Q.Define attitude. Discuss the components of an attitude.

An attitude is a state of mind, a set of views or thoughts about some topic (the 'attitude object') that carries an evaluative feature (positive, negative or neutral), together with an emotional colouring and a tendency to act in a certain way toward that object. Every attitude has three components, jointly called the A-B-C components. The affective (A) component is the emotional or feeling part (liking or disliking). The behavioural or conative (B) component is the tendency to act in a particular way toward the object. The cognitive (C) component is the thought or belief part. For a 'green environment' attitude, feeling happy at greenery is affective, actually joining a plantation drive is behavioural, and believing greenery is good is cognitive.

What an attitude is

Social psychologists point out that all of us form attitudes, that is, ways of thinking about specific topics and people. All definitions of attitude agree that an attitude is a state of the mind — a set of views or thoughts regarding some topic (called the attitude object) that has an evaluative feature: it can be positive, negative or neutral in quality. This evaluation is accompanied by an emotional component and by a tendency to act in a particular way toward the attitude object. This is what distinguishes attitudes from mere opinions: opinions are simply ways of thinking, but when our views also carry emotional and action tendencies, they become attitudes.

Attitudes are close to, but distinct from, beliefs and values. Beliefs form the cognitive ground on which attitudes stand (for example, belief in God). Values are attitudes or beliefs that contain a 'should' or 'ought' aspect (such as moral or ethical ideas like 'one should be honest'); because a value becomes an inseparable part of a person's outlook, values are difficult to change.

The three components (A-B-C)

• Affective (A) — the emotional component: the feelings a person has toward the attitude object, such as liking or disliking, happiness or anger. Example: feeling happy on seeing greenery, and sad or angry on seeing trees cut down.
• Behavioural or conative (B) — the action tendency: the tendency to act or behave in a particular way with regard to the object. Example: actually taking part in a tree-plantation campaign. Note that this is a tendency to behave, not the behaviour itself.
• Cognitive (C) — the thought component: the beliefs, views or thoughts about the object, along with the evaluative (positive/negative) aspect. Example: holding the view, on the basis of information, that a 'green environment' is good.

Taken together these are called the A-B-C components (Affective-Behavioural-Cognitive). In general we expect the three to be consistent with one another, that is, in the same direction, but this is not always so — the cognitive component may be strong while the affective or behavioural components are weaker. Hence predicting one component from the other two need not always give the correct picture.

Other features of attitudes

Besides the three components, attitudes have four significant features: valence (how positive or negative the attitude is), extremeness (how far toward an extreme it lies), simplicity or complexity (multiplexity) (how many 'member' attitudes lie within a broader attitude), and centrality (the role a particular attitude plays within the whole attitude system).