistic. Faithful, Flexible, Decisive, Trusting, Thoughtful, Determined, L/iving, Satisfaction, Hostile, Generous, Modest, Reliable, Tolerant, Kind, Humble. Cautious, Suspicious, Sarcasm, Helping, Hardworking, Inchisivcncss. Tenacity. These were some of the attitudes that you may confuse with personality traits as there is a very thin line between the two. Personality traits arc more rigid and permanent whereas attitudes may change with different situations and experiences in life. Personality traits are what humans are endowed with whereas attitudes are learned and acquired. In simple words, attitudes are judgments or conclusions that we draw about certain phenomena in life including our own self.
LIST OF ATTITUDES
In the broader sense of the word there are only three attitudes, a positive attitude, a negative attitude, and a neutral attitude. But in general sense, an attitude is what it is expressed through. Given below is a list of attitudes that are expressed by people, and are more than personality traits which you may have heard of, know of, or might be even carrying them: Acceptance, Confidence, Seriousness, Optimism, Pessimism, Interest, Independent, Jealous, Courteous, Cooperative, Considerate, Gratitude, Cheerful, Inferiority, Condescending, Happiness, Frankness, Respectful, Authority, Sincerity, Persistent, Honest, Sincere, Sympathetic, Responsible, Realistic. Faithful, Flexible, Decisive, Trusting, Thoughtful, Determined, L/iving, Satisfaction, Hostile, Generous, Modest, Reliable, Tolerant, Kind, Humble. Cautious, Suspicious, Sarcasm, Helping, Hardworking, Inchisivcncss. Tenacity. These were some of the attitudes that you may confuse with personality traits as there is a very thin line between the two. Personality traits arc more rigid and permanent whereas attitudes may change with different situations and experiences in life. Personality traits are what humans are endowed with whereas attitudes are learned and acquired. In simple words, attitudes are judgments or conclusions that we draw about certain phenomena in life including our own self.
THE MEASUREMENTS OF ATTITUDES
The scientific study of attitudes requires that they be measured. This means that people’s evaluation of a given attitude object must be translated into some number system. The accuracy of the measurement is lowered if a persons public response differs from his or her private attitude. Attitudes are measured by attitude items.
ATTITUDE THEORIES
A number of psychological theories have been suggested to explain how attitudes form and why they change. The theories most frequently employed can be categorized as either (1) learning theories, (2) consistency theories, or (3) cognitive-response theories. Examples of each will be discussed below. It should be noted that these different approaches are not contradictory but simply focus on different factors which my affect the way attitudes develop and change.
One of the first investigators to suggest that learning principles could be applied to attitudes was Doob. He proposed thai the principles of classical and instrumental conditioning could be used to explain the formation and change of attitudes in much the same way that they have been applied to overt behavior.
MAIN FEATURES OF SOCIAL STRUCTURES AND IMPACT ON ADMINISTRATION :
A society is a collection of people who are sufficiently organised to create conditionsnecessary to live together with a common identification. It is an organised network ofsocial interactions and patterned behaviour. Every society has its own identity based onthe nature of its social institutions. India has a rich cultural heritage and is a land ofdiversities. The diversity in social life is reflected in multi-social, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-caste nature of the society. The important features of the. Indiansocial structure are; predominant rural habitation in small villages; multi-religious andmulti-caste social identities and important role of family in the social life.
1. Rural habitation: India is a land of villages. A great majority of villages are small with only around five hundred population each. Mahatma Gandhi’s view that India lives in villages still holds good, at least from the demographic point of view.
2. Religion: Historically, India has been hospitable to numerous groups of immigrants from differentparts of Asia and Europe, People of all religions have been living in India for many centuries. The Constitution declares India to be a secular state. The State is expected totreat all the religions equally.
3. Caste: The Hindn sooen is known for its varna and caste system. The society is broadK tfivided into four orders or varnas on ‘functional”basis. aameh. Brahmana (traditional priest and scholar), Kshatriya ‘ruler and soldier). Vaisya (merchant) and Shudra (peasant, Ubww and servant). The scheduled castes are outside the varna scheme.
4. Family: The joint family was considered as one of the three pillars of Indian social structure, the other two being the caste and the village community. Family is an important social unit and in country like India, the family loyalties are very strong. Traditionally, in India the joint family system played an important role as a social and economic institution. The social norms expect the subordination of individual interests to that of family.