ATTITUDE

Attitude can be defined as a relatively stable cluster of beliefs, feelings, intentions to act in a specific manner towards a given object. Note that attitudes are relatively stable, i.e. they do not change minute-to-minute or day-by-day. It is an overall judgement of the object based on your beliefs, feelings and behavioural intentions towards the object. Beliefs This refers to your knowledge-based description or evaluation of the object. !ample" #a$ %&y boyfriend is short-tempered' #description$ #b$ %&y girlfriend is the most impatient girl I (now' #evaluation$ Assessed )eelings This refers to your positive or negative emotive evaluation of the object based on your overall feelings towards it. !ample" #a$ %I feel stressed when I am with my boyfriend' #b$ %I disli(e spending time with my girlfriend' Behavioural Intentions This refers to how you are motivated to act based on the beliefs and assessed feelings towards the object. !ample" %I want to brea( up with my boyfriend*girlfriend.' Based on the e!amples above, loo(ing at your beliefs, assessed feelings and behavioural intentions regarding your boyfriend*girlfriend, one would conclude that you have a negative attitude towards your boyfriend*girlfriend. Behaviour: +our attitude towards an object influences how you will act when the object is presented to you. In this case, since you have a negative attitude towards your boyfriend*girlfriend, you might pretend that you have e!tra classes when he*she as(s you out to avoid spending time with him*her. The action that you ta(e #i.e. pretend that you have e!tra classes$ is called %behaviour. Behavioural Intention & Behaviour: Note that in this e!ample, your behavioural intention is to brea( up with your boyfriend*girlfriend. ,owever, you might not have the courage to do so and hence you would avoid him*her instead #behaviour$. There might be many reasons #such as lac( of courage$ why a person might not act out their behavioural intentions.