Best pdf on attitude formation

1. ATTITUDE FORMATION

2. Introduction
What is Attitude?
An attitude refers to a set of emotions,beliefs and
behavior towards a particular object,person,thing or event.
For example
A student having a negative outlook towards math class.A behavior
is how someone acts in response to their feelings.
What is Attitude Formation?
The study of how people form evaluations of persons,places or
things.
For example
Some people have a negative attitude towards ‘dirty’ words.

3. Factors influence Attitude
Several factors can influenced how and why attitudes
form,including:
.EXPERIENCE
Attitudes form directly as a result of experience.They may emerge
due to direct personal experience or they may result from
observation.
.Social Factors
Social role and social norms can have a strong influence on
attitudes.Social roles relate to how people are expected to behave
in a particular role or context.Social norms involve society’s rules
for what behaviors are considered appropriate.
. LEARNING
Attitudes can be learned in a variety of ways.Consider how
advertisers use classical conditioning to influence your
attitudetowards a particular product.In a television commercial, you
see young, beautiful people having fun on a tropical beach while

4. This attractive and appealing imagery causes you to develop a
positive association with this particular beverage.

5. C om ponents of Attitude
Psychologists such as Rosenberg,Eagely and H ovland have given a
three component model of attitude.According to this model,an
attitude has the following three components.
1.Cognitive component:
Cognitive component is the set of information,ideas,facts and
knowledge about an object.
2.Affective component:
This component consists of emotions and feelings towards an
object.It can be emotions of liking or disliking,favoring or
disfavoring,positive or negative evaluation towards the object.
3.B ehavirol components:
It is the tendency to behave towards the object. e.g how the
individuals act towards the object depending upon cognitive(facts
about the object) and affective(emotions towards the object)
components.

6. C haracterstics
The characteristics of attitude are as follows
1.Attitude has an object:
An attitude has an object which is liked or disliked,favored or
disfavored or evaluated as positive or negative.The object can
be a thing, an idea,a person or a situation.
2.Attitudes are learnt:
Attitudes is not an inborn phenomenon.Attitude are learnt
through social interactions and experiences.We interact with
others,experience many things and acquire information about
things.
3.Attitudes are predispositions:
A prior determined or learnt view of thing or tendency to act in
a specific way toward a things.

7. 4.Attitudes are relatively stable phenomena:
An attitude is not a momentary feeling but a long held view of
something.Though attitude changes from time to time but it is
relatively a stable phenomena.
5.Attitude has an emotional component:
It has emotional aspect of liking or disliking in relation to an object.

8. H ow w e m easure attitude?
<<To check individuals positive or negative attitude towards
anything.
1. Self report technique
2.Thurston attitude scale (equal appearing interval scale)
3.Likert scale (also known as summated rating scale) Agree,
strongly agree,disagree,strongly disagree,neutral.
4. O PINIO N SU RV EY
5. Critical incident technique
6. Interview— face to face

9. Attitude C hanges
Attitude changes can take place by following methods.
. Self-perception
It is conclusions that people create about their attitude and feelings
based on their behaviors. e.g a person can conclude that they really
like rice because it’s the main starch they always order at lunch.
.Learning Theory
Classical conditioning,operant conditioning and observational
learning can be used to bring about attitude change.Classical
conditioning can be used to create positive emotional reaction to an
object,person or event.

10. . Cognitive D issonance
It argues that behaving in a way that contradicts existing attitudes
create a feeling of discomfort. e.g an animal lover may feel upset if
he accidently run over a cat.
. Persuasion
It refers to attitude change via an external message.H ow do people
think about and incorporate information they receive in T.V that is
counter to their current point of view.

11. S ociety effects on attitude
There are the factors influencing attitude
1. D irect instructions
Sometimes direct instruction can influence attitude formation
2. Family
The family is the most powerful source for the formation of
attitude.The parents,elder brothers and sisters provide
information about various things.
3. Personal experience
In order to be the basis of attitude,personal erperience have left
a strong impression.
4. M edia
As a mean of communication mass media such as
televisions,radio has major influence in shaping people’s opinion
and beliefs.

12. 4. Educational and Religious institutions
As a system, educational and religious institutions have a strong
influence in shaping attitudes.
5. Economic status or occupations
O ur economic or occupational statuses are “good” or “bad”.O ur
socio-economic background influences our present or future
attitude.

13. Attitude in consum er behaviour
D efinition
Consumer attitude may be defined as a feeling of favorableness
and unfavorableness that an individual has towards an object.As
we all know that an individual with a positive attitude is more likely
to buy a product and this result in the possibility of liking or
disliking a product.
For example
Your attitude towards chocolate ice cream is probably determined
in large part by affect_although you can describe its taste,mostly
you may just like it.

14. C onclusion
Attitude are not fixed but rather formed through various influences.
1. D irect experience
Attitude formed through direct behavioral experience with an attitude have
been found to better predict later behavior than attitudes formed through
indirect experience.
Example
Participating in a cooking class with its smell,sight,taste and temperature as
a opposed to watching in an instructional video.
2. Social learning
It is the study of learned behaviors the observations,modeling and imitating
of new behaviors that are reinforced by other people or “models”.
Example
Children are more likely to believe in a certain religion if their parents
believe in that religion.

15. 3. M edia exposure
M edia exposure refers to the amount and type of media content an
individual can exposed to directly and indirectly.
O R
The media can shape individual’s perception of reality,influence their
behaviors and provide information and entertainment which can have
a major impact on their daily lives.
Example
Television shows,New articles,M ovies,Social media,Advertisment etc.