1.

The definition of Attitudes

What are attitudes? It is not easy to answer this question as it appears. The various definitions of
the term ‘attitude’ and its interpenetration in terms of other psychological concepts create
difficulties in determining a precise definition. Allport (1935) gave a variety of definitions of attitude
that combine many ideas. They are listed below:
“Attitudes are individual mental processes, which determine both the actual and potential
responses of each person in a social world. Since an attitude is always directed toward some object it
may be defined as “a state of mind of the individual toward a value” (p: 6).
“Attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness organized through experience exerting
directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which
it is related” (p: 8).
“Attitude is a “degree of affect” for or against an object or a value” (p: 10)
Halloran (1967) considered several features of Allport’s descriptions: first, an attitude is a state
of predisposition leading the individual to conceive things and people around him in certain ways.
The second aspect is that attitudes are not inbred – they are learned; they develop and they are
organized through experience. A third feature of Allport’s definition follows from this, attitudes are
dynamic, they are not merely latent states of preparedness awaiting the presentation of an
appropriate object for their activation. Campbell (1950) drew attention to the weakness of Allport’s
definitions despite its obvious usefulness. He attempted to present a behavioural definition “An
individual’s social attitude is a syndrome of response consistency with regard to social objects” (P:
31).
Later, Katz (1960) defined an attitude as “the predisposition of an individual to evaluate some
symbol or object or aspect of his world in a favourable or unfavourable manner.” Krech (1960)
introduced one of the clearest accounts of the nature and components of attitudes. He defined
attitude as “an enduring system of positive or negative evaluation, emotional feeling and pro or con
action tendencies, with respect to a social object” (P: 177). He specified three essential components
of attitudes as follows:
 The cognitive component: this has to do with beliefs about an object, including evaluative
beliefs that are good or bad, appropriate or inappropriate. The cognitive components consist
of thoughts or ideas about the attitude object. These thoughts are often conceptualized as
beliefs, linkages that people establish between the attitude object and various attributes.
They include the covert responses that occur when these associations are inferred or
perceived as well as the overt responses of verbally stating one’s beliefs. The features that
are correlated with the attitude object express positive or negative evaluations and therefore
can be located by psychologists on an evaluative continuum at any position from extremely
positive to extremely negative, including the neutral point (Chaiken & Eagly, 1993).
 The affective or feeling component: this has to do with likes and dislikes. The affective
component comprises of feeling, moods, emotions, and sympathetic nervous system activity
that people experience in relation to attitude objects. (Ibid).
 Action or behavioural tendency. The behavioural component includes the overt actions that
people exhibit in relation to the attitude object. These responses alsorange from extremely
positive to extremely negative, so they can be located on an evaluative dimension of
meaning (ibid).
 Many psychologists (e.g. Bagozzi and Burnkrant, 1979 and McGuire, 1985) have observed that
attitudes comprise three components (cognitive, affective and behavioural), and these three
components are not necessarily separable from each other and do not necessarily represent three
independent factors. Halloran (1970: p: 22) described the place of attitude within such a theoretical
framework in this way: “in any given situation an individual may be shown to select some of
available stimuli and neglect others. He processes or interprets the selected stimuli in certain ways,
and reacts to the interpreted stimuli affectively and by behaviour tendencies which will emerge as
behaviour under appropriate environmental conditions.” Attitudes are learned and they can develop
as we develop with new input of a cognitive, affective or behavioural tendency (in interaction and
relationships with other people). It is important to realize that attitudes will develop in learners
whether it is the overt purpose of the teacher or not, and it is useless to ignore their importance.