attitude |
Working Definition:
"An attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon te individual's respone to all objections and situations with which it is related." (Gordon Allport, "Attitudes in the History of Social Psychology.")
Disciplinary Definitions:
Attitude is the “evaluation of people, objects, and ideas” (Aronson, Social Psychology, et. al., 1999, 238).
Comments:
I frequently use the terms "attitude" and "competence" to translate Oakschott's distinction between self-enactment and self-disclosure. (See motive.)
Attitudes might be considered as the emotional valence (negative/positive) that belongs to dispositions. Dispositions reveal whether we are attracted to, or repulsed by someone, something, some idea.
Attitudes can be conditioned. People may be lead to change their attitudes if they are exposed to situations wherein something or someone they dislike is continuously present in circumstances they enjoy. Or, "in opertant conditioning, behaviors that people freely choose to perform increase or decrease in frequency, depending on whether they are followed by positive reinforcement or punishment." Aronson, Social Psychology, 240
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last revised:
June 13, 2007
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