NATURE OF ATTITUDE

Introduction

When someone verbalizes an attitude, it is called an opinion, and we hear words such as ‘like’, ‘dislike’, ‘really don’t care’. In our next conversation with a friend or family member, notice how many times these words, or similar words, are used. They indicate that an attitude is being expressed. As attitudes are ‘mental positions’, they cannot be observed directly. Marketers must infer attitudes through research methods that require consumers to express opinions. Attitude towards any object. A person's attitude is "the relatively stable overt behavior which affects his status"

Defining Attitude

There are many different definitions of ‘attitude’, however, that advanced by Schiffman and Kanuk contains most of the major concepts: a learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way with respect to a given object (1996). The main characteristics of attitudes are indicated by the key words in the definition: learned, predisposition, behave.

Remember that attitudes occur within a situation and that the situation can, and will, influence the relationship between attitude and behavior. A consumer can have different attitudes towards the same product depending on the situation.

The main characteristics of attitudes are:

• Attitudes are learned from personal experience, information provided by others, and market controlled sources, in particular exposure to mass media.

• Attitudes are predispositions. A predisposition is an inclination or tendency towards something; attitudes have motivational qualities.

• Attitudes have a relationship with behavior. For marketers, the behavior of primary interest is product purchase. Remember, however, that we are not suggesting or assuming a causal relationship.

• Attitudes are consistent. However, this does not necessarily mean that they are permanent; attitudes can change.

• Attitudes are directed towards an object and are very specific reactions to that object. For example, you like ‘x’ but you don’t like ‘y’. The term ‘object’ includes specific consumption- or marketing-related concepts, such as product, product category, brand, service, possessions, product use, advertisement, price, medium, or retailer (Schiffman and Kanuk, 1996).

Social psychologists have given various definitions of the concept.

Most of them view attitudes as:

A complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways; "he had the attitude that work was fun"

Position: The arrangement of the body and its limbs; "he assumed an attitude of surrender"

A theatrical pose created for effect; "The actor struck just the right attitude" Attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's like or dislike for an

item. Attitudes are positive, negative or neutral views of an "attitude object": i.e. a person, behavior or event. ...

The position of the body or way of carrying oneself; Disposition or state of mind; A negative, irritating, or irritated attitude; The orientation of an aircraft or other vehicle relative to the horizon, direction of motion etc Mental disposition, usual frame of mind. Attitudes are subsumed into the abilities. For example, the ability to interact socially requires certain attitudes.

The way in which people think and behave towards each other and things.A personal motivational predisposition to respond to persons, situations, or events in a given manner that can, nevertheless, be changed or modified through training as a sort of mental shortcut to decision making.

An attitude is "a process of individual consciousness which determines real or possible activity of the individual in the social world"

Attitudes are evaluative statement favorable or unfavorable related to person, object or event. They reflect that how one feel about something. For example if someone says that I like my job. This statement expresses his attitude towards his job. Each and every person has different attitude at different conditions.

There are three components of attitude:

According to fieldman & carl Smith:

“An attitude towards any object, idea or a person is an enduring system with a cognitive component, an affective component and behavioral tendency.”

1. Cognitive Component What you think. 2. Effective Component What you feel. 3. Behavioral Component What you do.

1: Cognitive Component:

It refers that's part of attitude which is made up of the thoughts and beliefs people hold about the object of the attitude. for example, he says smoking is injurious to health. Such type of idea of a person is called cognitive component of attitude.

2: Effective component:

This part of attitude is related to the statement which affects another person. For example, in an organization a personal report is given to the general manager. In report he point out that the sale staff is not performing their due responsibilities. The general manager forwards a written notice to the marketing manager to negotiate with the sale staff.

3: Behavioral Component:

The behavioral 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 production and launching process the product. Report is prepared by the production department which consists of there intention in near future and long run and this report is handed over to top management for the decision.

FORMATION OF ATTITUDEAttitude is not be solid, it can be change with the passage of time, with the requirements of the environment. The formation of attitude not be completed in one day, it is a slowly process. We have many factors that formatted the attitudes.

There are two major factors these are:

1) Psychological factors2) Personal Experience

1: Psychological factors

Psychological factors involved in Attitude Formation and Attitude Change

1. Direct Instruction Direction instruction involves being told what attitudes to have by parents, schools, community organizations, religious doctrine, friends, etc.

2. Operant Conditioning Operant conditioning is a simple form of learning. It is based on the “Law of Effect” and involves voluntary responses. Behaviors (including verbal behaviors and maybe even thoughts) tend to be repeated if they are reinforced (i.e., followed by a positive experience). Conversely, behaviors tend to be stopped when they are punished (i.e., followed by an unpleasant experience). Thus, if one expresses, or acts out an attitude toward some group, and this is reinforced by one’s peers, the attitude is strengthened and is likely to be expressed again. The reinforcement can be as subtle as a smile or as obvious as a raise in salary. Operant conditioning is especially involved with the behavioral component of attitudes.

3. Classical Conditioning

Classical conditionings another simple form of learning. It involves involuntary responses and is acquired through the pairing of two stimuli. Two events that repeatedly occur close together in time become fused and before long the person responds in the same way to both events. Originally studied by Pavlov, the process requires an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that produces an involuntary (reflexive) response (UCR). If a neutral stimulus (NS) is paired, either very dramatically on one occasion, or repeatedly for several acquisition trials, the neutral stimulus will lead to the same response elicited by the unconditioned stimulus. At this point the stimulus is no longer neutral and so is referred to as a conditioned stimulus (CS) and the response has now become a learned response and so is referred to as a conditioned response (CR). In Pavlov’s research the UCS was meat powder which led to an UCR of salivation. The NS was a bell. At first the bell elicited no response from the dog, but eventually the bell alone caused the dog to salivate. Advertisers create positive attitudes towards their products by presenting attractive models in their ads. In this case the model is the UCS and our reaction to him, or her, is an automatic positive response. The product is the original NS which through pairing comes to elicit a positive conditioned response. In a similar fashion, pleasant or unpleasant experiences with members of a particular group could lead to positive or negative attitudes toward that group. Classical conditioning is especially involved with the emotional, or affective, component of attitudes.

4. Social (Observational) Learning Social (observational) learning is based on modeling. We observe others. If they are getting reinforced for certain behaviors or the expression of certain attitudes, this serves as vicarious reinforcement and makes it more likely that we, too, will behave in this manner or express this attitude. Classical conditioning can also occur vicariously through observation of others.

5. Unconscious Motivation. Some attitudes are held because they serve some unconscious function for an individual. For example, a person who is threatened by his homosexual feelings may employ the defense mechanism of reaction formation and become a crusader against homosexuals. Or, someone who feels inferior may feel somewhat better by putting down a group other than her own. Because it is unconscious, the person will not be aware of the unconscious motivation at the time it is operative, but may become aware of it as some later point in time.

6. Rational Analysis Rational analysis involves the careful weighing of evidence for, and against, a particular attitude. For example, a person may carefully listen to the presidential debates and read opinions of political experts in order to decide which candidate to vote for in an election.

2: Personal Experiences

People also learnt attitude through their personal experience. They adopted good attitude by their personal experience.

There are some factors that describe the personal experience. These are:

1. Reducing Surplus Information2. Personal Interest3. Needs satisfaction4. Solution of problems5. Previous experience6. Isolated events7. Reliable personality8. Parent’ s influence9. Teacher’ s influence10. Mass Communication11. Stereotype Attitude

Reducing Surplus Information

Every person has lot of information. Which some are necessary or some are unnecessary. Some people reducing surplus information and format good attitude with necessary information.

Personal Interest

People learned attitude through pleasant and unpleasant thing by their personal interest.

Needs Satisfaction

The things or person that fulfill our desire or needs us format a positive attitude towards. The thing and person that not fulfill our desires and needs so we built negative attitude towards.

Solution Of Problems

Attitude also developed during solving problems because attitudes are relatively stable and enduring disposition’ so they are helpful to solving problems in future.

Previous Experience

Our previous experience provides us a base format good attitude for future.

Isolated Events

Some times’ a single incident provide us a base for negative attitude.

Reliable Personality

When we know about liking and disliking of our favorite personality. We also copied his liking and disliking. So’ we can say that reliable personality influenced on our attitude.

Parent’s Influence

Early in our life parents are the source of our attitudes. As we grew up sources are multiply.

Teacher’s Influence

Teachers are role model for their students. Students copy their teachers. The student’s attitude influenced by their teacher’s talking style, dressing style, walking style etc

Mass Communication

Mass communication is also influenced on our attitudes. In modern age we have two types of mass communications. These are:

1. Print Media2. Electric Media

Mass communication is specially used in different categories for changing and formatting attitudes.