Positive Attitudes
Everyone has opinions, and that is a great thing! There are so many different concepts and ideas in our world that we form our beliefs about them over time from many different sources and we use those to guide our decisions. Attitudes involve a set of emotions and beliefs toward a concept that influence our behavior and tend to be enduring. Sometimes our attitudes are personal and trivial, such as what toppings we put on our pizza or what music we like to listen to. Our attitudes towards country music, let’s say, may stem from what music our parents played for us as children. If they enjoyed it, we may have a positive attitude towards it. If we heard it being made fun of, we may join in and hold a negative attitude towards it- turning it off when it plays on the radio and mocking it. Sometimes our opinions can be controversial, and these opinions tend to be consciously formed over time and can be very difficult to change or let go. Examples of these tend to be our political, ideological, or religious beliefs- we form these typically early on from our experiences with the world and from hearing the beliefs of our parents, we adapt slightly as we meld these influences together, and then we go out into the world with them formed and typically unshakeable.
Attitudes are “a learned tendency to evaluate things in a certain way”. We evaluate or judge phenomena and objects in a positive or negative way based on three components. The cognitive component of attitude involves our thoughts and beliefs towards a concept, the affective component involves how the particular concept makes us feel, and the behavioral component involves how it then influences our behavior. For example, let’s say that we pass a store that smells like very strong vanilla perfume. We may like the scent of vanilla, so it may initially appeal to our senses. However, it happens to be extremely strong in this particular store, causing us to feel nauseous. Thus, we leave the store early due to the belief that the perfume is too strong and is what is causing our ailment. This example is an explicit attitude- as we are consciously aware of the situation, our choices, and our beliefs. Implicit attitudes are unconscious and affect our behavior differently. Sometimes implicit attitudes can be very prejudiced, and we change our actions and beliefs based on incorrect and harmful stereotypes or generalizations that we hear and do not correct through education.
Our attitudes are formed through our experiences! If you lose a loved one in a car accident, for example, you may have a very strong attitude towards safe driving that you hold onto and convince yourself and others to maintain. Sometimes our attitudes form from direct observation- such as a person deciding alcohol is bad because they see how it changes their relative’s behavior for the worse and the person decides they never want to be like that. Sometimes our attitudes may be predetermined and we do not have much of a “choice” in what they end up being, such as the commonly shared beliefs that children should be protected, criminals should be punished, and that cannibalism is wrong. We are taught many things by our parents or schools as facts that may not be, such as religious or political ideals that we may come to challenge later on, but as children these may strongly influence our attitudes and may become forever present in our implicit attitudes. Racism, for example, may be taught to a child early on in life. Even as the child grows older and begins correcting those things, they may find that some of those earlier things stay ingrained and must be fought away aggressively. Conditioning is another way our attitudes are formed. A great example is through the media or advertising- if we see something portrayed in a positive light that appeals to us we are most likely to think that the subject is positive as well, and we extend that attitude towards it as well.
Our attitudes are most likely to change when we find ourselves experiencing cognitive dissonance and cannot find a middle ground. Cognitive dissonance is where our thoughts or beliefs no longer line up due to new circumstances, which causes us stress. For example, let’s say you’ve always had a negative attitude towards cats and hate them. Then, you meet the love of your life and all seems well, except she has eight cats. Your negative opinion towards cats now interferes with your love for this person and complete happiness in the situation, and so your brain forces you to either change your attitude towards the cats (meaning you now tolerate cats) or towards the relationship (meaning you decide it isn’t the right relationship after all and you end it).
Attitudes are the cause of the majority of our behaviors, so it is important to make sure that we have more positive than negative attitudes, attitudes that don’t harm others, and that we form our attitudes based on facts as much as possible, and we are willing to change them when we find they are no longer correct. This can be very hard for people who do not like to be wrong or told otherwise, causing them to ignore the truth and cling to their incorrect attitudes even stronger, which can have very bad results. Surrounding yourself with people who both share and challenge your opinions and beliefs can be very beneficial for your attitudes and behaviors, and being sure to raise your children with the ability to critically think is a great way to make sure that our society can continue to grow and flourish in the right directions.
Kyndal Sims
Birch Psychology
Resources
https://www.verywellmind.com/attitudes-how-they-form-change-shape-behavior-2795897
http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/social-psychology/attitudes/attitude-formation/
https://opentextbc.ca/socialpsychology/chapter/changing-attitudes-by-changing-behavior/
