Attitudes are the complex combination of things we tend to call personality, beliefs,values, behaviours, and motivations. It can fall anywhere along a continuum from very favourable to very unfavourable. All people, irrespective of their status or intelligence, hold attitudes.
Characteristics of Attitude:
- Enduring: Integral component of personality
- Acquired: Developed through socialisation.
- Subject-Object relationship: Objectification of values -> attitude. It can never be
- object free. E.g. I have (subject) a +ve attitude towards you (object).
- They help in evaluation.
- It can be expressed both verbally and non-verbally.
- We get to know and understand others through their attitudes only.
- Attitudes are subjective experience. Each individual’s attitude differs from others.
- It conforms to the principle of consistency. We generally don’t have A1, A2 attitudes towards a thing at different point of time. Inconsistency in attitudes leads to mentaldissonance.
