What is Attitude?

• Attitude is a settled way of thinking or way of looking at things

(point of view)or feeling about something.
• Attitude is a kind of habit. It is the usual way of doing things.
• Jung's definition of attitude is a "readiness of the psyche to act or
react in a certain way". Attitudes very often come in pairs, one
conscious and the other unconscious.
• In psychology, an attitude refers to a set of emotions, beliefs, and
feelings toward a particular object, person, thing, or event. 
• Attitude is the manner, disposition, feeling and position with regard
to a person or thing, tendency or orientation especially in the mind.
• Attitude can be described as a tendency to react positively or negatively to
a person or circumstances. Thus the two main elements of attitude are this
tendency or predisposition and the direction of this predisposition.
• It has been defined as a mental state of readiness; organize to through
experience which exerts a directive or dynamic influence on the responses.
• These can also be explicit and implicit.
• Explicit attitudes are those that we are consciously aware of and that
clearly influence our behaviors and beliefs. Implicit attitudes are
unconscious, but still, have an effect on our beliefs and behaviors.
 Characteristics of Attitude
• Attitudes are the complex combination of things we tend to call personality, beliefs, values, behaviors,
and motivations.
• It can fall anywhere along a continuum from very favorable to very unfavorable.
• All people, irrespective of their status or intelligence, hold attitudes.
• An attitude exists in every person’s mind. It helps to define our identity, guide our actions, and
influence how we judge people.
• Although the feeling and belief components of attitude are internal to a person, we can view a
person’s attitude from his or her resulting behavior.
• It can also be explicit and implicit. Explicit attitude is those that we are consciously aware of an
implicit attitude is unconscious, but still, have an effect on our behaviors.
• Attitudes cause us to behave in a particular way toward an object or person.
• An attitude is a summary of a person’s past experience; thus, an attitude is grounded in direct
experience predicts future behavior more accurately.
• It has aspects such as direction, intensity, generality or specificity.
• It refers to one’s readiness for doing Work.
• It may be positive or negative and may be affected by age, position, and education.
What is Behaviour?
 Attitude Vs. Behaviour
• We tend to assume that people behave according to their attitudes. However,
social psychologists have found that attitudes and actual behavior are not
always perfectly aligned.2
• After all, plenty of people support a particular candidate or political party and
yet fail to go out and vote. People also are more likely to behave according to
their attitudes under certain conditions.
• Behaviour may the outcome of attitude
• While attitude involves mind's predisposition to certain ideas, values, people,
systems, institutions; behaviour relates to the actual expression of feelings,
action or inaction orally or/and through body language.
Quotes on Attitude
Components/Structure of Attitude
• there are several different components that make up attitudes. 1 The components
of attitudes are sometimes referred to as CAB or the ABC's of attitude.
• Cognitive Component: Your thoughts and beliefs about the subject
• Affective/emotional Component: How the object, person, issue, or event makes
you feel
• Behavioral Component: How attitude influences your behavior
• Attitudes can also be explicit and implicit. Explicit attitudes are those that we are
consciously aware of and that clearly influence our behaviors and beliefs. Implicit
attitudes are unconscious but still have an effect on our beliefs and behaviors.
 Factors influence the Attitude of a person
1. Psychological: The attitude of a person is determined by psychological factors like ideas, values, beliefs,
perception, etc. All these have a complex role in determining a person's attitude.
2. Family: Family plays a significant role in the primary stage of attitudes held by individuals. Initially, a person
develops certain attitudes from his parents, brothers, sister, and elders in the family.
3. Society: Societies play an important role in formatting the attitudes of an individual. The culture, the
tradition, the language, etc., influence a person's attitudes. Society, tradition, and the culture teach
individuals what is and what is not acceptable.
4. Economic: A person's attitude also depends on issues such as his salary, status, work environment, work as
such, etc.
5. Experiences
6. Learning: Attitudes can be learned in a variety of ways. Consider how advertisers use classical conditioning
 to influence your attitude toward a particular product. In a television commercial, you see young, beautiful
people having fun on a tropical beach while enjoying a sports drink. This attractive and appealing imagery
causes you to develop a positive association with this particular beverage.
7. Observation: Finally, people also learn attitudes by observing people around them (Surrounding
environment). When someone you admire greatly espouses a particular attitude, you are more likely to
develop the same beliefs.
• 1. Positive attitude
• 2. Negative attitude
• 3. Neutral attitude
• 4. Sikken attitude
• Positive Attitude
• The Persons, who will be possessing positive behavior, will explore good things in others and will not go after negativity.
This type of attitude is comprised of the following things;

1- The people with positive attitude move forward with confidence and optimism.
2—They remain happy and cheerful.
3—Their dealings with others is comprised of Sincerity.
4—They are blessed with sense of responsibility
5—They remain flexible in their approach.
6—They remain determined in their tasks.
7—They are the most Reliable persons.
8—Tolerance is another hallmark of their personality.
9—On account of their flexibility, they remain Willing to adapt according to the new challenges and situations.
10—They are very modest and keep themselves in low profile, even though they are not low profiled.
11—Such persons exercise great degree of diligence.
•  
• Negative Attitude
• Such type of persons will always be searching weaker elements of others personality
and are not inclined towards positive elements. Their focus remain on bad people
and avoids good People.. Also, they are likely to complain about changes, rather than
adapting to the changing environment. Also, they might blame their failure on others.

  Such type of persons are always prone to extreme degree of anger and carry the
sentiments of hatred for others. Their approach is choked with pessimism and their
behaviour is fraught with frustration. They are always doubts about the credibility of
others and remain jealous of others achievements. They feel others inferior and
hence are suffering a self styled superiority complex.   
  
• Neutral Attitude
• Such types of persons are very balanced in their approach. They remain indifferent to
problems and wait for others intervention regarding resolutions. Such type of persons
remains self satisfied and complacent. Their attitude is composed of indifference and
detachment. An other striking element of their attitude is serene and unemotional type of
posture which makes them very balanced.

• Sikken attitude
• This is most dangerous attitude because reflects the state of mind’s negativity and possess
enough potential to destroy the image of every related thing coming in mind. Sometimes it
is assumed somewhat synonymous to negative attitude because it is more destructive than
the negative attitude.
• The person carrying this type of attitude cannot alter or amend ones opinion because of
its penetration at the base level.
 Types of Attitude

A person can have thousands of attitudes, but organizational behavior focuses our attention on a
very limited number of work-related attitudes. Most of the research in organizational behavior
has been concerned with three attitudes.
1. Job Satisfaction: Job satisfaction is the level of contentment a person feels regarding his or
her job. This feeling is mainly based on an individual’s perception of satisfaction. A person
with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive attitudes about the job and vice versa
2. Job Involvement: Job involvement refers to the degree with which an individual identifies
psychologically with his or her job and perceives his or her perceived performance level
important to self-worth.
High levels of job involvement are related to fewer absences and lower resignation rates.
3. Organizational Commitment: The last job-attitude refers to organizational commitment. It is
understood as one’s identification with his or her organization and feels proud of being its
employee. It is defined as a state in which an employee identifies with a particular
organization and, its goals, and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.