Assignment

Guidance and Counselling

Tools and Techniques of Guidance and
Counselling
Psychological Tests: Attitude

By
M. Jansi Reshma
Reg.No:19BDMT09
Introduction:
Motivation, influenced by one’s attitudes, interests, values and preferences in
addition to aptitudes and abilities can determine the selection of a course of
study or an occupation. The measures of attitudes, interests and values are
different as these are independent traits. These aspects of one’s personality
influence one another. Therefore, the measurement of attitude, interest, and
values has been discussed in detail.

Meaning and definition of attitude:

“An attitude is defined as a tendency to react in certain way toward a

designated class of stimuli or an object”.

Various authors have defined attitude in the following ways:

Travers: “An attitude is a readiness to respond in such a way that behaviour is

given a certain direction”

According this definition attitude is responsible for behaving in a particular and

definite way. If one keeps a positive and favourable attitude toward an object,
he will admire it and try to achieve it.

Whittaker: “An attitude is a predisposition or readiness to respond in a

predetermined manner to relevant stimuli”

This definition accepts attitude as a predisposition or tendency to behave in a

particular and definite way to a particular situation. One’s attitude decides one’s
response to a particular stimulus.

An attitude is a variable which directly observed, but it is inferred from

overt behaviour both verbal and non-verbal responses. In more objective term
the concept of attitude may be said to response tendency with regard to certain
categories of stimuli. In actual practice the term ‘attitude’ has been most
frequently associated with emotionally toned responses. The deep rooted
feelings are the attitudes which cannot be changed easily.

Nature of Attitudes:

We have defined attitudes as predispositions or determining tendency to

respond in a specific manner. For a more clear distinction an attribute should
meet the following criteria:

 Attitudes have a subject – object relationship:

Attitudes always involve the relation of the individual to specific objects,

persons, groups, institutions and values or norms related to his environment.

 Attitudes are learned:

Attitudes as pointed out earlier are learned and acquired dispositions. They are
not innate and inherent in an individual.

 Attitudes are relatively enduring states of readiness:

Attitudes represent the states of readiness to respond to a certain stimulus.

Physiological motives also do the same.

 Attitudes have motivational – affective characteristics:

Other dispositions like habit of writing with right hand do not have any
motivational or affective quality; but attitudes toward one’s family, nation,
religion or other sacred and hallowed institutions have definite motivational
affective characteristics.

 Attitudes are numerous and varied as the stimuli to which they refer:

Attitude is an implicit responses, therefore it stands to be varied with the

number and variety of the responses which the individual makes.
  Attitudes range from strongly positive to strongly negative:

These positive and negative attitudes may involve intense feelings and vary
from the large negative values to the increasingly positive.

Formation of Attitudes:

Attitudes are learned or acquired dispositions. How are they formed, has been a
question for investigation to the psychologists. Based on the opinion of All port,
Stagner has suggested that attitudes are formed under one of the following four
conditions:-

 The Integration of experiences

 The Differentiation of Experiences
 Trauma or dramatic experience
 The adoption of the available attitudes.

Factors influencing the formation of attitudes:

Heredity factor does not play any role in the formation of development of
attitudes. Environmental factors help an individual to form and develop various
attitudes. An attitude at any stage is essentially a product of the interaction of
one’s self with one’s environment. Therefore the factors influencing the
formation and development of attitudes can be divided into two parts:-

 Factors within the individual himself.

 Factors within the individual’s environment.
Factors within the individual himself:

 Physical growth and development.

 Intellectual development.
 Emotional development.
 Social development.
 Ethical and moral development.

Factors within the individual’s environment:

 Home and family

 Social environment

Opinion and Attitude:

Opinion is sometimes differentiated from attitude, but the proposed distinctions

are neither consistent nor logically defensible. More often the two terms are
used interchangeable but psychological these two terms are altogether different.

o Attitude of an individual is generally very rigid it cannot be easily

changed, but opinion can be revised or changed easily.
o Attitude of an individual can be graded easily but opinion cannot be
graded, the opinions are usually in the form of yes or no.
o How an individual feels or what he believes is his attitude, but difficult to
measure and describe. We have to depend for his attitude, what the
individual says as to beliefs and feelings. Really the expression is the
opinion total opinion forms an attitude.
o The term opinion is used more often is refer to judgements and
knowledge, whereas the term ‘attitude’ is more connotative of belongs,
feelings and preferences.
 o The opinions, are usually verifiable than attitudes. P.E. Vernon points out
that “interest are very much the same as attitude, through their definition
is also make of controversy.”

Monroe says “Interest is essential as the starting point the educative process,
effort is essential as its outcome.”

The attitude and interests are not related to ability and aptitude but they can be
hereditary as well as acquired though mainly acquired.

Interest and Attitudes:

It is easy to distinguish interest from opinion and attitude interest inventories

are meant to measure what the individual does and does not like to do.
Inventories are developed for all kind of activities. They are concerned with
activities that distinguish jobs, professions from one another.

Attitude is very complex phenomenon and difficult to explain, but attitude is

the significant determinants for individual differences.

According to L.L. Thurstone –“Attitude is the sum total of an individual’s

inclination, feelings, prejudices or biases , preconceived notions , ideas threats
and convictions or beliefs about any specific objects.”

The following are the main characteristics of an attitude –

1. There are individual differences in attitudes.

2. It is a bipolar trait as it is a position toward an object either for or against.
3. It may be overt or covert and it is fathomless or unlimited depth.
4. It is integrated into an organised system and cannot be changed easily.
5. It varies culture to culture and society to society.
6. It implies a subject- object relationship.
 According to Krech and Crutch Field, “An attitude can be defined as an
enduring organisation of motivational, emotional, perceptual and cognitive
processes with respect to some aspects to the individual’s world.”

According to Britt, “An attitude is mental and natural state of readiness,

exerting directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all
objects and situation with which it is related.”

Britt has rightly stated that all behaviours of a person are governed by his
attitude towards all objects and situations with which he is related.

Determinants of attitude:

The following factors may influence the attitudes of a person –

1. Cultural and social factors,

2. Psychological factors (needs, emotions, perceptions, experiences etc.)

3. Functional factors (role of temperament).

The attitudes are formed on the following basis –

1. Acceptance of social norms and values ,

2. Emotional and personal experiences ,
3. Ego- involvement and social perceptions ,
4. Technology changes and economic developments,
5. Suggestions and self-concept or ideals of life.

Changing of Attitudes:

Attitudes are by no means fixed and unchanging predispositions. They can and
do any change. The task of attitudes change is very much related to their
formation. As discussed earlier attitudes are formed through experiences –
direct or indirect.
Measurements of Attitude:

Psychometric scaling procedures are described all represent technique for

placing a set of stimuli on a numeric scale , seeking in every instances too
much to reach the highest level of measurements possible under the
experimental ‘improved conditions’. - Guilford and others (1954)

‘Psychometric scaling technique called successive intervals.’ Each of the

stimuli under consideration is placed into one of a limited number of intervals
ordered along some continuum.

We have defined attitudes as implicit responses or predispositions to objects,

persons, ideas, values or situations in the social surroundings. Thereby they are
essentially covert tendencies. This can be done in the following two ways:-

 Direct method
 Indirect method

Direct method:

Measuring the verbal report of the attitude. In this method opinion of an

individual about a particular subject in the form of a verbal report is collected
and on the basis his attitude about the subject is eliminated.

 Asking the individual directly how he feels about a subject.

 Asking to check in a list of statements with which he is in
agreement.
 To indicate his degree of agreement or disagreement with a series
of statements dealing with the same subject.

Indirect method:

The process of inferring attitude directly from the verbal report or expressed
opinion has many limitations. One may conceal one’s real attitudes and may not
really know what one feels and unable to know one’s attitude about a situation
in the abstract. Even overt behaviour is not always a true indication of one’s
attitude.

Improve your attitudes:

Developing positive attitudes and eliminating negative ones is the best kind of
reforming you can do. Attitudes are shaped under the stress of emotions, it may
take courage for you to try these suggestions. The reward can be a more positive
attitude. Here there are three steps in the process of attitude improvement:

 Identify the attitudes you want to improve.

 Resolve to develop those attitudes.
 Use the image of your ideal personality as a model for your behaviour.

References:

1. Dr. S.K. Mangal. Educational Psychology. Tandon Publications:

Ludhiana
2. Harold R. Wallace and L. Ann Masters. Personality Development.
Cengage Learning India Private Limited.
3. Sharma, R.A. (2008). Fundamentals of Guidance and Counselling,
Meerut: R. Lall Book Depot.
Thank You