Attitude Value and

Perception
 Module 2

Individual Behavior
ATTITUDE
ATTITUDES: Evaluative statements or judgments
concerning objects, people or events.

Components of Attitudes (The ABC Model):

1. Cognitive Component: The opinion or belief

segment of an attitude

2. Affective Component: The emotional or feeling

segment of an attitude

3. Behavioral Component: An intention to behave in a

certain way toward someone or something
Attitude Formation

•Attitudes are acquired not inherited

• Attitudes are acquired from various
sources
Sources of acquiring or formation of attitude
1. Direct experience with the object
2. Classical conditioning and Attitudes
3. Operant Conditioning and Attitude Acquisition
4. Vicarious Learning (Observational Learning)
5. Family and Peer Groups
6. Neighborhood
7. Economic Status and Occupation
8. Mass Communication
Sources of acquiring or formation of attitude

1. Direct experience with the object:

• Attitudes can develop from a personally rewarding

or punishing experience with an object
• Employees form attitudes about jobs on their
previous experiences
• Attitudes formed on experience are difficult to
change
2. Classical conditioning and Attitudes

• People develop associations between various

objects and the emotional reactions that
accompany them.
3. Operant Conditioning and Attitude Acquisition

• Attitudes that are reinforced, either verbally or non-

verbally, tend to be maintained.
• If others make fun of individual’s any attitude, he or
she may modify or abandon that attitude
4. Vicarious Learning (Observational Learning)

• It is the formation of attitudes by

 observing behavior of others

 and consequences of that behavior.

5. Family and Peer Groups

• A person may learn attitudes through

 imitation of parents/family members

 and peer groups in colleges and organisations.

6. Neighborhood

• The neighborhood we live in has a certain structure

in terms of cultural facilities, religious groupings and
ethnic differences.
• The neighbours (adults or children) tolerate, ignore
or deny certain attitudes.
• This influences our attitude formation
7. Economic Status and Occupations

• Our socio-economic background and occupational

positions also contribute to attitude formation.
8. Mass communications

• Television, radio, newspapers, and magazines give

their audiences large quantities of information.
• This information helps us either to support our
opinions or to establish new ones
Positive Attitude…….
1. Increases productivity
2. Fosters teamwork
3. Solves problems
4. Improves quality
5. Makes congenial atmosphere
6. Breeds loyalty
7. Increases profit
8. Fosters better relationships with employees,
employers and customers
9. Reduces stress
10. Makes a pleasing personality
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLPqy2oO-Eg

Eagle mentality
 Cognitive Dissonance Theory
(proposed by Leon Festinger in the
late 1950s):

Cognitive: relating to the mental processes

of perception, memory, judgment, and
reasoning

Dissonance: (difference/disagreement)
Attitudes and Consistency:

People seek consistency (uniformity/stability)……..

……..among their attitudes and between attitudes

(cognitive component) and their behavior

……so that they can appear as rational

(balanced/normal) and consistent
(constant/reliable).
• Cognitive Consistency

Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory suggests

that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes
and behavior in harmony and avoid disharmony (or
dissonance). This is known as the principle of
cognitive consistency.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive Dissonance is any incompatibility between

two or more attitudes or between behavior and
attitudes (Cognitive Component).

According to Festinger, any form of dissonance or

inconsistency is uncomfortable and individuals will
try to reduce the dissonance and this way they will
reduce their discomfort.
Research has concluded that people seek consistency
among their attitudes and between their attitudes
and their behavior.

They do this by…….

• Altering either the attitudes or the behavior.

• Or by developing a rationalization (excuse/reason)
for the discrepancy (difference).
But no individual can completely avoid
dissonance because in many situations
they are behaving against their attitudes.
For eg. You are telling your children to go
to bed early in the night but you are not
doing it.
Then how people will cope?
According to Festinger, the desire to reduce dissonance
(inconsistency) would be determined by the……….

1. importance of the elements creating dissonance: If the

elements creating the dissonance is relatively
unimportant, the pressure to correct the imbalance
between attitude and behavior will be low.

2. degree of influence the individual believes he or she has

over the elements: If people perceive that they have less
or no control over the element which is creating
dissonance, they will not feel stressed. Dissonance will be
there, but it will be justified.

3. rewards that may be involved in dissonance: If people

are getting any reward for behaving against their attitude,
they will feel less desire to reduce the imbalance between
attitude and behavior.
Organisation Related Attitudes
1. Job Satisfaction:

• An individual’s general attitude toward his or her

job.
• It describes a positive feeling about a job, resulting
from an evaluation of its characteristics.
• A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds
positive feelings about his or her job, while a
dissatisfied person holds negative feelings.
2. Job Involvement:

• The degree to which a person

identifies with his or her job,

actively participates in it,

and considers his or her performance important to self-

worth.

• Employees with a high level of job involvement strongly

identify with and care about the kind of work they do.

………continued
3. Psychological empowerment is another closely
related concept, which is employees’ beliefs

in the degree to which they influence their work

environment, their competence, the meaningfulness
of their job, and the perceived autonomy in their
work.

• High levels of job involvement and psychological

empowerment are positively related to
organisational citizenship and job performance.

• High level of job involvement has been found to be

related to a reduced number of absences and lower
resignation rates.
4 Organisational Commitment:

The degree to which an employee

• identifies with a particular organization and its goals,

• and wishes to maintain membership in the

organization.
Dimensions of Organisational Commitment:

1. Affective Commitment: An emotional attachment

to the organisation and a belief in its values. (may
feel attached to any organisation because it is
working for any cause which that employee values a
lot for eg. animals., environment, health etc.)

2. Continuance Commitment: It is the perceived

economic value of remaining with an organisation
compared to leaving it.
An employee may be committed to an employer
because he is paid well and feels it would hurt his
family to quit. ………………continued
3. Normative Commitment: It is an obligation to
remain with the organisation for moral or ethical
reasons. (may not wish to leave the employer in the
mid of any project or important assignment).
A positive relationship appears to exist between
organisational commitment and job productivity.

A research suggested that the relationship between

commitment and performance is strongest for new
employees, and it is considerably weaker for more
experienced employees.

Research evidence also demonstrates negative

relationships between organisational commitment
and both absenteeism and employee turnover.
5. Perceived Organisational Support (POS):

It is the degree to which employees believe that organisation

values their contribution and cares about their well-being.

people perceive their organisation as supportive when…..

• rewards are fair,

• employees are getting opportunity to participate in decision
making process,
• And their supervisors are seen as supportive.

Some findings suggest that employees with strong POS

perceptions are more likely to have higher levels of
organisational citizenship behavior and job performance.
6. Employee Engagement :

It is an individual’s

involvement with work,

satisfaction with work,
and enthusiasm for the work he or she does.

Highly engaged employees have a passion for their work

and feel a deep connection to their company and
disengaged employees put their time but not energy or
attention into their work.
………..continued
One study of 36 companies revealed that, compared
with other companies, those whose employees had
high average levels of engagement had higher levels
of customer satisfaction, were more productive, had
higher profits, and had lower levels of turnover and
accidents.

One study found that employee engagement can lead

to superior financial performance. Highly engaged
employees are committed and focused, and are two-
and-a-half times more likely to be top performers
than lower engagement peers.
Rokeach Value Survey (RVS)

• The Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) is a classification system of values.

Developed by social psychologist Milton Rokeach, the system consists
of two sets of values, 18 individual value items in each. One set is
called terminal values the other instrumental values.
The terminal values in RVS are
Terminal Values refer to desirable end-states of existence. These are the goals that a person would like to achieve during his or her
lifetime. These values vary among different groups of people in different cultures.
• The terminal values in RVS are
• True Friendship
• Mature Love
• Self-Respect
• Happiness
• Inner Harmony
• Equality
• Freedom
• Pleasure
• Social Recognition
• Wisdom
• Salvation
• Family Security
• National Security
• A Sense of Accomplishment
• A World of Beauty
• A World at Peace
• A Comfortable Life
• An Exciting Life
The Instrumental Values are:
• Instrumental Values refer to preferable modes of behavior. These are preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the
terminal values.
• The Instrumental Values are:
• Cheerfulness
• Ambition
• Love
• Cleanliness
• Self-Control
• Capability
• Courage
• Politeness
• Honesty
• Imagination
• Independence
• Intellect
• Broad-Mindedness
• Logic
• Obedience
• Helpfulness
• Responsibility
• Forgiveness
Hofstede’s Six Cultural Dimensions
• Geert Hofstede’s 6 Cultural Dimensions are Power Distance Index
(PDI), Individualism Vs Collectivism, Masculinity Vs Femininity,
Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), Long Vs Short Term Orientation,
and Indulgence Vs Restraint
Hofstede’s Six Cultural Dimensions
Power Distance
• The high power distance refers to the society where less powerful
people easily accept the unequal power distribution in the
community. It means the acceptance of the inequity between high-
and low-status members in society.
• Low power distance refers to the culture where less powerful people
do not accept unequal power distribution in society easily. It means
the acceptance of equity and equality between high- and low-status
members in society.
Difference between high and low power distance
High Power Distance Culture Low Power Distance Culture

People certainly accept the unequal power distribution in society. In contrast, people complain about unequal power distribution.

Junior people respect the senior people in the society and seniors expect obedience Senior and junior people respect each other equally.

Discrimination is prevalent in every sector in the country; for example, social,

On the other hand, people raise voices against discrimination.
government, and non-government organizations.

The political leader and organizational boss are autocratic people. The political leader and organizational boss are democratic people.

For example, high power distance cultures exist in Bangladesh, China, India, For example, low power distance cultures exist in Austria, Israel, Denmark, New
Singapore, Malaysia, and Arab countries. Zealand, Norway, Germany, and United Kingdom.
Individualism Vs Collectivism
• Individualism refers to the individualistic culture of the society where
people prefer to work separately and seek freedom in the workplace.
Individualistic members like to work alone and seek credit for their
work. In this culture, task prevails the relationship in the workplace.
People in individualistic cultures do not want to work in groups, so
they set independent goals and appreciate freedom.
• Collectivism refers to the collectivistic culture of the society where
people prefer to work together and foster interdependent
achievement. Collectivist members like to work in groups and try to
help each other. They prefer to work in groups instead of working
alone
 Individualism Vs Collectivism
Individualistic Culture Collectivistic Culture

Firstly, People are intended to work alone. In contrast, people are intended to work in a group or team.

Additionally, people foster personal achievement. People foster group achievement.

On the other hand, in the collectivistic society, the member takes responsibility for the extended family, including parents
In this culture, the member takes responsibility only for the immediate family, including the wife and children.
and grandparents.

In the workplace, employees are supposed to focus on personal tasks, and they compete with each other for positions. In contrast, employees are supposed to share the workload.

Tasks control the relationship However, relationship prevails over the tasks.

Government plays a small role in society. The government certainly plays the most critical role in society.

Above all, people are assertive, self-reliant, self-interest, competitive, and independent. Whereas, People are obedient, self-sacrificing, cooperative, and interdependent.

I- Consciousness We- Consciousness

For example, the individualistic cultures are prevalent in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, For example, collectivistic cultures are prevalent in Guatemala, Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Pakistan, Taiwan, South
Netherland, New Zealand, and Ireland are Korea, China, Bangladesh, and Malaysia
Masculinity Vs Femininity
(Assertiveness and Nurture Society)
• Masculinity versus femininity is another dimension of Hofstede’s theory that
differentiates society based on gender roles and traits. The high score of the
dimension refers to the masculine culture driven by competition and material
success. On the other hand, the low score indicates a feminine society driven by
the quality of life.
• Masculinity pertains to traits associated with assertiveness culture in society.
• According to Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, men focus on personal tasks
and material success in masculine culture.
• Gender roles are differentiated and, the role of men and women overlap less
than feminine society.
• The men are more assertive, decisive, dominant, and focused on success.
• On the other hand, the women are more humble, loving, and focused on the
quality of life.
• In this society, men concentrate on assertiveness, heroism, and performance.
• The men of these societies are more competitive than feminine societies.
Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI)
• The uncertainty avoidance index describes how people from different
countries deal with ambiguous situations.
• It also identifies the people who are comfortable in uncertain
moments and who are scared to encounter unwanted difficulties.
• According to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, the uncertainty
avoidance index differs into two categories: high uncertainty
avoidance and low uncertainty avoidance index.
High uncertainty avoidance
• People in high uncertainty avoidance society follow the rules and
regulations thoroughly to avoid undesirable moments.
• They prefer to follow routines and make plans to prevent
unpredictable moments.
• They also believe proper planning is an essential component for
achievement; hence, parents control their children’s lives excessively.
• People in high UAI scoring countries are more traditionalistic, stiff,
and structured.
Low Uncertainty Avoidance
• People in low uncertainty avoidance society are comfortable with
undesirable moments.
• They mainly act first before garnering enough information.
• They are not intended to follow all rules and regulations thoroughly;
so, they work to reduce the unnecessary rules from the society and
organization.
Long Vs Short Term Orientation(Pragmatic Versus
Normative)
• Long versus short term orientation is a crucial dimension of the Geert
Hofstede theory that categorize society based on pragmatic and
normative actions.
• Michael Harris Bond added this dimension in 1988.
• It assists to measures the tendency of long term or short term results.
It also describes how people deal with the past, present and future.
Long-term Orientation
• People in long-term orientation are focused on the future consider it
more valuable than the past.
• They tend to spend huge time to achieve long-term results.
• The members in the long-term orientated society are practical,
modest, and more careful.
• They also encourage others to utilize time and money properly to
achieve the goal.
Short-term orientation

• People in short-term orientation are focused on the past and the

present, considering them more valuable than the future.
• They prefer to enjoy the current situation regardless of the future
goal.
• The members in the short-term orientated society are spiritual,
normative, and nationalistic.
Indulgence Vs Restraint
• Indulgent versus restraint stands for cultures that allow people to
enjoy or suppress gratification.
• Indulgence refers to a society where a higher percentage of people
acknowledge that they are leading a happy life.
• People in an indulgent society enjoy life freely; hence, they have fun
and obtain optimistic attitudes.
• They certainly prioritize having friends, playing games, and spending
leisure time appropriately.
Restraint
• Restraint refers to a society where a smaller percentage of people
declare that they are leading a happy life.
• People in a restrained society suppress gratification and do not focus
on the freedom of speech.
• Additionally, they regulate life by the traditional norms and have
pessimistic attitudes.
Indulgence Vs Restraint
PERCEPTION
We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.
(A. Nin)

It explains that two people can see the same thing and
interpret it differently

PERCEPTION: A process by which

individuals organize and interpret

their sensory impressions

in order to give meaning

to their environment. (touch, hear, see, taste, smell)

Process of Perception
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmkQ_wAgwXo

• Never judge others, you don’t know their stories

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNVaebpP1Rw

• Singing
• Frequently used shortcuts in judging
others:

Selective Perception: People selectively interpret what

they see on the basis of their interests,
background, experience and attitudes.

Halo Effect: Drawing a general impression about an

individual on the basis of a single characteristic.
…………….continued
Contrast Effects: Evaluation of a person’s
characteristics that are affected by
comparisons with other people recently
encountered who rank higher or lower
on the same characteristics.

Projection: Attributing one’s own

characteristics to other people.

Stereotyping: Judging someone on the basis

of one’s perception of the group to
which that person belongs.
Attribution Theory: When individuals
observe behavior, they attempt to
determine whether it is internally or
externally caused.

(B. Weiner, 1974)

• Attribution depends on three factors:

1) Distinctiveness: whether an individual displays

different behaviors in different situations
(if distinctiveness is high, caused by external factors)

2) Consensus: everyone who faced the similar

situation responds in the same way.
(if consensus is high, caused by external factors)

3) Consistency: person responds the same way over

time
(if consistency is high, caused by internal factors)
• Errors or biases that distort attribution:

Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to

underestimate the influence of external factors and
overestimate the influence of internal factors
when making judgments about the behavior of
others (specially in case of failure of others).

Self-serving bias: The tendency for individuals to

attribute their own successes to internal factors
while putting the blame for failures on external
factors.
The Link Between Perceptions and
Individual Decision Making
Problem
A perceived discrepancy
between the current state of
affairs and a desired state. Perception of
the decision
Decisions maker
Choices made from among
alternatives developed from
data perceived as relevant.

Outcomes
5–71
The Link Between Perception and Decision
Making
•Decision making occurs as a reaction to a perceived problem
•But one person’s problem is another person’s satisfactory state of
affairs
• Perception influences:
– Awareness that a problem exists
– The interpretation and evaluation of information
– Bias of analysis and conclusions
Perception, Prejudice and Stereotyping
“ WE DON’T SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE, WE SEE THINGS
AS WE ARE.”
 Factors influencing perception

A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes

distort perception. These factors can reside in the
perceiver, in the object or target being perceived or in
the context of the situation in which the perception is
made.
PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION

It is the process by which we group outside stimuli into

recognizable and identifiable patterns and whole objects.
Certain factors are considered to be important contributors on
assembling, organizing and categorizing information in the
human brain.
These are
- Figure ground
- Perceptual grouping
 Certain factors are considered to be important contributors on assembling, organizing
and categorizing information in the human brain.

 Field-ground differentiation
The tendency to distinguish and focus on a Figure-Ground Illustration
stimulus that is classified as figure as opposed
to background.
Perceptual Grouping
Our tendency to group several individual
stimuli into a meaningful and recognizable
pattern.
 It is very basic in nature and largely it seems
to be inborn.
 Some factors underlying grouping are -
- continuity
- closure
- proximity
- similarity
 Person Perception: Making Judgments About Others

• Selective Perception
People selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their interests,
background, experience and attitudes.
• Halo Effect
Drawing a general impressions about an individual on the basis of a single
characteristics.
• Contrast Effect
Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that are affected by comparisons with
other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same
characteristics.
• Projection
Attributing one's own characteristics to other people.
• Stereotyping
Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that
persons belongs.
 Key Words
STEREOTYPING
- A generalised and simplistic mental idea of a group which is usually
negative

PREJUDICE
- Believing some people are inferior or superior without even knowing
them

DISCRIMINATION
- To act on the basis of prejudice
Prejudice: The Ubiquitous Social Phenomenon
Prejudice is extremely powerful and ubiquitous; it affects all
of us—majority group members as well as minority.

Prejudice is dangerous, fostering negative consequences

from lowered self-esteem to torture, murder, and genocide.

Although over the past 50 years blatant discrimination has

been reduced, it still exists in subtle—and sometimes not-so-
subtle—forms.
To summarise, perceptions, prejudices,
discrimination and stereotyping cloud our
thinking and we need to be aware of these
factors when we seek clarity about a problem or
draw conclusions about a situation.