Psychology : Attitude

Attitude

Attitudes have been defined as ideas with emotional content important beliefs, predispositions, biases and appreciations and as state of readiness or set.

Allport has defined attitude

'as a mental and neural state of readiness organized through experiences exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual response to all objects with which it is related'.

Attitudes have intellectual, biological, social emotional components that are derived from experiences and exercise determining influences upon behaviour.

Variety of patterns of attitudes toward health, life and death of people, new situations, music and art, work, play, government, religion and many more have been influenced by the process through planned and random experiences in creating and shaping attitudes.

In this school, family and society play vital roles.

As the growth and development occurs in the infant a changing array of needs bring new reaction to objects and situations.

            An infant, gains pleasure from being helped and protected where as a child in the early period of walking is likely to and resent and reject the helping hand.

            Development changes of this kind produce tremendous change in the child relationship with objects and situations.

            Despite apparent incongruity, the orderly and sequential development of the total organisms, result in threads of continuity of feeling.

            Ordinarily a satisfying state of affairs over and extended period of time, produces a positive feeling in the child for the object or activity involved.

            As the child ' s perceptional field expands, generalization of response becomes possible. An infant who has experienced general pleasure at the breast or bottle is likely to anticipate pleasure from eating other foods.

            Continued dissatisfaction and unpleasantness during nursing are likely to create a negative feeling about eating.

            A child attitudes authority figure, is obviously an important element of socialization and determines much of his behaviour in school

            Early experiences involving the child and his parents are responsible for the beginnings of this attitude. A rebellious attitude towards authority figure teachers, Principal, leader etc.

            May spring from a conflict with some one in authority, usually a parent or a parent substitute .

Another important element in the early development of the attitude toward adult is the satisfaction or dissatisfaction derived from the child' s dependency upon parents particularly the mother figure.

                  Any separation from the family and especially from the mother is for a young child a painfull and distressing experience, which is not tolerable before he has acquired the concepts of time and space.

                  Such an experience in children under three years of age, usually brings a change in the relationship with adults too.

                  Separation over a period of time accompanied by depriving of needs is likely to produce incapacity to achieve close and intimate human relationship.

                  The attitude of the child toward the teacher is strongly influenced by the following elements of mother child relationship.

            Satisfying experiences with mother.

            Mother ' s experience and what she expected of the child.

3) Mother' s attitudes towards other children in the family.

                  The parental attitude of acceptant democratic seems to facilitate growth and development more than the others.

                  These children from the home atmosphere of warmth and equality have an accelerated intellectual development are more original, emotionally more secured, less excitable, popular, friendly and non aggressive.

Attitude has four dimensions intensity, direction, extensity and duration. Extensity of an attitude is evidenced by the extent to which it motivates an individual' s behaviour.

Limits of interest can be determined by the nature of barriers needed to exhibit a response.

Behaviour motivated by a weak attitude can be the thwarted by the obstacle that seem to have very little actual substance, but an intense attitude is likely to find expression in behaviour despite almost over-whelming obstacles.

The dimension of an attitude is observed in behaviour as a force that repels, attracts or fails to motivate the child in any direction as in the case of an I DON' T PARTICULARLY CARE attitude.

Although behaviour in a given direction frequently indicates directly related attitude, there are numerous occasions when the opposite interpretation is in order.

An individual having a negative attitude towards a given group may join them outwardly seeming to have a positive attitude. But by the very subtle means brings about disruption and chaos in the group or divert it from its goal.

Extensity is observed in a broad survey of pattern of attitude within the individual.

Some attitudes seem to have broad and pervading influences. The duration of an attitude is another aspect that is important to education .

A function of education is the modification of existing negative attitude and creation of new ones that are positive and enduring attitudes may endure only for a short time, because they have not been reinforced by experiences.

Infact new experiences may bring about a complete reverse of the previous attitudes. Attitudes are changed by school experiences. They may be changed by the influence of a particular teacher, another child, peer groups, a single event, curriculum material or a series of extracurricular events.

A desirable attitude toward learning will be maintained if

                  The thing to be learned is not too far removed from past learning' s.

                  The learning situations are made physically and intellectually attractive to the learner.

The knowledge of skill to be acquired is perceived as a need satisfier.

                  The concomitant experiences do not appear to be more immediate goal satisfiers.

                  Learning in an accompanied by a feeling of achievement reinforced by recognition from others.