essay on attitude

Essays About Attitude: Top 5 Examples Plus Prompts

Your attitude and demeanor affect all aspects of your life. We have found an inspiring list of essays about attitude to help you choose your own angle.

Attitude refers to a person’s way of thinking about something that affects their behavior. One can say that the proper attitude is vital to leading a fruitful life, whatever that might be for specific individuals. A “good” attitude and a positive outlook can better ascertain success, while a “bad” attitude predisposes a person to fail.

One’s attitude is founded upon knowledge, beliefs, and feelings and reflected in behavior. However, it is also shaped by your experiences.

If you want to write an essay about attitude, here are 5 essay examples and 5 prompts we have prepared to make the process easier for you.

For help with your essays, check out our round-up of the best essay checkers .

1. Attitude changes everything – it can change your life by Kate Darbyshire Evans

2. 6 ways to banish negative thoughts by emily co, 3. our life is a reflection of our attitude. by iqra shehzadi, 4. watch your attitude: your students are counting on you by amber chandler, 5. how to develop a positive attitude in the workplace by jennifer post, 5 writing prompts on essays about attitude, 1. why is a good attitude so important, 2. how can you change your attitude for the better, 3. is a bad attitude really as detrimental as it is said to be, 4. how has your attitude affected your life, 5. does attitude reflect character.

“Attitude changes everything. Change your attitude, and you can change your life. You cannot always control what happens to you in life but you can always control how you respond to the challenges or difficult situations you encounter. The attitude you approach anything with is entirely your choice. The way you choose to respond mirrors your attitude and so by changing your attitude you can change your perspective and change your life.”

Evans talks about how genuinely present one’s attitude is in the different aspects of their life. It can, quite literally, “change your life.” Regardless of your challenges, Evans believes that a positive attitude can help you steady your course and maintain a good life. She also gives readers tips on developing a good attitude and a more positive outlook on life, including being more grateful, not taking life too seriously, and stepping out of your comfort zone.

“It’s easy to become jaded when life gets tough, but don’t get caught up in negative thoughts because it may hinder your progress. Seeing the world as a glass half empty may lead you to give up easier and not try as hard because you may think that it’s pointless to even make an attempt.”

In this short essay, Co lists down a few ways in which we can maintain a positive attitude by keeping negative thoughts out of our minds. These include keeping a gratitude journal, keeping good company, being around animals, and looking for new hobbies. Co believes these activities help promote positivity so that we are not as affected when life gets challenging. You might also be interested in these essays about discipline .

“Our mind has sufficient bandwidth to focus on one thought at a time. All you must do is keep it attentive on inspiring thoughts until you achieve your goal or establish a new habit. After adopting a positive attitude, I have noticed amazing changes all around. I also have noticed a major boost in my confidence and I feel more capable of taking on new projects and challenges which might have formerly been outside my comfort zone.”

Shehzadi reflects on the importance of a positive attitude. She briefly goes over its benefits, like increased confidence and reduced stress. To develop a better attitude, surround yourself with positive people. From there, you can practice kindness, patience, and tolerance. As our attitude reflects itself in how we live, a positive attitude leads to a more productive life. Training your mind to be positive is an excellent investment for your well-being, both mentally and physically.

“It’s human nature to express ourselves, sure, but I think adults underestimate the impact our ‘attitudes’ have on our own children and students. As we deal with the new variants, head back to school and face another uncertain school year, our attitudes are going to shape the experiences of our students. Why not make a concerted, intentional effort to be the one place where your students can let their guard down and take a break from the attitudes that are everywhere?”

Chandler, an educator, discusses the importance of the right attitude in an environment with kids and the importance of setting a good example. She believes that an authentic, positive attitude helps students thrive, but she also stresses the importance of empathy. To her, the ideal attitude is positive, practical, humble, and empathetic. She wants adults to be more mindful of their attitude, especially in front of kids- they may have certain mannerisms or habits that children will quickly pick up on.

“Not everyone is going to be positive all the time. That’s an unrealistic idea. But even when people are down and at their most negative, there are things one can do to deal with those emotions and actions around the office to keep them from impacting others. Even if it’s just one co-worker causing an issue, take matters into your own hands for your own happiness at work.”

Post’s essay elaborates on the importance of having an attitude suited to your work. Like in Co’s essay, Post discusses certain things we can do to improve our attitude and make us more productive in the workplace. Most significantly, she says that simply saying “yes” more can help develop a better attitude. Even if we cannot always be positive, Post wants us to maximize the positivity in every situation, to look at it from a “glass half full” perspective.

Everyone talks about how the proper attitude helps you go far in life, but how does this work? In your essay, you can explore what makes attitude so vital. You can find examples where people have improved their attitude and attribute it to real-life benefits such as happiness or success. You can also check out these essays about character .

Many people often talk about fixing their attitude and getting out of bad habits. You can use the sample essays to decide which methods you can adopt to improve your attitude. Keep your selection short, simple, and meaningful. Do you think they could be successfully applied to anyone?

Would you say that a good attitude is as important as people say it is? And does a bad attitude indeed dictates one’s fortune or misfortune? Based on research and your own beliefs, decide on your position and provide evidence to support your argument.

Write about something as simple as the effects of your attitude on your life. How does your outlook on life affect you? Do you feel that your attitude is helping you live your life well? Do you think there is anything that you can change to optimize your daily life? Try and provide examples of when a different attitude may have produced a different outcome in a scenario.

Essays about attitude: Does attitude reflect character?

Often people are told they have a bad attitude and are misjudged for it. However, is their attitude a true reflection of their character or simply masking a hidden agenda? Think of examples when people may be misjudged by their attitude, or perhaps their behavior was misconstrued, and discuss how difficult it is to remedy this after the event. There are numerous examples of this in literature that you can reference. If you cannot think of a real-life example pick one from an appropriate piece and discuss the character’s attitude, and others’ perceptions of them.

Tip: If writing an essay sounds like a lot of work, simplify it. Write a simple 5 paragraph essay instead.

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

View all posts

Charles Swindoll

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes”

Attitude Is Everything Essay

Attitude is Everything Maintaining a positive attitude all through life impacts one's social status, physical health, and long term success. Many people only want to hangout with others that have good attitudes. They also enjoy being in the presence of others who have the ability to lift them up when they are down. Having a good attitude shows a person’s character in a positive way. A good attitude is the start to a good future, and a lot of success. Positive attitudes create a lot of wonderful opportunities in and outside of the workforce. Overall, a good personal character will create an easier route to achieve difficult goals and tasks causing a more trustworthy person to be created. Character guides our responses to issues we face in …show more content…

Everyone deals with setbacks some point in their life, but it’s important to keep striving to reach difficult goals even when life gets rough. Attitude determines the way someone faces obstacles and what the challenge means to them. Having a lousy attitude allows you to see obstacles as threats and annoyances. Even if you overcome them you will find the process frustrating which will make future obstacles hard to cope with. Therefore, hard work, high energy, and a positive outlook will guide you towards great success, despite the challenges you meet on the …show more content…

Your actions are a result of attitude. Attitude creates the way you feel about people and situations. The heights of success attained grow the more infectious your energy appears to others. When you carry and attitude of excitement and vigor, this transfers to those around you and increases success. Have a positive attitude and you will have positive, joyful results. Put out a negative attitude and you have failed before you begun. No matter what you desire to attain to as your definition of success. You must recognize that there is no more success without a positive

Charles Swindolls Attitude

In Charles Swindolls Attitude, he opens the article with, “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.” In this first sentence, the reader feels the sense of power that the author is trying to portray. In addition, this first sentence has a lot of meaning to my life. For example, when I was deployed to Guantanamo Bay Cuba, conducting detainee operations, it was my positive attitude that made me enjoy myself and my brothers under the harsh conditions. I was able to assess the situation from my own perspective and change my way of thinking, to enjoy the little things in life while I was there. As Charles Swindolls article goes on, he then says, “We cannot change our past…We cannot change the fact that people will act

John C. Maxwell's The Difference Maker

In his book The Difference Maker, John C. Maxwell writes, “Your attitude colors every aspect of your life. It is like the mind’s paintbrush. It can paint everything in bright, vibrant colors -- creating a masterpiece. Or it can make everything dark and dreary.” This was definitely true in the story of the Overland Relief Expedition. The three men on this journey had a great attitude throughout their mission, which caused them to be successful. There are many examples throughout the book in which this was evident.

Cause And Effect Research Paper

A person’s attitude can have a positive impact on many areas of their life such as their success, their health, and their happiness. If someone has a good attitude, he will have a more positive outlook on life which will set him up for success. If one adopts having a good attitude as a way of life, it will bring many changes into his life.

Job Satisfaction At Walden Sport

Is defined as the way an individual behaves and perceives things and the output he delivers in the job he/she is assigned. This affects his/her production which ultimately determines the organization 's success (Brooke, Russell, & Price, 1988). According to the success of an individual, attitude is directly proportional to his/her effectiveness.

Uplifting Attitude Research

Success in life is always a virtue humans strive to achieve, but how can a person really achieve true success? Some people say that a positive attitude is the key to success in life, but others state that attitude is less important when achieving success. Without a doubt, a positive attitude will always be the key to prosperity in life. Everyone's life revolve around success. A teenager will always try to get an A on a test, and a hardworking mother will always try to give her children the love and affection they need. Without a positive attitude, that hardworking mother and teen will never be able to grasp success. An uplifting attitude is the essence of success in life because a positive attitude can pave the way for important career opportunities and an encouraging

Dear Miss Breed Character Analysis

The result of having a positive attitude is shown by your emotions. In Dear Miss Breed: Louise Ogawa doesn’t know where she was going, but she had a positive attitude by saying “One of the most beautiful scenery was when

Max's Attitude Chapter 9

In chapter six, Max discussed the significance of attitude. Attitude determines how successful a leader can be. We are responsible for our attitudes no matter how old we are. Attitude is somethings that we need constantly work on. Attitude is a choice of the matter. We cannot change our circumstances; however, we can change our attitude. A leader’s attitude can influence the follower’s attitude. Farther more, Max explained six stages of attitude change. Attitudes involve with one's thinking. A wrong attitude can be changed through a time of repeating the right action. Also, one can replace the bad attitude with right one.

Man's Search For Meaning By Viktor Frankl

A successful life is a satisfied life. In order to become successful, you must keep a positive attitude. You must be able to take control of your attitude and flip situations, turning something bad into a learning experience. Turn any and every given situation into a situation you can benefit from, rather than dwelling on the fact that things might not be working out in your favor, or how you imagined. Exercising your ultimate freedom to control your attitude in any situation will lead you to a successful life.

Charles Popplestown Thought

Charles Popplestown wrote that “You cannot always control circumstances, but you can control your own thoughts.” Your attitudes determine how far you can go in life. When you have a winning attitude, when others sees difficulties in every opportunities, you will see opportunities in every difficulty and you will see challenges as a training ground for what lies ahead. You only get better results when you are thinking clearly; you might be strong in muscles and very much intelligent in your mind. But a slip and a sleep in thought would jeopardize everything you strongly believed and condemned everything you ever hope to achieve and terminate everything you have ever worked for.

Cichowicz, Stamp, And Adam Pedagogies

This is why having a positive attitude is important for every

The Psychological Theory Of Planned Behaviors

Attitude demonstrates an expression of favor or disfavor to something. Attitude can be affected by

Just about everyone has heard the saying "attitude is everything." However, motivational speaker John C. Maxwell rejects that claim in his book The Difference Maker. He states that although "attitude isn't everything, but it is one thing that can make a difference" in someone's life. Maxwell provides several ideas of where someone's attitude could be generated from. A person's personality, self-image, or environment could have an impact on their attitude. What someone feels or experiences in day-to-day life, how they see themselves, and the people they associate with could change their attitude. Finally, the beliefs someone has and the choices they make influence their overall attitude. A person's attitude could be affected by one or a combination of these things.

Difference Between Twin Towers Of Attitude And Gratitude

Attitudes are often the greatest source of happiness or unhappiness. These twin towers of patience and humility act as a beacon to light a path to attitude and gratitude.

What Is Attitude Essay

Attitude is a choice in which each of us choose to take but often, we forget we have a choice at all. Attitude can be a powerful tool for positive action or a poison that cripples your ability to fulfil your potential. Your attitude determines whether you are living life or life is living you. It also determines whether you are on the way or in the way. So to speak, self-confident people may suffer setbacks, get dragged down by hard times, or make mistakes, but they still believe they will be successful and come out being victorious. In the other way round, those who don’t believe in themselves never seem to find their way and due to this, they often seem to drift with the tides. To everything we do in life, choice is the beginning or starting point and by changing our attitudes, we automatically change our lives. If you want a positive attitude, you will need to be committed enough to work at/on it and once you have discovered those things that have been holding you back, then it is time to look ahead and analyze where you want to go. To achieving success in life, it is necessary

Attitude : Which Will You Chose?

Attitude is described as a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically reflected in a persons behavior. It is either a positive or negative favor towards something, that can be persuaded or stuck in stone depending on the person and what that “something” is. It could be another person, it could be an object, animal, or even a sport. If a person has a certain attitude about them it could affect everything and everyone around them. They could have a positive attitude that lifts everyone elses attitudes out of the mud or they could have a negative attitude that drags everyone back down into the mud. Attitude is something you can’t see in the air, but you can see it through a persons body language. You can feel it in the pleasant or hurtful words they say.

The Components of Attitude

Definition, Formation, Changes

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Overview of Attitude

Attitude formation, attitudes and behavior, why attitudes change, frequently asked questions.

In psychology, an attitude refers to a set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviors toward a particular object, person, thing, or event.

Attitudes are often the result of experience or upbringing. They can have a powerful influence over behavior and affect how people act in various situations. While attitudes are enduring, they can also change. The main components of attitude are cognitive, affective, and behavioral, which means they incorporate thoughts, feelings, and actions.

This article explores what attitudes mean in psychology and how they are formed. It also covers how attitudes impact behaviors and factors contributing to attitude change.

Illustration by JR Bee, Verywell

To understand the meaning of attitudes, it can be helpful to look at a few different examples. Attitude can refer to:

Your opinion on the death penalty
Your opinion about which political party does a better job of running the country
Whether prayer be allowed in schools
Whether violence on television be regulated

Chances are that you probably have fairly strong opinions on these and similar questions. You've developed attitudes about such issues, and these attitudes influence your beliefs as well as your behavior. Attitudes are an important topic of study within the field of social psychology . But what exactly is an attitude? How does it develop?

How Psychologists Define Attitudes

Psychologists define attitudes as a learned tendency to evaluate things in a certain way. This can include evaluations of people, issues, objects, or events. Such evaluations are often positive or negative, but they can also be uncertain at times.

For example, you might have mixed feelings about a particular person or issue. Researchers also suggest that there are several different characteristics that make up attitudes. The components of attitudes are sometimes referred to as the ABC's of attitude.

3 Components of Attitude

Affective Component: How the object, person, issue, or event makes you feel
Cognitive Component: Your thoughts and beliefs about the subject
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.

Several factors can influence how and why attitudes form, including:

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 roles 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.

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.

Conditioning

Operant conditioning can also be used to influence how attitudes develop. Imagine a young man who has just started smoking. Whenever he lights up a cigarette, people complain, chastise him, and ask him to leave their vicinity. This negative feedback from those around him eventually causes him to develop an unfavorable opinion of smoking and he decides to give up the habit.

Observation

Finally, people also learn attitudes by observing people around them. When someone you admire greatly espouses a particular attitude, you are more likely to develop the same beliefs. For example, children spend a great deal of time observing the attitudes of their parents and usually begin to demonstrate similar outlooks.

Attitudes can form through direct experience, social influence, formal education, conditioning processes, and observation.

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.

After all, plenty of people support a particular candidate or political party yet fail to vote. People also are more likely to behave according to their attitudes under certain conditions.

Factors Influencing Attitude Strength

Are an expert on the subject
Expect a favorable outcome
Experience something personally
Stand to win or lose something due to the issue
Are repeatedly expressed attitudes

Changing to Match Behavior

In some cases, people may alter their attitudes to better align them with their behavior. Cognitive dissonance is a phenomenon in which a person experiences psychological distress due to conflicting thoughts or beliefs. In order to reduce this tension, people may change their attitudes to reflect their other beliefs or actual behaviors.

Using Cognitive Dissonance

Imagine the following situation: You've always placed a high value on financial security, but you start dating someone very financially unstable. You have two options to reduce the tension caused by conflicting beliefs and behavior.

You can end the relationship and seek a more financially secure partner, or you can de-emphasize the importance of fiscal stability.

In order to minimize the cognitive dissonance between your conflicting attitude and behavior, you either have to change the attitude or change your actions.

While attitudes can have a powerful effect on behavior, they are not set in stone. The same influences that lead to attitude formation can also create attitude change.

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 reactions to an object, person, or event by associating positive feelings with the target object.

Operant conditioning can be used to strengthen desirable attitudes and weaken undesirable ones. People can also change their attitudes after observing the behavior of others.

Elaboration Likelihood Theory

This theory of persuasion suggests that people can alter their attitudes in two ways. First, they can be motivated to listen and think about the message, thus leading to an attitude shift.

Or, they might be influenced by the characteristics of the speaker, leading to a temporary or surface shift in attitude. Messages that are thought-provoking and that appeal to logic are more likely to lead to permanent changes in attitudes.

Dissonance Theory

As mentioned earlier, people can also change their attitudes when they have conflicting beliefs about a topic. In order to reduce the tension created by these incompatible beliefs, people often shift their attitudes.

Attitudes are not set in stone and may change when people learn new information, when they are persuaded by influential people, or when they experience discomfort due to holding conflicting beliefs.

A Word From Verywell

Attitudes play a pivotal role in shaping human behavior, from the choices people make about living their lives to the health behaviors they engage in daily. Understanding where these attitudes come from and how they sometimes change can help you look for ways to improve your attitudes, whether it means adopting a more positive outlook on life or changing your opinion based on new information.

Attitudes can be positive or negative, and explicit or implicit. Positive attitudes involves good feelings, where negative attitudes are charaterized by hostility, anger, or dislike. Explicit attitudes are conscious, while implicit attitudes are unconscious.

The cognitive component of attitude involves the thoughts that people have about something. The affective component refers to the emotional response tht people have about the attitudinal object.

International Journal of Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences. 3 D Model of Attitude.

Chaiklin, H. Attitudes, Behavior, and Social Practice . The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare : Vol. 38 : Iss. 1 , Article 3.

Perlovsky L. A challenge to human evolution—cognitive dissonance. Frontiers in Psychology . 2013;4. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00179.

American Psychological Association. Teaching tip sheet: Attitudes and behavior change .

Chaiklin H. Attitudes, Behavior, and Social Practice. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare . 2011.
Teaching Tip Sheet: Attitudes and Behavior Change. American Psychological Association. http://www.apa.org/pi/aids/resources/education/attitude-change.aspx

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Essay on Attitude And Values

Students are often asked to write an essay on Attitude And Values in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Attitude And Values

Understanding attitude and values.

Attitude is the way we think and feel about something. It is our mental outlook on things. For example, we may have a positive attitude towards studying or a negative attitude towards cleaning.

What are Values?

Values are the things that are important to us. They guide our actions and decisions. For example, if honesty is a value, we will always tell the truth.

Link Between Attitude and Values

Our values shape our attitudes. If we value hard work, we will have a positive attitude towards it. Our attitudes also reflect our values.

Importance of Positive Attitude and Values

Having a positive attitude and good values is important. It helps us to be happy and successful. It also helps us to make good choices and be good people.

In conclusion, our attitude and values are very important. They shape who we are and how we act. So, it is important to have a positive attitude and good values.

250 Words Essay on Attitude And Values

Attitude and values are two important parts of our life. They shape our thoughts, actions, and how we see the world. Attitude is how we feel about something or someone. It can be positive or negative. Values are the things we believe are good and important. They guide our behavior and choices.

The Role of Attitude

Attitude is like a mental filter through which we see the world. It can shape our thoughts and actions. For example, if we have a positive attitude towards school, we will enjoy learning. We will be eager to go to school and study. But if we have a negative attitude, we might not like school. We might feel bored or unhappy there. So, our attitude can change our experiences.

The Importance of Values

Values are like a compass that guides us. They help us decide what is right and wrong. For example, if we value honesty, we will always tell the truth. If we value kindness, we will be kind to others. So, our values guide our actions and behavior.

Attitude and Values Together

Attitude and values are closely related. Our values can shape our attitude. For example, if we value hard work, we will have a positive attitude towards challenges. We will see them as opportunities to learn and grow. So, our values can influence our attitude.

In conclusion, attitude and values are very important. They shape our thoughts, actions, and experiences. They help us become better people. So, we should always try to have a positive attitude and good values.

500 Words Essay on Attitude And Values

Introduction to attitude and values.

Attitude and values are two key concepts that help us understand our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Attitude is the way we think and feel about something or someone. It is like a mental filter through which we experience the world around us. On the other hand, values are the beliefs that guide our decisions and behavior. They are like a compass that shows us the right way to act.

Understanding Attitude

Attitude is a mix of thoughts and feelings. It is not something we are born with, but something we learn from our experiences and surroundings. For example, if you have a positive attitude towards studying, you might see it as a chance to learn new things and enjoy the process. But if you have a negative attitude, you might see studying as a boring task.

Our attitude can change depending on the situation and our experiences. This is why it is important to always try to keep a positive attitude. A positive attitude can help us overcome challenges, make us happier, and lead us to success.

The Role of Values

Values are the deep beliefs that we hold about what is right and wrong, good and bad. They are the rules by which we live our lives. For example, if honesty is a value for you, you will always try to tell the truth. If respect is a value, you will treat others with kindness and understanding.

Values are usually learned from our family, culture, religion, and education. They shape our character and influence our choices. They help us decide what is important in life and guide us in our actions.

Connection between Attitude and Values

Attitude and values are closely linked. Our values often shape our attitudes. For example, if you value hard work, you might have a positive attitude towards challenges and see them as opportunities to grow. On the other hand, if you value comfort and ease, you might have a negative attitude towards hard work and see it as something to avoid.

In the same way, our attitudes can influence our values. If we have a positive attitude towards kindness, we might start to value it more. If we have a negative attitude towards dishonesty, we might start to value honesty more.

In conclusion, attitude and values are two important factors that shape our thoughts, feelings, and actions. They interact with each other and influence our behavior. By understanding our attitudes and values, we can better understand ourselves and make better decisions. We can also work on improving our attitudes and values to become better people and lead more fulfilling lives. Remember, a positive attitude and good values can make a big difference in our lives.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Essay on Attitude
Essay on Atoms
Essay on Atomic Bomb

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Psychology Discussion

Attitude: compilation of essays on attitude | human behaviour | psychology.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Here is an essay on ‘Attitude’ for class 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Attitude’ especially written for school and college students.

Essay on Attitude

Essay Contents:

Essay on the Ways of Changing Attitude

Essay # 1. Definition of Attitudes:

Attitude has been defined in a number of different ways. Allport (1935) defined an attitude as a “mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related.” He looked upon attitude primarily as a set to respond in a particular way.

An attitude is an enduring system that includes a cognitive component, a feeling component and an action tendency. Attitudes involve an emotional component. This is why when an attitude is formed it becomes resistant to change; it does not generally respond to new facts. An attitude involves beliefs as well as evaluations. The upper caste man has an unfavourable attitude toward a Harijan.

The Indian has an unfavourable attitude toward the Pakistanis or the Chinese. These attitudes involve some knowledge about the other groups (the cognitive component), some feelings of dislike (the affective, evolutional component) and a predisposition to avoid, attack etc., (the action component).

A social object is a person, the creation of a person, or a social event. We have attitudes towards individuals and groups, like Gandhi and Indian National Congress or Lohia and the Socialist Party or Annadorai and D.M.K. etc. We have attitudes toward products like Hindustani or Karnatak music, Bharat Natyam or Kathak Dance or motor cars and aeroplanes etc.

There are response consistencies; for example, a person who likes Indira Gandhi will also like Congress R and dislike Congress O or Jan Sangh etc. Thus attitudes give some consistency to our thinking about social objects as well as our feelings towards them. People also tend to act consistently as a result of these consistent beliefs and feelings.

Our attitudes are derived primarily from social influences. From birth, the human being is enmeshed in social institutions which constitute his environment in the same sense as the physical world. The home, being the primary social unit, has a great influence on the formation of one’s attitudes. This is why later experiences cannot easily alter these attitudes. This is also the reason why attitudes give a consistency to our responses to persons, groups, and other social objects.

Essay # 2. Functions of Attitudes:

People have attitudes towards social objects because they:

(a) Help them to organize, simplify and understand the world around them,

(b) Protect their self-esteem, by avoiding unpleasant truths about themselves, and

To these three functions must be added a fourth one, that they help them to conform to the group and thus maximize rewards from the group. Thus attitudes help us to adjust to our environment. Once a social object has been categorized, it is possible to react to it in the manner typical of the group to which we belong. This saves us from a fresh decision and all its difficulties and problems. It helps us to behave in a smooth manner.

Smith et al (1956) have pointed out that one of the functions of attitudes is to provide “externalization” to some inner problems. The man with unresolved inner conflicts and frustrations can direct his hatred towards the out groups. This is one reason why “agitational” approach to social and political problems is more in vogue in India today than the “constitutional” approach.

Even the members of the legislature and the parliament take recourse to agitations whether in favour of prohibition or against cow slaughter. Language problems, border problems, river-water sharing problems and so on have been providing endless opportunities to the political leaders to start agitations to overthrow the duly constituted governments.

Katz (1960) discussed four functions that attitudes perform for the personality:

(a) The adjustment function helps to maximize the rewards and minimize the penalties, by agreeing with the majority attitude.

(b) Ego-defensive functions are served by enabling the individual from acknowledging uncomplimentary basic truths about himself; when a person does not get selected for a job he will say that only people with “influence” get jobs these days, though he may himself have asked some legislator or minister to ring up somebody in the selection committee.

(c) Value-expressive functions are involved when the expression of the attitudes gives pleasure to the person since they reveal the values he cherishes as, for example, vegetarianism or prohibition. and

(d) Knowledge functions based on the individual’s need to give structure to his universe, to understand it.

Essay # 3. Major Dimensions of Attitudes:

According to Triandis two major dimensions underlie behaviour toward any kind of attitude object :

(a) Positive vs. negative affect, and

(b) Seeking vs. avoiding contact.

A positive attitude will make a person sacrifice himself to the loved object as in patriotism, for example. A negative attitude may make a person to destroy the government property like the bus or tram or post office. There is seeking contact towards an object with positive affect as in embracing the beloved; there is also seeking contact towards an object with negative affect like in stabbing a person.

Thus, when there is seeking contact with positive affect it is “going toward” and when there is seeking contact with negative affect it is “going against.” When there is avoiding contact with negative affect there is the behaviour of “going away.”

As an illustration of avoiding contact toward an object with positive affect may be given the behaviour of a person towards one whom he reveres; for example, the youth who is fired by zeal with respect to the “Sarvodaya” movement may develop a great reverence to the Sarvodaya leader, Vinoba Bhave; he has a positive affect towards him, but he would not like to go near him; he may stand at a distance and look at him.

However, most of our behaviour will be along the three types, namely, going toward, going against and going away; the fourth type of avoiding contact with an object with positive affect is rare.

Essay # 4. Formation of Attitudes :

How are attitudes acquired? How do they develop? As noted above the majority of attitudes held by a person are acquired from the members of the family and from the peer group in early childhood and later. Thus, other people are generally the sources for the formation of attitudes.

Most of our attitudes develop within the group to which we belong. Another source is personal experience; such experiences, however, form a small number; though they are more intense than those formed by association with other people. The most intense, but rare, are the attitudes formed by a “traumatic experience,” like, for example, the shock of being suddenly attacked physically by a member of another communal group.

The cognitive component of attitudes are influenced by the general tendency to categorization. A Muslim meets many Hindus, but he tends to put them all together and simplifies the problem by some such generalization as “All Hindus are unreliable.” Similarly the Hindu who meets many Muslims overlooks all the variations and may generalize “All Muslims are crude.” Such categorizations simplify the situation but they are highly inaccurate because of the simplification.

The affective component of attitudes is characterized by the presence of positive or negative emotion. The affective component is influenced greatly by reinforcement and repetition. The positive attitude towards festivals is due to food, the lights etc., which give rise to pleasure. Similarly the negative attitudes are due to un-pleasure associated with individuals, groups or social events.

The behavioural component of attitudes are greatly influenced by social norms which are ideas held by a group regarding what is correct behaviour and what is not. In the course of socialization children are told by parents about what they should do and what they should not do.

The general basis for negative attitude toward Harijans is the fact that parents prevent children from associating with sweepers, cobblers, etc., who are poor, illiterate and dirty. Why do such norms for behaviour toward out-groups develop? Triandis and Triandis (1960) have argued that economic conditions place one group in a position of advantage over another group.

In order to maintain this position of advantage negative attitudes are developed towards the group with economic disadvantage so that it can continue to be backward. The norms will continue to operate even when economic considerations are not relevant. The upper caste man, for instance, continues to look upon a person as “untouchable” though he may have superior education, wealth etc. This is how he tries to maintain his self-esteem.

Among the personality variables which determine the formation of attitudes, the most important is child-training which leads to formation of “authoritarian” personality. Adorno et al (1950) showed that people who had stern and punitive fathers and grew up in families organized along hierarchical lines with a powerful father figure, developed the authoritarian personality.

Such people accept in group authority figures without questioning them, desire powerful leaders, show obedience and respect for authority, approve severe punishment for deviants and admire military men, athletes and financiers. By contrast those low in authoritarianism prefer equalitarian leaders, show warmth and love in interpersonal relations, are tolerant of deviants, admire scientists, artists and social reformers. Thus, those high in authoritarian scale are highly prejudiced in their outlook while those low in it are tolerant.

Another significant personality variable is “conscience” or inner control. There is a good deal of evidence to show that when the mother is the chief socializer using techniques of discipline like withdrawal of love, the child develops internal controls.

But, when the father is the chief socializer using techniques of discipline like physical punishment, the child has weak internal controls; the child does not learn to control himself. People who learn to use internal controls are more likely to act according to their own standards, while those who are under the influence of external controls are more likely to act according to the norms of their in-group.

Thus, the kind of child training to which different individuals are exposed results in different conceptualizations regarding interpersonal relationships. The more positive conceptualization leads to an outlook that people are good, strong and humanistic; they advocate negotiation etc., to settle disputes. But those who had experience of highly punitive child-training practices are likely to develop negative views of human relations looking upon people as bad and weak and favour settling disputes by violence.

Insecurity is another important personality variable. Sense of insecurity makes a person to be intolerant of ambiguity; so he may opt for “right dictatorship” (fascism) or “left dictatorship” (communism). Insecurity may be caused not only by child training, where the parents punish inconsistently and without explanation, but also by loss of status in adult life.

Among the societal variables determining attitudes are membership of groups. A person is not only a member of some groups, he also aspires to belong to other groups, called “reference groups.” A person’s attitudes are anchored in his membership and to the reference group.

For example, Jennings and Niemi (1968) found in a nationwide sample in U.S. that 76 per cent of high school seniors favoured the political party which both parents favoured and only 10 per cent had opposite preference. Thus, the fact that on many issues the child is exposed to only one position at home, in the peer group etc., results in his attitudes reflecting it.

But when they are exposed to conflicting opinions, as in the case of those who go to the college, there will be changes in attitude because of the new views being expressed by the teachers and fellow students.

Studies have shown that only about 50 to 60 per cent of the college students agree with the political party preference of their parents as against 76 per cent at the high school level. But there is also the pressure to war cognitive consistency that will be operating during youth and adult periods. As a result only those beliefs and values tend to be accepted which will fit in with the already existing cognitive structure.

Thus, attitude formation begins primarily as a learning process during childhood and adolescence. Once the attitudes are formed, the influence of the principle of cognitive consistency becomes increasingly important.

The individual is no longer primarily passive. He begins to process the new information in terms of what he has already learned. He tends to reject inconsistent information and accept more readily information consistent with his attitude. Thus, well-established attitudes tend to be extremely resistant to change, but others may be more amenable to change.

Essay # 5. Measurement of Attitudes:

Measurement of attitude is a highly technical process.

So an attempt is made to give a general indication of the various procedures used to measure attitudes:

1. Self-report Measures:

Typically attitudes are assessed on the basis of a series of carefully constructed, standardised, statements each with an index. The subject is asked to specify whether he “agrees” or “disagrees” with the statement. Usually each statement is assigned a scale value so that a quantitative index of the attitude may be obtained.

When a scale constructed by the Thurstone (1929) method is used, the subject simply selects those items with which he agrees. For example, in the Thurstone scale to measure attitude toward war, the statement “War is glorious” has a scale value of 11.0. “I never think about war and it does not interest me” has a scale value of 5.5. “War is a futile struggle resulting in self-destruction,” has a scale value of 1.4. The attitude score is the median of the scale values of the items with which he agrees.

Another procedure which yields similar results is that developed by Likert (1932). In this method the subject has to indicate his response to a statement on a five-point scale strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree; weights of 1. 2, 3, 4 and 5 are given to these responses. The final attitude score is obtained by summing the scores for each statement.

Another technique is the Bogardus (1925) social distance scale where seven statements of varying social intimacy from “would marry” a member of the group to “would not like him to enter my country” are given and the subject is asked up to which degree of intimacy he would like to admit the given social group.

Yet another technique is the “semantic differential technique” developed by Osgood (1957) in which the subject has to indicate on a seven-point scale the quality of the item.

All the various techniques correlate highly with each other; if a person is rated as a highly prejudiced person by one technique, he will be rated in the same way by the other techniques also.

2. Observation of Overt Behaviour:

It has been seen above how La Piere (1934) made a trip around U.S. with a Chinese couple to study the attitude of hoteliers towards Oriental people, on the basis of actual behaviour.

Webb et al (1966) have criticised the heavy dependence of social psychologists on self-reports to measure attitudes. They have suggested a series of measures based on actual behaviour or on records indicating behaviour. For example, the sales records will show the attitude towards food items, or towards the various “soft drinks” like Coca- Cola, Fanta, Limca etc.

Similarly a measure of change in attitude toward “ready-made dresses” could be obtained by analysing the sales records of ready-made dresses and also analysing the number of orders given to tailors to make various types of clothing.

3. Interpretation of Partially Structured Stimuli:

The subject may be shown a photo or a picture and asked to describe the scene. This is a “projective” technique. On this basis of the description or story, the subject’s attitude toward that social object could be studied.

Essay # 6. Relationship between Attitudes and Actual Behaviour:

Lapiere (1934) found no relationship between actual behaviour and the attitude expressed towards a Chinese couple. He travelled with a Chinese couple and they stopped at many hotels and visited many restaurants. They were cordially received, given rooms and all facilities.

Later he wrote to all these hotels and restaurants which they visited and also many others which they had not visited and asked the managers whether they would receive Chinese guests. It was found that 92 per cent of those who replied said that they would not accept the Chinese as guests.

Thus, there was no relation between the actual behaviour and the attitude expressed in reply to a letter. This discrepancy is due to the difference in the two stimulus situations. When the Chinese guests went with an American, they were cordially received and served. But the letter was a formal request and the response was according to the prevailing norm, not to receive any guests of Oriental origin.

In contrast Kuppuswamy (1954) found that the Andhra college youth were very eager that linguistic provinces should be established in response to a questionnaire given in 1951. Actually by 1954 there were student rioting and adult rioting in Vijayawada and other places and the situation was so severe that Andhra State was formed as the first linguistic state. Here there is a positive relation between the attitude expressed and the actual behaviour.

Another illustration may be given. The Shiv Sena movement in Bombay was against the people of the Southern states who had settled down in Bombay. Actually within a short period the attitude manifested itself in actual behaviour destroying the properties of the Southerners.

It is well known that there was an identity between the social norm expressed as an attitude and the actual behaviour towards the ex-untouchables in India. In spite of the campaign carried on by Gandhiji and inspite of Art. 17 abolishing untouchability in 1950, even now negative attitude as well as avoidance behaviour are to be found in the villages of India where 80 per cent of the people live.

On the other hand, one of the great problems India has been facing is in the area of national integration. As far as the expressed attitudes are concerned Indians are highly nationalistic. They will shout “Jai Hind.” They stand in reverence when the national anthem is sung. But in actual behaviour casteism, communalism and linguism prevail. Here behaviour is at variance with the attitude expressed verbally.

It must be recognized that attitudes are neither necessary nor sufficient causes of behaviour. They are only “facilitative causes.”

Behaviour is a function of:

(a) Attitudes,

(b) Social norms,

(d) Expectations about reinforcement.

When there is consistency between all these four factors, there is consistency between attitudes and behaviour. Sugar (1967) tested this formulation.

He asked college students:

(a) Whether they liked to smoke (affect toward smoking),

(b) Whether their friends approve of smoking (norm),

Later on he casually offered them cigarettes. It was found that when all the three predictors were consistent, the behaviour followed; but when the three predictor variables were not consistent the accuracy of prediction dropped.

Thus, the actual behaviour is dependent not on attitude alone but on the other factors like the social norm, habit, etc.

Essay # 7. Some Approaches to the Study of Attitudes:

Broadly there are three approaches to the study of attitude formation and change:

1. Conditioning and Reinforcement:

This model is closely associated with Hovland and his coworkers. The basic assumption is that attitudes are learnt like other habits. Just as people acquire information and facts, they also acquire feelings and values associated with these facts. The child not only learns that a certain animal is a dog, he also learns to like or dislike dogs. Thus, according to this view the principles and theories derived from studying the learning process can be applied to attitudes also. Attitudes are learnt through association.

Because the grandmother, who is liked, tells stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata during childhood, the Indian child has a positive attitude towards these epics. Learning also occurs through reinforcement. The attitude toward Ramayana is reinforced by the reward (pleasure, praise) which visitors to the house express when the child relates the story of Rama.

2. Incentives and Conflicts:

According to this theory a person adopts that attitude which maximizes his gains. This approach is particularly relevant to attitude change. It views the attitude situation in terms of an approach-avoidance conflict. This can be illustrated with the “constructive programme” developed by Gandhi in order to unify the people of India to obtain independence.

He made the Congress workers to accept a number of programmes which were traditionally unacceptable to them. For example, in order to promote a sense of hygiene and also to make people give up their disgust towards scavangers and scavanging, he made the Congress workers to participate in what he called safai programme.

They were made to dig pits for use and cover the refuse with mud so that the latrine is clean and free from smell. Similarly to promote Hindu-Muslim unity he made the Congress workers of all communities not only to live together, eat together, but also to join in the common prayers where texts from the Gita, the Koran, the Bible etc., were recited.

He made the removal of “untouchability” a basic programme and induced the higher caste people to take their food along with the Harijans. All these programmes are really programmes to change the attitude of people towards the various social groups. Gandhi succeeded in changing the attitudes of the Congress workers at that time because of there love and reverence to him and because of their zeal for national liberation.

So the “approach” was more powerful than the “avoidance”; the attitude change took place from disgust to ex-untouchables to a more humanistic outlook. Similarly with respect to other issues also. But the real effects of this were only changes in legislation, that is, change in official norms rather than change in local norms in the small groups in rural and urban areas.

3. Cognitive Consistency:

Cognitive consistency theorists, though they differ considerably among themselves, generally assume that there is a tendency for all people to seek consistency among their cognitions and that this is a major determinant of attitude formation.

According to these theories, when in an individual, there is inconsistency between some beliefs and values and other beliefs and values, he strives to alter them so that they become more consistent with each other. Even if his cognitions are consistent and he is faced with a new cognition that would produce inconsistency, he strives to minimize the inconsistency.

An illustration from current Indian situation will clarify the point. According to prevailing social norms in an agricultural society, people believe that children are the gifts of God, that male children are necessary both for secular success in carrying out agricultural operations profitably and for the repayment of the debt to the ancestors (pitr rna); thirdly, there was the fact of large incidence of infant mortality and the short span of life of those who survived.

All these attitudes have now to be changed in view of “population explosion.” Increase in knowledge and large scale application of knowledge in public health has decreased both the infant mortality rate (from about 160 in 1951 to about 80 in 1971) and general mortality rate (from about 30 in 1951 to about 15 in 1971); it has increased the longevity of people from about 27 years in 1951 to about 57 years in 1971.

As a result of steep decreases in death rate without a corresponding decrease in birth rate, the country is faced with great increase in population and consequent increase in unemployment, food shortage, etc. Like in the 19th century Europe and America, the educated middle classes living in urban areas are being affected by the increased cost of living and so are trying to change their attitude by accepting the small family norm.

But the national problem remains since 80 per cent of the people continue to live in rural areas and as many are illiterate. Their standard of life is so low that there is no cognitive inconsistency; hence there is no attempt to change their attitudes. Some slight change in their attitude was effected through large scale utilization of “incentive programmes.”

But all these cannot bring about a real decrease in the birth rate if there is no change in social norms in the small groups in rural and urban areas. Here again is an illustration of the change in national norms which have become ineffective without a corresponding change in the norms of the small groups.

It is not necessary to go into the details of various theories of cognitive consistency, like the balance theory, congruity theory and so on in this book.

Some Indian Studies on Attitudes:

There have been studies in attitude measurement and change in the educational, industrial, family planning and other fields.

In the educational field attempts have been made to measure attitude of students toward the various school subjects, school activities, vocations etc. Some studies have also been made to study the attitude of teachers and teacher trainees. Attempts have also been made to assess the attitudinal changes effected as a result of training.

In the industrial field many studies have been made to measure the attitude towards the job, the management, the labour unions, etc. Ganguly (1958) set up an action programme including lectures and discussions to orient the attitude of foundary workers towards supervisors, national government, and the job. A marked improvement in the participants’ disposition was reported. Chowdhry (1953) studies the attitude of textile workers and its effect on working efficiency.

Several attempts have been made to construct scales to measure radicalism-conservatism. Rao (1962) using the centroid technique of factor analysis has shown that three bipolar factors are involved in social attitudes. Kundu (1966) has given weightage to attitude components and put forward a new concept of attitude.

Commenting on the various attempts made so far, Rath (1972) has said, “considering the importance of attitude scale construction, the work done in this regard does not seem to be very adequate; and there are not many well established and widely accepted standardized scales of attitude available for Indian conditions.”

Kamala Gopal Rao (1968) has put together several studies made to measure attitude toward Family Planning programmes. Most of these attempts have used the questionnaire and interview techniques; some have used scaling techniques. Panda and Kanungo (1964) used the Thurstone and Likert technique to develop scales to measure attitude toward family planning on an all-India basis.

Another significant development is what is known as KAP studies; the aim is to find the relation between knowledge, attitude and practice. The results of large scale studies indicate that while knowledge with respect to family planning programme has been widespread because of the use of mass media and while attitudes are also favourable, only about five per cent actually practice some family planning techniques to control birth. These studies clearly show how merely having favourable attitude toward family planning does not guarantee its practice.

Essay # 8. Ways of Changing Attitude:

Attitudes can be changed in a variety of ways. One of the sources of change is by obtaining new information which may come from other people or through the mass media. Such new information may produce changes in the cognitive component of a person’s attitude.

There is a tendency for consistency in the component of any attitude. So when there are changes in the cognitive component there may be changes in the affective and behavioural components also. Attitudes may change through direct experience. A person who is prejudiced against Harijans may meet in a friend’s house a very well informed, intelligent Harijan.

This experience may bring about some dissonance between his cognitions between his expectation and his experience. This may require him to reorganize his thinking about Harijans.

Another way to change the attitudes is by legislation. Because the law prohibits and punishes the practice of untouchability there may be changes in attitudes toward Harijans. This can be seen in cities and big towns where there is hardly any awareness of the caste of the other person. But this is not true in the rural areas where the intimate, small group norm is more powerful than the distant, national norm.

Since a person’s attitudes are anchored in his membership group and reference group, one way to change these attitudes is to modify one or the other. Newcomb’s (1943) classic study showed how college attendance can have a significant effect on one’s attitudes. The study was conducted in a small residential college where there was great scope for interaction between the teachers and the students.

The girls came mostly from wealthy conservative homes. The teachers were extremely liberal in their outlook. As a result of this interaction the attitudes of the girls changed. They became more and more liberal. Newcomb (1963) made a follow-up study on as many girls as he could trace and found that 25 years later, they were conspicuously more liberal than the women of the same age and socio-economic background.

However, it must be realised that there is a great difference in situation; in the laboratory and in the college campus significant changes in attitudes may be possible; but as politicians and other propagandists like the advertisers know, the campaigns conducted through mass media are not so successful in producing changes in attitudes among the masses.

One of the most significant cases of mass change in attitudes in India was in the General Elections in 1970 for the Parliament and in 1971 for State Legislatures. After the split in the Indian National Congress in 1969, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi with her radical programme of Bank Nationalization was able to build up a new image of Congress R.

The whole country was dissatisfied with the continuance of large scale poverty, illiteracy and unemployment after nearly 25 years of independence, even though there was very impressive success in the field of industrialization; this, however, only made a small proportion, probably ten per cent, of the population affluent.

Further, the 1967 elections, which clearly rejected the Congress and put in several non- Congress parties in power in the States, showed that the “United- Front” Governments made up of parties with different ideologies were making a mess with their squabbles. Finally, the minority communities, particularly the Muslims, the Christians and the Harijans were bewildered with the success in 1967 elections of the Jan Sangh, which, rightly or wrongly, is associated with communalism.

All these forces operated to bring about a landslide victory of the Congress R, in 1970 and 1971. But the basic problems of large-scale poverty, illiteracy and unemployment continue to plague the Indian situation. Unless there is some success in tackling these problems it is difficult to foresee what shape the attitude of people will take in the coming critical years, in spite of the success in Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.

Hovland and Janis (1959) suggested a useful model of attitude change that included many stages and variables.

The following figure illustrates the model in a very simplified form:

There must be a “communicator” who hold a particular position on some issue and is trying to convince others to hold the same position. In order to do this, he produces a “communication” designed to persuade people to change their views. This communication is presented in a given “situation.”

These three constitute the essential features— the source, the communication and the situation and surroundings. But the communication may not reach the target intact. Probably the communication may not reach the target at all because the lines of communication do not exist.

For example, Kuppuswamy (1971), in his 1961-62 study in Mysore District, found that more than two-thirds of the rural group had not heard of the five-year plans. Secondly, because of previous commitments and personal involvements, the target groups may avoid the communication.

For example, in 1972 when the problem of radical lowering of landholdings to 18 to 10 standard acres of irrigated land or to 54 acres of dry land was under discussion, the landholding groups were totally impervious to the concrete situation where about 20 per cent of rural people are landless and about 75 per cent of the landholding people had less than five acres of dry land.

They were only thinking of their own situation and these were generally absentee landlords, living in cities, following professions or business. Then there is the factor of surrounding situation; there is the competing propaganda from other sources who are against the given source and the given message and try to impress their point of view on the people.

There is considerable evidence with regard to what is now identified as the “two-step flow of information.” Most people do not read newspapers and do not hear the radio. Only a small fraction in the society read newspapers carefully and hears the significant programmes on the radio. These people tend to be the most influential members of their community or group.

They are called the “opinion leaders,” because they have considerable impact on the attitudes of their associates. They pass on the information to their friends. By means of this two-step flow of communications, some of the persuasive material does reach the people. Thus, one of the critical points in propaganda and attitude change is to reach these opinion leaders.

We can now briefly apply these principles to the Indian situation. In 1920 when Gandhi launched his non-cooperation programme he was able to get practically the whole nation to support him. Thousands of responsible citizens ‘gave up their professions and joined the movement. Tens of thousands of students gave up their studies.

This phenomenal situation arose because Gandhi, the source of communication, had already demonstrated in 1917 his capacity as a leader and his fearlessness by the four successful campaigns, namely:

(1) Champaran Satyagraha in indigo plantations in north-western corner of Bihar;

(2) Ahmedabad Satyagraha and fast to settle the textile mill labourers’ problems;

(3) The Kaira Satyagraha in Gujarat to suspend the land revenue code due to famine; and

(4) The abolition of indentured labour system.

The convent of his communication was the attainment of self- government through “ahimsa” the abandonment of all kinds of violence and thorough non-cooperation, “a voluntary withdrawal” of all support to the government. He wanted all those who “are holding offices of honour or emolument” to give them up, and also those who belong to the menial services under the government. Then what about the situation? The movement was launched after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and Khilafat agitation and the failure of the British Government to satisfy the demands for “Home Rule” by accepting the recommendation of Montague-Chelmsford reforms which only envisaged the transfer of a few subjects in the states to elected ministers.

Thus the whole country was seething with discontent. What about the target? Gandhi started for the first time a mass movement. So the people were ready to join a movement which gave promise of the overthrow of the alien rulers. The masses are ignorant; they were mobilized through the “two-step” flow of information.

The leaders, who resigned their offices, communicated the message. Thus, not only the 1920 movement, but the other movements launched by Gandhi in 1930 and 1942 were all of the same pattern. He had insight into the needs of the people and could make them sacrifice their all for the attainment of independence.

By contrast, such forces are not in operation either with respect to the Five-Year plans or the community development programme or other national programmes. It is only the Bank Nationalization programme that had some of these features which could change the attitudes of the people.

How Attitude Influences Our Behaviour
Essay on Attitude: Top 8 Essays | Human Behaviour | Psychology
Prejudice: Compilation of Essays on Prejudice | Attitude | Psychology
Leadership: Compilation of Essays on Leadership | Behaviour | Psychology

Attitude , Essay , Human Behaviour , Psychology

Undergraduate
High School
Architecture
American History
Asian History
Antique Literature
American Literature
Asian Literature
Classic English Literature
World Literature
Creative Writing
Linguistics
Criminal Justice
Legal Issues
Anthropology
Archaeology
Political Science
World Affairs
African-American Studies
East European Studies
Latin-American Studies
Native-American Studies
West European Studies
Family and Consumer Science
Social Issues
Women and Gender Studies
Social Work
Natural Sciences
Pharmacology
Earth science
Agriculture
Agricultural Studies
Computer Science
IT Management
Mathematics
Investments
Engineering and Technology
Engineering
Aeronautics
Medicine and Health
Alternative Medicine
Communications and Media
Advertising
Communication Strategies
Public Relations
Educational Theories
Teacher's Career
Chicago/Turabian
Company Analysis
Education Theories
Shakespeare
Canadian Studies
Food Safety
Relation of Global Warming and Extreme Weather Condition
Movie Review
Admission Essay

Annotated Bibliography

Application Essay
Article Critique
Article Review
Article Writing
Book Review
Business Plan
Business Proposal
Capstone Project
Cover Letter
Creative Essay
Dissertation
Dissertation - Abstract
Dissertation - Conclusion
Dissertation - Discussion
Dissertation - Hypothesis
Dissertation - Introduction
Dissertation - Literature
Dissertation - Methodology
Dissertation - Results
GCSE Coursework
Grant Proposal
Marketing Plan
Multiple Choice Quiz
Personal Statement
Power Point Presentation

Power Point Presentation With Speaker Notes

Questionnaire
Reaction Paper
Research Paper
Research Proposal
SWOT analysis
Thesis Paper
Online Quiz
Literature Review
Movie Analysis
Statistics problem
Math Problem
All papers examples
How It Works
Money Back Policy
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
We Are Hiring

Attitude and Behavior, Essay Example

Pages: 1

Words: 401

Hire a Writer for Custom Essay

Use 10% Off Discount: "custom10" in 1 Click 👇

You are free to use it as an inspiration or a source for your own work.

Attitude defined as the view that one has towards an object. It can either be positive, negative or neutral views towards a person, behavior or event. From the theory, of planned behavior (Hogg & Terry, 2000, p. 31), it supports that the intentions of performing certain behaviors can be predicted by the attitudes that one has towards the behavior, the subjective norms, and perceives control of behavior. Therefore, the actual behavior varies considerably as a result of the intentions one has towards the behavior together with the perceptions of behavioral control (Hogg & Terry, 2000, p. 67). By assessing one’s beliefs in regards to the consequences arising from behavior and by evaluating these consequences desirability, this determines the attitude towards behavior.

In the cognitive dissonance theory, it suggests that every person has an inner drive for holding all their attitudes and beliefs in harmony so as to avoid dissonance (Hogg & Terry, 2000, p. 7). This is because the dissonance will lead to the situation where there will be conflicting attitudes, behaviors or beliefs, and as a result, individuals end up feeling pain and cause change in one of the attitudes or beliefs (Hogg & Terry, 2000, p. 227). For example, when one forced, by circumstances, to behave in a way they do not do, their attitude towards their behavior may be re-evaluated to reduce dissonance.

In the self perception theory, it says that people decide on their own attitudes and feelings towards a certain behavior from watching how they behave in different situations. This occurs when a person’s cues are so weak or confusing that they put the same person in the same point, as an exterior observer (Hogg & Terry, 2000, p. 72). Potential implications of a person’s behavior that has a negative attitude towards individual or group would be development of feelings such as anger, frustration, hatred, disgust, sadness. Also, the drainage of energy from a person due to the maintenance of the negative attitude experienced. Implicit attitudes are the thoughts, feelings, or actions towards objects arising due to experiences that one may not be aware of, whereas explicit attitudes are the thoughts, feelings, or actions toward people, objects, or concepts that the person is aware of the feelings he or she holds in a certain context.

Hogg, M. A & Terry, D. J. (2000). Attitudes, Behavior, and Social Context: The Role of Norms and Group Membership. New York: Routledge.

Stuck with your Essay?

Get in touch with one of our experts for instant help!

Illegal Immigrants, Annotated Bibliography Example

Ritual Arts of the New Continent, Power Point Presentation With Speaker Notes Example

Time is precious

don’t waste it!

Plagiarism-free guarantee

Privacy guarantee

Secure checkout

Money back guarantee

Related Essay Samples & Examples

Voting as a civic responsibility, essay example.

Words: 287

Utilitarianism and Its Applications, Essay Example

Words: 356

The Age-Related Changes of the Older Person, Essay Example

Pages: 2

Words: 448

The Problems ESOL Teachers Face, Essay Example

Pages: 8

Words: 2293

Should English Be the Primary Language? Essay Example

Pages: 4

Words: 999

The Term “Social Construction of Reality”, Essay Example

Words: 371

Essay on Attitude: Top 6 Essays | Employees | Values | Management

In this essay we will discuss about ‘Attitude’. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Attitude’ especially written for school and college students.

Essay on Attitude

Essay Contents:

Essay on the Importance of Attitude

Essay # 1. Definition of Attitude:

Attitude is defined as ones’ feelings or mood toward things, circumstances or people. Each individual is made up of various physical, vital, and mental parts. Everyone is having physical body and its organs, muscles, etc; the vital being with its sensations, emotions and feelings, and the mental part with its thoughts, memories, reasoning power, beliefs, etc. Somewhere between emotions and thought processing lie attitudes; one’s emotional perceptions about oneself, others, and life itself.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Attitude is how one behaves towards somebody or something. It is one’s personal view, opinion or judgment. It also describes one’s general emotional approach toward a person or situation.

Attitudes are evaluative statement favourable or unfavourable related to person, object or event. They reflect that how one feel about something. For example if someone says that he likes his job, this statement expresses his attitude towards his job. Each and every person has different attitude at different conditions.

Attitude is the state of mind with which one approach a task, a challenge, a person, love, life in general.

Essay # 2. Components of Attitude:

There are three components of attitude:

(i) Cognitive component.

(ii) Effective component.

(iii) Behavioural component.

(i) Cognitive Component:

It refers to that part of attitude which is related in general know how of a person, for example, if a person says that smoking is injurious to health, such type of idea of a person is called cognitive component of attitude.

(ii) Effective Component:

This part of attitude is related to the statement, which affects another person. For example, if in an organization a personal report is given to the general manager. The report indicates that production staff is not performing their duties responsibilities. The general manager forwards a written notice to production manager to find out the cause of above said.

(iii) Behavioural Component:

The behavioural component refers to that part of attitude, which reflects the intension of a person in short run or in long run. For example, before the development of a new product, a report is prepared by the production department, which consists of their intention in near future and long run, and this report is handed over to top management for the decision.

Essay # 3. Types of Attitude:

Attitude is a way of thinking. People are often identified as having positive or negative, right or wrong, good or bad, optimistic or pessimistic, mindset. Attitudes generally express positively and negatively. For example, when a person is having good feelings towards his/her work or co-worker, his/her attitude is positive. When he/she feels reluctant to do certain things that are necessary, or show hostility towards certain individuals, then his/her attitude is negative.

(i) Positive Attitude:

A positive attitude means having an optimistic outlook. One responds constructively to stress and be able to deal with problems effectively. People having positive attitude see the glass as half full instead of seeing it as half empty.

A person’s attitude influences his/her social status, finances, health, the way he/she challenge obstacles and the kind of people they attract to their life. A positive attitude is important to people’s social status, health, work, the way they challenge obstacles and the kind of people they attract to their life.

A positive attitude will bring more positive opportunities into life. It attracts successful people who share the same goals. A positive attitude helps the body to heal faster from illness. A positive attitude helps in getting a job.

(ii) Negative Attitude:

Negative attitudes come from thinking negative thoughts over and over until they have become a part of person’s subconscious. One may not even realize that he/she is having a negative attitude because it’s been with him/her for so long.

A person having a bad attitude expects failure and disaster. An example of a negative attitude towards life is being pessimistic that things will never turn out well. These are destructive feeling and emotions that cannot help but worsen life’s conditions.

Essay # 4. Functions of Attitude:

Attitudes serve four important functions from the organization’s viewpoint behaviour.

These are as follows:

(i) Adjustment Function.

(ii) Ego-Defensive Function.

(iii) Value-Expressive Function.

(iv) Knowledge Function.

(i) Adjustment Function:

Attitudes often help people to adjust to their work environment. Well treated employees tend to develop a positive attitude towards their job; management and the organization in general while ill-treated organizational members develop a negative attitude. In other words, attitudes help employees adjust to their environment and form a basis for future behaviour.

(ii) Ego-Defensive Function:

Attitudes help people to retain their dignity and self- image. When a young faculty member who is full of fresh ideas and enthusiasm, joins the organization, the older members might feel somewhat threatened by him. But they tend to disapprove his creative ideas as ‘crazy’ and ‘impractical’ and dismiss him altogether.

(iii) Value-Expressive Function:

Attitudes provide individuals with a basis for expressing their values. For example, a manager who values hard and sincere work will be more vocal against an employee who is having a very casual approach towards work.

(iv) Knowledge Function:

Attitudes provide standards and frames of reference that allow people to understand and perceive the world around him. If one has a strong negative attitude towards the management, whatever the management does, it can be perceived as something ‘bad’ and as actually against them.

Essay # 5. Methods of Changing Attitude:

Employee’s attitudes can be changed and sometimes it is in the best interests of managements to try to do so.

Some of the possible ways of changing attitudes are:

(i) Providing New Information.

(ii) Use of Fear.

(iii) Resolving Discrepancies.

(iv) Influence of Friends and Peers.

(v) Co-Opting.

(i) Providing New Information:

Attitude can be changed by providing relevant and adequate information to the person concerned.

(ii) Use of Fear:

Attitudes can be changed through the use of fear. People might resort to change their work habit for the fear of unpleasant consequences.

(iii) Resolving Discrepancies:

Whenever people face a dilemma or conflicting situation they feel confused in choosing a particular course of action. For example when a person has to choose from between two alternative courses of action, it is often become difficult for him to decide which is right for him. If someone helps him in pointing out the positive points in favour of the chosen course of action, this helps in resolving his dilemma.

(iv) Influence of Friends and Peers:

A very effective way of changing one’s attitude is through his friends and colleagues. Their opinion and recommendation for something often proves to be more important.

(v) Co-Opting:

Co-opting is another method if there is need to change the attitude of some body that belongs to a different group. This can be done by including that person in the group.

Essay # 6. Importance of Attitude :

Attitude plays an important part in person’s life. It is important to remember attitude is everything. Attitude, whether positive or negative, shows in person’s daily lives. Many people say attitude is more important than experience or education. They often use attitude as the tie-breaker between two equally qualified candidates.

Person’s attitude determines the state of world he/she live in. It is the foundation for every success and every failure one has had and will have. Attitude is important because attitude truly is everything. It drives virtually every decision one makes and how one lives each day of life. Attitude will shape a person’s career. A great attitude will propel him forward, while a poor attitude will get him fired.

It has been found that people who have a good attitude remain healthier than their counterparts. This is because an optimistic attitude helps in preventing sadness, depression, anger, stress and anxiety and this in turn helps in preventing various medical problems.

Negative Attitude: Types and Consequences | Values | Management
Essay on Attitude: Definition, Formation and Functions
Essay on Ethics: Top 5 Essays | Employees | Management
Values, Attitudes and Job Satisfaction | Term Paper | Employees | Management

We use cookies

Privacy overview.

Attitude in the Workplace Essay

Introduction.

Organizations are faced with a variety of problems which come from different angles, both internal and external. The most complex ones are however those that are associated with the human resource or workforce.

This is because these are the driving force towards the success of an organization, through their manipulation of other resources for instance the assets, to come up with a productive and profitable result. Success in any activity in an organization requires unity and cooperation among all the individuals involved, failure to which malfunction is almost automatic.

This piece of work gives an in-depth discussion of attitude, as an issue that affects progress in the workplace with much emphasis being given to how it impacts on individuals and an organization at large and how a solution could be implemented and its success evaluated.

A review and a brief description of the original problem selected by my Learning Team

There are various problems that are linked with workplaces and all the practices and activities undertaken therein. For the sake of this assignment, my team chose attitude in the workplace as the problem of discussion for which a plan to help solve the issue will be identified and implemented.

This is because this is a very prevalent problem in workplaces and it has led to fall down of most organizations. Attitude entails the way a given individual thinks or perceives various things or situations. It is a very influential aspect and it plays a great role in determining how things are undertaken. Various employees express different attitudes, some positive and others negative.

Under all circumstances, positive attitude among all the individuals involved in an organization should be advocated for and maintained since nothing can be successful where negative attitude prevail. There is usually a tendency of people to bring their home problems into the workplace thus affecting their ability to perform as expected, which should not be the case.

The encouraging thing is the fact that there are ways that have been established in an effort to change people’s attitudes through sensitizing them to be positive and optimistic in their undertakings so as to achieve success. This is however possible through effective decision making that entail critical thinking and effective plan and strategies (Shumake, 1992).

A plan to implement the identified solution

In every plan especially that involved with implementing a given solution to a problem, it is important to have an effective evaluation of the required resources, the resistance management plan and most importantly timeframe. Decision making and critical thinking was a key aspect in the determination of the plan that we would implement in order to curb the ordeal of negative attitude among members of the workforce.

It entails identification of the problem, definition of the aims and objectives, evaluating the impact of the problem, determining the causes of the problem, coming up with alternative solutions, evaluating the impacts of the alternatives, making the decision and implementing it.

The process is however not complete before its impact is measured to ascertain its progress and hence make necessary actions(Roth & Mullen, 2002). The best plan that we came up with is effective communication aimed at creating awareness on the aspect of attitude and the effects it has on both individual as well as organizational performance.

It will also encompass teaching on the importance of critical thinking as opposed to acting under personal feelings and prejudices. This will ensure that employees’ behavior and attitudes are in line with the organizational core values thus ensuring that the goals and objectives are achieved hence increasing productivity and profitability as a result of enhanced efficiency and effectiveness.

It will also ensure that attitudes and thoughts are evaluated in an objective manner without any form of biasness. Another aspect that we considered in the implementation plan was to identify and implement appropriate tools that allow for effective thinking and avoid negative attitude. This includes impacting them with critical thinking and problem solving skills (O’Rourke, 2008).

An evaluation of the success of the solution chosen above

In order to conclude that a given implemented solution has been successful or not, it is important that the progress is monitored or evaluated. There are various ways through which a decision’s effectiveness could be evaluated more especially through measuring the success or failure achieved after its implementation.

One of the ways is to measure the impact of the implemented solution against the organizational goals and objectives. A good solution should adequately match with the organization’s goals and objectives to avoid any form of conflict that would make the situation even worse. Communication is also another very critical concept that can be utilized in gauging the impact of a given decision for instance the actions taken towards eliminating the vice of negative attitude in the workplace.

Effective communication entails giving every involved member a chance to give ideas and opinions in regard to certain a particular decision. This allows for taking of the right measures in respect to any aspect as well as allowing for inner satisfaction which is brought about by people knowing they are well represented and their voices incorporated in an organization’s decision.

Another very significant step in the evaluation of the progress of a decision that was made is the observation of the trends in the organization. There should for example be positive movement of activities following positive change of attitudes among employees.

This could be seen in aspects like communication where the employees ought to communicate effectively, increased efficiency and effectiveness in carrying out activities and processes, enhanced customer service and treatment of fellow colleagues as well as the general change of attitude that can be seen in the way people treat each other. In our case the decisions taken was successful since positive changes were experienced, the final results being increased productivity and productivity (Paul & Elder, 2006).

It is evident that organizations are faced with a variety of problems including those that are linked with the employees. Attitude in the workplace is for example very influential in determining how various activities and practices are carried out, with negative attitude being a leading factor to individual failure as well as pull down of the performance of an organization as a whole. It is therefore advisable that negative attitude among employees is dealt with in an appropriate manner to avoid any negative performance.

Negative attitude among employees could be demonstrated by aspects such as impoliteness, unwillingness to share ideas and opinions, being anti-social, failure to adhere to stipulated rules and regulations, complains to the management and constant conflicts among others.

Dealing with negative attitude like any other organizational problem necessitates that effective decision making and critical thinking is done so as to appropriately deal with all the internal and external elements that are associated with workplace attitude.

Reference List

O’Rourke, J. (2008). Relationships, Managing Conflicts at Workplace. New York: Cengage Learning.

Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2006). Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life. Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Roth, M.B., & Mullen, D. J. (2002). Decision Making: Its Logic and Practice . Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.

Shumake, G. (1992). Increasing Productivity And Profit In The Workplace: A Guide To Office Planning And Design. New York: Wiley-Interscience.

Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, July 8). Attitude in the Workplace. https://ivypanda.com/essays/attitude-in-workplace/

"Attitude in the Workplace." IvyPanda , 8 July 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/attitude-in-workplace/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Attitude in the Workplace'. 8 July.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Attitude in the Workplace." July 8, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/attitude-in-workplace/.

1. IvyPanda . "Attitude in the Workplace." July 8, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/attitude-in-workplace/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Attitude in the Workplace." July 8, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/attitude-in-workplace/.

Negotiation Tips and Strategies Evaluated
Organizational Culture and Organizational Effectiveness
Management: Workplace Feelings and Their Effects
Workplace Yoga Reducing Stress in Employees
What Is Critical Thinking?
Organizational Leadership and Attitude-Behavior Theory
Individual Conceptualization of Organizational Communication
Happiness vs. Production in the Workplace
Moods, Emotions, Attitudes and Workplace Environment
Problem Analysis of the Aspect of the Attitude Problems within the Organization
Leadership Types: Transformational, Transactional and Charismatic
Three Methods of Performance Appraisal in HR Management
Contemporary Management
Downsizing 10 per Cent of the Staff
The Hawthorne Studies

Essay on Attitude in English (1000 Words)

Our attitude characterizes our mood or behavior towards things, circumstances, and people. All people are composed of various indispensable insights, highlights, mental capacities, and nature. While each individual is comparable in structure, what makes them special is their attitude.

Attitude doesn’t just portray your conduct yet it additionally incorporates your feelings, sentiments, and how you take a gander at things.

Having the right attitude is fundamental for a person to continue to move effectively in life. Only one out of every odd circumstance is something similar, however, what is important is your attitude towards it. By feeling good and taking things forward with the right attitude one can transform them.

What is the Right Attitude?

There is the belief that when individuals have the right attitude, they for the most part prevail in their lives and each result comes out decisively. Having an uplifting perspective towards life can assist you with settling on the best choice even in difficult situations.

We can drive our objectives when we know how to take things with a positive soul and let helpless circumstances outside of life with a sound temper. Assuming that somebody is ridiculing your contemplations, looks, conviction, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg, and you’re decidedly responding to each call, then, at that point, no one can prevent you from getting accomplishment in life.

Besides, assuming you believe that you can do nothing, you are skeptical with regard to life and abilities. Hence, being hopeful assumes a significant part in passing through life with the right attitude.

All human animals have various abilities, which an individual ought to investigate themselves in the event that you are believing you’re not the perfect individual by hearing a few terrible audits about you.

You’re settling on an off-base choice since this thing won’t give you the achievement that you merit. Along these lines, having confidence in your looks, abilities, and yourself is something that stands you out from the group.

Certain individuals accept that being rich or having cash in your pocket can allow you an opportunity to show yourself. Assume you have an ability that doesn’t simply squeeze it under your mouth.

Show the world what your identity is, and individuals will acknowledge you when you have the right ability, the right stage, and the right attitude to show them.

It doesn’t make any difference assuming you are affluent or jobless, it is just your attitude and viewpoint towards life that has an effect. It is said that when there is tranquility inside you, the external conditions neglect to influence your genuine serenity.

Listening to this guidance, numerous business visionaries, speakers, instructors, and priests have satisfied the reason for their life. Assuming you have everything like great abundance, wellbeing, strong loved ones however have a pompous attitude towards individuals, no one will regard or like you.

Along these lines, the moral for ‘attitude is incredible’ is that it is important to settle on a sound and uplifting outlook to endeavor through life and tough spots we face as we age. Stay aware of the uplifting outlook and see your life unfurling for the better soon.

Few Facts/ statements related to Attitude.

Attitude is the method of one’s reasoning.
Having the right attitude is the way to progress.
Living with positive reasoning keeps you glad and tranquil.
An uplifting outlook simplifies life and is agreeable.
With the right attitude, life can be hopeful though a bad attitude can obliterate life.
Attitude likewise characterizes your psychological prosperity.
Attitude is a mix of reasoning, convictions, conduct, and intentions.
A positive and negative attitude affects one’s conduct.
An uplifting outlook gives a feeling of regard and confidence.
Attitude isn’t just reflected as a part of our character yet in addition in our activities.

Why is a positive attitude important?

At the point when you develop an inspirational perspective, you will begin resting easy thinking about yourself. You will treat yourself with more regard and love, and this thus will help your certainty levels and inward strength. You will take on new difficulties and emerge from your self-restricting convictions.

What is a bad attitude?

A terrible attitude is an inclination, way, or demeanor that isn’t helpful, hopeful, or productive.

Bad attitudes can ruin you from fostering the right point of view about life. They can likewise keep you from expanding those things that give pleasure.

They can turn into the very impediment that blocks you from developing and getting the hang of survival techniques for life’s challenges. They can restrict you from endeavoring new things that might be energizing.

Individuals with bad attitudes might wind up lonely, depressed, and stressed.

Conclusion:

It doesn’t make any difference assuming you are rich or jobless, it is just your attitude and standpoint towards life that has an effect. It is said that when there is smoothness inside you, the external conditions neglect to influence your genuine serenity.

Paying attention to this guidance, numerous business visionaries, speakers, educators, and priests have satisfied the motivation behind their life. On the off chance that you have everything like good abundance, wellbeing, steady loved ones yet have a pompous attitude towards individuals, no one will regard or like you.

In this way, the moral for ‘attitude is incredible’ is that it is important to decide on a sound and uplifting perspective to endeavor through life and tough spots we face as we age. Stay aware of the uplifting outlook and see your life unfurling for the better sooner rather than later.

Frequently Asked Questions.

1. Is having the right attitude vital?

Being positive towards life can assist you with getting accomplishments in your life rapidly.

2. How do you develop a good attitude?

To develop a positive or good attitude, you really want to have confidence in yourself and eliminate negative contemplations from the mind.

3. Why is having a positive attitude important?

To lead life joyfully with delight and achievement, then, at that point, having a positive attitude towards life is vital.

I’m a former teacher (and mother of Two Childs) with a background in child development. I’m here to help you with play-based learning activities and crafts for kids ages 0 – 8. ( Cledemy.com is my Next startup on Pre to 8th Grade Printable and Worksheet Education Resources)

Join our active Facebook group for creative and fun activities, games, and other child development ideas.

Gratitude Essay

500 words essay on gratitude.

Gratitude is a beautiful way of enriching our lives. It refers to the feeling and attitude of appreciation and thankfulness for the good which we receive in life. It has been proven scientifically that when we express our gratefulness to other people, we feel happier and calmer. Thus, it allows goodness to enter our lives. For instance, when a stranger holds the door for you or greets you, it makes you feel happy. Thus, a gratitude essay will teach us how advantageous gratitude is.

Advantages of Gratitude

Gratitude can have a lot of advantages to our personal as well as social life. First of all, it strengthens our relationship with others. When you have a thankful feeling, it will strengthen the bond with the other party and enhance the trust factor and feeling of respect and love .

Moreover, it also makes us happy. When we express gratitude or receive it, we feel happy either way. As a result, people who have gratitude do not stress out a lot. Similarly, being full of gratitude makes society sensible.

In other words, people become considerate and never leave a chance to say thank you to others. Thus, it helps society to progress in the right direction with the right tools needed for the development of it.

Most importantly, gratitude reduces comparisons and promotes acknowledgement. When we become thankful, we do not compare ourselves to others. Thus, it helps us acknowledge our own achievements and blessings and remain content.

How to Practice Gratitude

There are a lot of ways through which we can practice gratitude. Some of the most effective ones include making a note of every good thing which happens to us every day. Moreover, also note the people behind it.

This will help you to return the favour at an appropriate time. Never forget to return this favour as they deserve it too. Moreover, always make sure to appreciate everything in life ranging from nature to animals .

We are lucky enough to have animals, green plants, fresh air and much more. Thus, never stop acknowledging the importance of these essential things. Moreover, always remember to say thank you to different community helpers.

It can be anyone, whether your gardener or sweeper or even the police officers. Make sure you thank them for their service whenever it is possible for you. Remember that to wake up every day is no less than a blessing itself.

So, make sure to be grateful for a new day and thank the almighty for making you wiser and stronger with each passing day. Most importantly, try to avoid complaining about things when they don’t go your way. You don’t know about the blessing behind it.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of Gratitude Essay

All in all, gratitude is the most essential human expression which proves that humans are sensible and have emotions. Moreover, this emotion does not just limit to humans but also animals. Often, we see then express their gratitude and return the favour. Thus, we must always express our gratitude.

FAQ of Gratitude Essay

Question 1: Why is gratitude important?

Answer 1: Gratitude is strongly and constantly connected with greater happiness. It is what helps people feel more positive emotions, appreciate good experiences, advance their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.

Question 2: How can gratitude change your life?

Answer 2: Gratitude can change your life as it makes you appreciate what you have rather than what you don’t have. It can change your life because it is the single most powerful source of inspiration that any individual can tap into if they simply stop and pay attention to the simplistic beauty and miracle of life.

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

Travelling Essay
Picnic Essay
Our Country Essay
My Parents Essay
Essay on Favourite Personality
Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
Essay on Knowledge is Power
Essay on Gurpurab
Essay on My Favourite Season
Essay on Types of Sports

Download the App

Your Article Library

Essay on attitude: types, functions and measurement.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Essay on Attitude: Types, Functions and Measurement!

A person may possess hundreds and thousands of attitudes, but organisational behaviour focuses our attention on a very limited number of job related attitudes. These attitudes are generally evaluations which employees hold about their work environment. These attitudes may be favourable or unfavourable, positive or negative.

Most of the research in organisational behaviour has been concerned with the following work related attitudes:

1. Job Satisfaction:

The term job satisfaction refers to the general attitude or feelings of an individual towards his job. A person, who is highly satisfied with his job, will have a positive attitude towards the job. On the other hand, a person who is dissatisfied with his job will have a negative attitude about the job. For example, a person who is satisfied with his job will always be punctual, absenteeism will be minimum, performance will be high, his attitude towards his co-workers and boss will also be very positive.

In case of a dissatisfied person, he will generally be late for office, on small pretexts he will absent himself from the job, turnover will be high, performance level will be poor and his behaviour in the organisation will be very good. When people speak of employee attitudes, they invariably relate these with job satisfaction. In fact, these two are used interchangeably, though some differences do exist between these two.

2. Job Involvement:

As compared to job satisfaction, job involvement is a more recent addition to the literature of organisational behaviour. Different authors have given different meanings to this term and there isn’t complete agreement over what the term means. A general definition of job involvement states that job involvement measures Job involvement is the degree to which a person identifies psychologically with his or her job and considers his or her perceived performance level important to self worth.

Employees who have a high level of job involvement very strongly identify with their jobs and really care about the kind of work they do. High degree of involvement just like job satisfaction will lead to less absenteeism and lower resignation rates. However, the research has shown that it seems to more consistently predict turnover than absenteeism. In case of turnover, the research has shown as much as 16% variation in the turnover depending upon the level of job involvement.

3. Organisational Commitment:

The third job attitude that affects the organisation behaviour is the organisational commitment. Organisational commitment is a state in which an employee identifies with a particular organisation and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organisation. In such a setup the employee feels proud of being the employee of a particular organisation. Whereas job involvement refers to identification with one’s specific job, organisational commitment means identifying with one’s employing organisation and its goals.

Sometimes an employee may be involved or attached to his job but may not be committed to the organisation and its objectives. Turnover and absenteeism are low when an employee has organisational commitment. In fact, studies have indicated that organisational commitment is a better indicator of turnover than the far more frequently used job satisfaction predictor.

Sometimes, an employee may be dissatisfied with the job, but he may not be dissatisfied with the organisation as a whole. In such a case, he may stick with the organisation because he may consider it a temporary situation. But once the dissatisfaction spreads to the organisation as a whole, he is most likely to consider resigning from the job.

Functions of Attitudes:

In studying organisational behaviour, it is very important to understand the functions of attitudes : According to California Management Review, 1995, an analysis, based on extensive review of surveys of employers concluded that “the most important consideration in hiring and biggest deficit among new work force entrants are the attitudes concerning work that they bring with them to their new jobs. ” Attitudes can help in predicting human behaviour at work. An understanding of attitudes is also important because attitudes help people adapt to their work environment.

Four Important Functions of Attitudes ( According to D. Katz) :

1. The Adjustment Function:

Attitudes often help people adjust to their work environment. When employees are well treated they are likely to develop a positive attitude towards the management and the organisation, otherwise they are likely to develop a negative attitude towards management and the organisation. These attitudes help employees adjust to their environment and are a basis for future behaviour.

For example, if employees who are well treated are asked about management or the organisation they are likely to say good things. These employees are very loyal to the management also. On the other hand, if the employees are berated or they are given minimum salary increases or they have less job satisfaction, the reverse may be true.

2. The Ego Defensive Function:

Along with the adjustment function, attitudes also help them defend their self images. People often form and maintain certain attitudes to protect their own self images. For example, workers may feel threatened by the employment or advancement of minority or female workers in their organisation. These threatened workers may develop prejudices against the new workers.

They may develop an attitude that such newcomers are less qualified and they might mistreat these workers. This attitude helps the workers protect the ego and is known as an ego defensive attitude. This ego defensive attitude is used by the employees in coping with a feeling of guilt or threat. Unless this feeling is removed, this kind of attitude will Remain unchanged.

3. The Value Expressive Function:

Attitudes provide people with a basis for expressing their values. Our value expressive attitudes are closely related to our self concept. A person, whose value system is centralized on freedom, will have a positive attitude towards decentralization of authority in the organisation, flexible work schedules etc. Another person who is very ambitious will have a positive attitude towards a job which will offer bright future prospects and chances of promotion.

A manager who believes strongly in work ethics will tend to voice attitudes toward specific individuals or work practices as a means of reflecting this value. For example, a supervisor who wants a subordinate to work harder might put it this way “You’ve got to work harder. That has been the tradition of the family since it was founded. It helped get us where we are today and everyone is expected to subscribe to this ethic”. Thus, the attitudes serve as a basis for expressing one’s central value.

4. The Knowledge Function:

Attitudes are often substituted for knowledge. Attitudes help supply standards and frames of reference that allow people to organize and explain the world around them. Regardless of how accurate a person’s view of reality is attitudes towards people, events and objects help the individual make sense out of what is going on. Stereotyping is an example. In the absence of knowledge about a person, we may use a stereotyped attitude for judging the person.

Why should managers know about these attitude functions? Such a knowledge can help the managers in two ways firstly, he will understand and predict how a certain person is likely to behave. Secondly, it can help the management in changing the attitudes of another person. They can do this by changing the conditions that sustain the attitude.

Measurement of Attitudes:

Undoubtedly the attitudes of people tend to be relatively stable but can always be notified at least to some extent. Certain difference in employee’s attitudes is inevitable and is responsible for the effectiveness of individuals within an organisation. There are certain ways by which it is possible for the supervisor and managers to get some inkling of attitudes of individuals such as listening to the chance remarks of individuals, the behaviour of individuals in the work place etc.

A sensitive intuitive supervisor can always get a feeling with respect to the general reaction of his work group even though he cannot pinpoint such reactions specifically. The other way to find attitude change is the analysis of certain factors such as turnover rate, absenteeism and production level. Various methods have been developed for doing this.

A few of these are as explained below:

1. Thurston Attitude Scale:

This method consists of questionnaires which are filled out by the employees.

To develop an attitude scale the following steps are involved:

(i) The first step is to write out a large number of statements, each of which expresses a viewpoint of some kind towards the company.

(ii) Each of these statements is typed on a separate slip of paper and the judge is asked to place each statement in one of several piles (usually 7, 9 or 11) ranging from statement judged to express the least favourable view points to statements judged to express the most favourable viewpoints (7, 9 or 11).

(iii) Statements judged to express varying degrees of favourable-ness in between these extremes are placed in the piles that are judged best to characterize their relative degree of favourable-ness.

(iv) Many judges are used in the process, sometimes as many as 100 or more. These judges are assisting the construction of the scale. They are not having their attitudes measured. The allocation of statements to the several piles is a part of the process of constructing the scale.

The purpose of allocation is to determine the scale value of the various statements. If all judges tend to place a statement in piles towards the favourable then we can conclude that the statement expresses a favourable attitude towards the company. If the statement is placed by the judges in piles towards unfavourable end of the series, then we may conclude that an unfavourable attitude is expressed by that particular statement. So we can determine the average location of the statement by the judge. Statements that are scattered by the judge over several categories are eliminated.

The use of different statements in scales measuring the same attitude helps in checking results by a repeat test in order to be sure of conclusion reached and to measure the effectiveness of systematic company effort to improve employee morale.

2. Likert Scale:

Likert’s method is simpler than Thurstone method and does not require the use of judges in scaling the statements. While a number of different procedures were tried and compared but the simplest method described by Likert was found to give results that correlated very highly with more complex methods.

Each statement has five degrees of approval and asks the person taking the scale to check one of the five degrees:

1. Strongly approved

2. Approved

3. Undecided

4. Disapproved

5. Strongly disapproved.

There are three principal methods of establishing the validity of a measuring device:

(i) Comparing the results obtained from it with those of another device, the validity of which has been established.

(ii) Judgment of experts and

(iii) Internal consistency

The validity of the Likert scale established by a comparison of the same with an already established scale of Thurston is an example of judgment technique adopted.

3. Opinions Surveys:

Attitude scales help to measure the attitudes of individuals by summarising data for all employees within a group, such scale can be used to quantify ‘morale’ of employee groups. Attitude scales can be useful in indicating the relative level of morale of employees group, but these do not enable the management to identify specific factors that may be sources of employee’s unrest or un-satisfaction. This specific information can be obtained by the use of questionnaire that provides for giving opinions about specific matters such as working conditions, future prospects, company policies, perquisites etc. The usual practice in opinion questionnaire is that of obtaining a single response to each question in either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. In particular, the employees may be asked to check each item in one of the three boxes.

IMAGES

⇉Positive Lifestyle and Positive Attitude Essay Example
Attitude And Values In Organisational Behaviour Free Essay Example
≫ Concept of Attitude in Social Psychology Free Essay Sample on
Essay on Positive Thinking
😱 Having a positive attitude essay. Importance Of Positive Attitude
😝 Essay on attitude. Attitude Formation Essay (500 Words). 2022-11-05

VIDEO

Positive Attitude
attitude
attitude
ATTITUDE 😎💯
my self essay 5 lines ✍✍
my school essay 10 lines ✍✍✍

COMMENTS

Essays About Attitude: Top 5 Examples Plus Prompts
1. Attitude changes everything - it can change your life by Kate Darbyshire Evans. "Attitude changes everything. Change your attitude, and you can change your life. You cannot always control what happens to you in life but you can always control how you respond to the challenges or difficult situations you encounter.
Essay on Attitude
Attitude is the mental state of individuals that evaluates objects, people, or events with feelings, interest, liking, desire and so on. It has three components: cognition, affection, and behaviour. The web page explains how attitudes are formed, changed, and influenced by various factors such as persuasion, emotion, and organisational behaviour.
ATTITUDE by Charles Swindoll
ATTITUDE. by. Charles Swindoll "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.
Essay on Attitude: Top 8 Essays
Essay # 1. Meaning and Definition of Attitude: Attitudes are learned predispositions and represent cluster of beliefs, assessed feelings and behavioural intentions towards aspects of our environment like a person, object or event. Attitudes are evaluative statements either favourable or unfavourable concerning objects, people or events and are ...
Attitude Is Everything Essay
Attitude Is Everything Essay. Attitude is Everything Maintaining a positive attitude all through life impacts one's social status, physical health, and long term success. Many people only want to hangout with others that have good attitudes. They also enjoy being in the presence of others who have the ability to lift them up when they are down.
100 Words Essay on Attitude
500 Words Essay on Attitude Understanding Attitude. Attitude is the way you think and feel about something or someone. It is like a mental filter through which you experience the world around you. Your attitude can be positive or negative, and it often affects how you behave. For example, if you have a positive attitude towards studying, you ...
What Is Attitude in Psychology? Definition, Formation, Changes
In psychology, an attitude refers to a set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviors toward a particular object, person, thing, or event. Attitudes are often the result of experience or upbringing. They can have a powerful influence over behavior and affect how people act in various situations. While attitudes are enduring, they can also change.
Essay on Attitude And Values
500 Words Essay on Attitude And Values Introduction to Attitude and Values. Attitude and values are two key concepts that help us understand our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Attitude is the way we think and feel about something or someone. It is like a mental filter through which we experience the world around us.
The Power of Having a Positive Attitude
With a positive attitude, you will have the ability to be happier each and every day, make others around you happier, and live a good life. Below are seven tips that can help you keep your positive attitude going. 1. Put things in perspective.
The aspects of attitude
The definition of attitudes is, "Attitudes is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor" (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, p1). The term is part of our commonsense language, and everyone understands and uses it to express attitude towards religion, racism, work politics and many ...
Attitude: Compilation of Essays on Attitude
Essay # 1. Definition of Attitudes: ADVERTISEMENTS: Attitude has been defined in a number of different ways. Allport (1935) defined an attitude as a "mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all objects and situations with which it is ...
Attitude and Behavior, Essay Example
Attitude defined as the view that one has towards an object. It can either be positive, negative or neutral views towards a person, behavior or event. From the theory, of planned behavior (Hogg & Terry, 2000, p. 31), it supports that the intentions of performing certain behaviors can be predicted by the attitudes that one has towards the ...
Essay on Attitude: Top 6 Essays
Essay on the Importance of Attitude. Essay # 1. Definition of Attitude: Attitude is defined as ones' feelings or mood toward things, circumstances or people. Each individual is made up of various physical, vital, and mental parts. Everyone is having physical body and its organs, muscles, etc; the vital being with its sensations, emotions and ...
Attitude Is Great Essay
Short Essay on Attitude is Great 150 words in English. Attitude is a pattern of behaviour that everyone opts in order to move forward in life. It is a way of living life— could be positive or negative. We all have the choice to lead a life with a right and wrong attitude. Attitude is something that can create a path of success and failure.
Attitude in the Workplace
Negative attitude among employees could be demonstrated by aspects such as impoliteness, unwillingness to share ideas and opinions, being anti-social, failure to adhere to stipulated rules and regulations, complains to the management and constant conflicts among others. Dealing with negative attitude like any other organizational problem ...
Short Essay on Attitude
Attitude is basically how one assesses on factors like people, objects, issues or events. They could either be positive or negative, that depends on how one views the situation. Based on researches, it has been understood that there are several components that makes up a persons attitude. The components could be like for example, an emotional ...
Reviews of research on the attitude-behavior relationship and their
Introduction. Two of the more persistent questions within the field of environmental education (EE) and its research pertain to: (a) the relationship between attitudes (A) and behaviors (B), and (b) the value of educators and researchers focusing their efforts on understanding this relationship (Reid and Dillon Citation 2016a).. On the one hand, many of the goals of the field frequently cite ...
Positive Attitude
Attitude is the foundation of success and it is the result of various trials and odds we have experienced in life, because it also keeps us away from negative emotions, which makes us happier and more satisfied. As a student, it is necessary for me to have positive attitude as it change the way I look and see things and change the way I ...
Essay on Attitude in English (1000 Words)
Essay on Attitude in English (1000 Words) March 9, 2022 by Rashmi Panchal. Our attitude characterizes our mood or behavior towards things, circumstances, and people. All people are composed of various indispensable insights, highlights, mental capacities, and nature. While each individual is comparable in structure, what makes them special is ...
Essay On Positive Thinking in English for Students
FAQ of Essay on Positive Thinking. Question 1: What is positive thinking? Answer 1: Positive thinking is basically an optimistic attitude. In other words, it is the practice of focusing on the good in any given situation. This kind of thinking can have a big impact on your physical and mental health.
Essays on Positive Attitude
Essays on Positive Attitude. Essay examples. Essay topics. 12 essay samples found. Sort & filter. 1 The Power of Optimism: a Key to Success and Well-being . 1 page / 489 words . Introduction Optimism, a disposition characterized by positive expectations and a hopeful outlook on life, has long been recognized as a valuable attribute. College ...
Gratitude Essay in English for Students
500 Words Essay On Gratitude. Gratitude is a beautiful way of enriching our lives. It refers to the feeling and attitude of appreciation and thankfulness for the good which we receive in life. It has been proven scientifically that when we express our gratefulness to other people, we feel happier and calmer. Thus, it allows goodness to enter ...
Essay on Attitude: Types, Functions and Measurement
ADVERTISEMENTS: Essay on Attitude: Types, Functions and Measurement! A person may possess hundreds and thousands of attitudes, but organisational behaviour focuses our attention on a very limited number of job related attitudes. These attitudes are generally evaluations which employees hold about their work environment. These attitudes may be favourable or unfavourable, positive or negative ...

Essays About Attitude: Top 5 Examples Plus Prompts

1. Attitude changes everything – it can change your life by Kate Darbyshire Evans

Attitude Is Everything Essay

Charles Swindolls Attitude

John C. Maxwell's The Difference Maker

Cause And Effect Research Paper

Job Satisfaction At Walden Sport

Uplifting Attitude Research

Dear Miss Breed Character Analysis

Max's Attitude Chapter 9

Man's Search For Meaning By Viktor Frankl

Charles Popplestown Thought

Cichowicz, Stamp, And Adam Pedagogies

The Psychological Theory Of Planned Behaviors

Difference Between Twin Towers Of Attitude And Gratitude

What Is Attitude Essay

Attitude : Which Will You Chose?

Related Topics

The Components of Attitude

Overview of Attitude

How Psychologists Define Attitudes

3 Components of Attitude

Social Factors

Conditioning

Observation

Factors Influencing Attitude Strength

Changing to Match Behavior

Using Cognitive Dissonance

Learning Theory

Elaboration Likelihood Theory

Dissonance Theory

A Word From Verywell

Essay on Attitude And Values

100 Words Essay on Attitude And Values

What are Values?

Link Between Attitude and Values

Importance of Positive Attitude and Values

250 Words Essay on Attitude And Values

The Role of Attitude

The Importance of Values

Attitude and Values Together

500 Words Essay on Attitude And Values

Understanding Attitude

The Role of Values

Connection between Attitude and Values

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Psychology Discussion

Essay on Attitude

Essay # 1. Definition of Attitudes:

Essay # 2. Functions of Attitudes:

Essay # 3. Major Dimensions of Attitudes:

Essay # 4. Formation of Attitudes :

Essay # 5. Measurement of Attitudes:

Essay # 6. Relationship between Attitudes and Actual Behaviour:

Essay # 7. Some Approaches to the Study of Attitudes:

Essay # 8. Ways of Changing Attitude:

Related Articles:

Attitude and Behavior, Essay Example

Related Essay Samples & Examples

Utilitarianism and Its Applications, Essay Example

The Age-Related Changes of the Older Person, Essay Example

The Problems ESOL Teachers Face, Essay Example

Should English Be the Primary Language? Essay Example

The Term “Social Construction of Reality”, Essay Example

Essay on Attitude: Top 6 Essays | Employees | Values | Management

Essay on Attitude

Essay # 1. Definition of Attitude:

Essay # 2. Components of Attitude:

(i) Cognitive Component:

(ii) Effective Component:

(iii) Behavioural Component:

Essay # 3. Types of Attitude:

(i) Positive Attitude:

(ii) Negative Attitude:

Essay # 4. Functions of Attitude:

(i) Adjustment Function:

(ii) Ego-Defensive Function:

(iii) Value-Expressive Function:

(iv) Knowledge Function:

Essay # 5. Methods of Changing Attitude: