User:JasmineBriggins/Attitude (psychology)

Attitude Psychology
In psychology, attitude is a psychological construct, a mental and emotional entity that inheres in or characterizes a person. They are complex and are an acquired state through experiences. It is an individual's predisposed state of mind regarding a value and it is precipitated through a responsive expression towards oneself, Attitude can be formed from a person's past and present

= Definition =

Attitude
In social psychology, an attitude is an evaluation of an attitude object, ranging from extremely negative to extremely positive. Most contemporary perspectives on attitudes permit that people can also be conflicted or ambivalent toward an object by simultaneously holding both positive and negative attitudes toward the same object. Attitude can be defined as a set of emotions or beliefs towards a person, place or event. Attitude can have many different variations of characteristics each one unique in different ways, Researchers suggest that some attitudes are inherited via genetic transmission from our parents. Attitude can also be referred to evaluations in terms of involving a preference for or against an object commonly referred to terms such as like, dislike, prefer or hate. When individuals express their attitudes such as " I like to go hiking ", or " I hate bugs" individuals are expressing the relationship between the object and oneself and this can be identified as either positive or negative. Attitudes are important part of how we perceive our behaviors and unique characteristics.

An attitude can be a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, events, activities, and ideas. It can be about something which is concrete or abstract. However, there is a debate about precise definitions. "In psychotherapy and counseling, the client’s feelings of acceptance and approval of the therapist or counselor". "In psychotherapy and counseling, the client’s feeling of rejection or disapproval of the therapist or counselor." When an individual chooses to respond positively to a situation, they tend to assess situations in a more positive manner they recognize that they cannot change the past but, decisions made in the future can impact what happens next. these individuals tend to pay attention to the good in situations rather than the bad. As for an individual with a negative attitude they are more likely to respond to a situation negatively they tend to look back on a problem and become so engulfed on the problem they cannot move forward. these individuals tend to not find the good in situations or events, ignore the good and focus on the bad in people and situations.

Factors
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. Values are ideals, guiding principles in one's life, or overarching goals that people strive to obtain (Maio & Olson, 1998). Beliefs are cognitions about the world—subjective probabilities that an object has a particular attribute or that an action will lead to a particular outcome (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). There are many factors that influence attitude such as social factors, family, personal experience, direction instruction, prejudices, media, religious and educational institutions, physical factors and economic factors and occupations. social factors are influenced by individuals and how they are expected to behavior in social settings referring to societal norms. Family has a huge impact on an individual's attitude whether developing a positive or negative attitude this can be difficult to change. when direction instruction is given to an individual this influences attitude for example a dangerous animal is equivalent to being bad and to run away and fruit is equivalent to being good to eat. prejudices are attitudes that are unbiased opinions prejudged without knowing all of the facts, prejudices can be toward objects, people etc. Mass media plays a role in shaping individual's beliefs and opinions with the help of the radio, television, and social media. religious and educational institutions have a strong influence on shaping attitudes understanding and moral concepts are building blocks for these institutions. in terms of physical factors clinical psychologists have identified that all factors of health are important in attitude adjustment. such ailments such as malnourishment, diseases even accidents can seriously interfere with the disturbance of normal development. Lastly, economic status and occupations contribute to attitude formation this influences individual's attitudes towards unions and management, the belief that certain laws are considered good or bad.

Structure
The classic, tripartite view offered by Rosenberg and Hovland is that an attitude contains cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. Empirical research, however, fails to support clear distinctions between thoughts, emotions, and behavioral intentions associated with a particular attitude. A criticism of the tripartite view of attitudes is that it requires cognitive, affective, and behavioral associations of an attitude to be consistent, but this may be implausible. Thus, some views of attitude structure see the cognitive and behavioral components as derivative of affect or affect and behavior as derivative of underlying beliefs. "The cognitive component refers to the beliefs, thoughts, and attributes associated with an object". "The affective component refers to feelings or emotions linked to an attitude object". "The behavioral component refers to behaviors or experiences regarding an attitude object". An example of cognitive component would be people's beliefs in things such as "an apple a day keeps the doctor away", " love at first sight", religious beliefs and an attitude towards believing that snakes carry venom and are dangerous. an example of affective component is a newborn baby being laid is on its mother's chest for the first time for skin-to-skin contact or an attitude towards not liking insects. and finally, an example of the behavioral component would be when going hiking I try to avoid bears, if i see one i will start to scream.

Function
Another classic view of attitudes is that attitudes serve particular functions for individuals. That is, researchers have tried to understand why individuals hold particular attitudes or why they hold attitudes in general by considering how attitudes affect the individuals who hold them. Daniel Katz, for example, writes that attitudes can serve "instrumental, adjustive or utilitarian," "ego-defensive," "value-expressive," or "knowledge" functions. This functional attitude theory suggests that in order for attitudes to change (e.g., via persuasion), appeals must be made to the function(s) that a particular attitude serves for the individual. As an example, the ego-defensive function might be used to influence the racially prejudicial attitudes of an individual who sees themselves as open-minded and tolerant. By appealing to that individual's image of themselves as tolerant and open-minded, it may be possible to change their prejudicial attitudes to be more consistent with their self-concept. Similarly, a persuasive message that threatens self-image is much more likely to be rejected.

Daniel Katz classified attitudes into four different groups based on their functions.


 * 1) Utilitarian: provides general approach or avoidance tendencies
 * 2) Knowledge: organizes and interprets new information
 * 3) Ego-defensive: protects self-esteem
 * 4) Value-expressive: expresses central values or beliefs