Attitude Meaning, Nature and Components
Attitude Meaning, Nature and Components: Individuals’ attitudes are the mental states in which they tend to behave or react, or are ready to act or respond, for or against objects, circumstances, and other things with which they have vested sentiments or effects, interest, like, want, and so on. A person’s tendency to react to items develops as he or she grows older. Attitudes are the names given to these learnt cognitive systems.
Attitude
Attitude is a long-term assessment of people, things, and ideas that is favourable or negative. As a result, attitudes may be defined as evaluative assertions or judgements about things, people, or events. People’s intellect, affection, and behaviour are all components of their attitude. A person’s attitude may be influenced by one or both of these factors.
Attitudes that are cognitively based are largely based on the beliefs and attributes of an attitudinal object. The opinion or belief section of an attitude is the cognitive component. The cognitive dissonance hypothesis aids in the identification of any contradiction between two or more attitudes, or between behaviour and attitudes.
People’s sentiments are the source of affection-based attitudes (e.g., attitudes towards political candidates). The emotional or feeling component of an attitude is known as the affective component. When one’s original attitude is weak or uncertain, a behavior-based attitude is based on one’s self-perception of one’s own behaviour.
The desire to act in a specific manner toward someone or something is the behavioural component of an attitude. The affection-behavior (A-B) connection serves as a moderator (i.e., importance, specificity, accessibility, social pressures, and direct experience). The self-perception hypothesis makes meaning of an action by using attitudes after the fact. People’s attitudes are extremely important in organisational behaviour since work satisfaction, job participation, and organisational commitment are all mainly determined by an individual employee’s attitude.
The overall attitude of workers toward their jobs is referred to as job satisfaction. Organizational commitment is the degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organisation and its goals, and wishes to remain a member of the organisation. Job involvement aids in psychological identification of people with their jobs, whereas organisational commitment is the degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organisation and its goals, and wishes to remain a member of the organisation. In order to look sensible and consistent, individuals in organisations seek uniformity in their views and endeavour to reconcile different opinions.
A person’s attitudinal shift occurs in tandem with a shift in their behaviour. The cognitive dissonance hypothesis uses behavioural reinforcement to help people alter their minds. Persuasive communication and a laser-like concentration on a single problem help people alter their minds.
Attitude Meaning, Nature and Components
Attitude’s Origins
The following are some of the most important characteristics that contribute to the meaning of attitudes:
Individuals’ or groups’ attitudes relate to their sentiments and opinions. “He has a bad attitude,” for example, or “I admire her attitude.”
Other people, things, or ideas are the focus of the feelings and beliefs. When someone says, “I like my job.” It demonstrates that he is enthusiastic about his work.
People’s behaviour and actions are often influenced by their attitudes. If there are no external interventions, attitudes may lead to desired behaviour.
Attitudes are a psychological phenomena that cannot be detected immediately. An attitude, on the other hand, may be examined indirectly by looking at its repercussions. For example, if a person is highly consistent in his work, we may assume that he enjoys it.
Over the course of a lifetime, people develop attitudes. The process of developing an attitude begins in infancy and continues throughout a person’s life. Initially, family members may have a stronger influence on a child’s attitude.
Attitudes are evaluative remarks that are either positive or negative. An attitude is conveyed when a person states he loves or hates something or someone.
Attitudes are held by all individuals, regardless of their social rank or IQ.
It’s possible to have a subconsciously held attitude. The majority of our sentiments may be directed towards those of whom we are unaware. Prejudice is an excellent example.
Attitudes and Their Components
Emotional, informational, and behavioural factors all play a role in attitudes.
The following are the three components:
- Component (informational or cognitive)
The informational component is made up of a person’s views, values, ideas, and other knowledge about the thing. It makes no difference whether the data is empirically valid or actual. For example, a job seeker may discover through his own sources and other workers in the organisation that promotion opportunities in a specific company are quite good. In actuality, it might be right or incorrect. Nonetheless, the information that individual is utilising is crucial to his attitude about the work and the firm.
- Affective or Emotional Component
The informative component of an attitude sets the tone for the more important emotional component. The emotional components are the person’s feelings or affects towards an item, which might be good, neutral, or negative. This sentence may be used to describe this component. “I prefer this position since the company’s future prospects are excellent.”
- Component of Behaviour
The behavioural component refers to a person’s propensity to act in a certain way toward an item. For example, the above-mentioned person may opt to accept the position because of the favourable future possibilities. Only the behavioural component of attitudes may be directly seen out of the three components.
One cannot observe another person’s beliefs (informational component) or emotions (emotional component) (the emotional component). Only inferences may be made about these two elements. However, in the study of organisational behaviour or the behavioural component of attitudes, knowing these two components is critical.
The following table shows the various components:
- Attitude ABC Model
All three components of attitude discussed above make up the ABC model, as described by OF. The letters A, B, and C stand for the affective, behavioural, and cognitive components, respectively, in the ABC paradigm. The significance of this model is that all three components listed above must be thoroughly examined in order to have a clear and full knowledge of the idea of attitude. Only the behavioural component can be witnessed explicitly; the other two components, emotional and cognitive, can only be inferred.