Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure.

Attitude is a predisposition or an inclination of an individual's to behave in a particular way towards a person, an event, community, religion or a thing. Attitudes typically have three components.

•The cognitive component is made up of the thoughts and beliefs people hold about the object of the attitude.
•The affective component consists of the emotional feelings stimulated by the object of the attitude.
•The behavioral component consists of predispositions to act in certain ways toward an attitude object.


Thus attitudes are either for or against, pro or con and positive or negative. Thus, it involves judgements.You are judging an event or person when you form an attitude. So, how do we form an attitude?

Well, while answering this question, let’s look at some of the psychological factors that are responsible in forming attitude:

1.Direct instructions: Just pause for a few seconds and think………..how many of us have developed a liking/disliking to a particular place, religion or a person just because we were told about it by our parents, community, friends or some authority figure? Attitudes are mainly formed due to the direct instructions that we have received from others.


2.Conditioned response: All of us tend to repeat behavior which is positively reinforced and inhibit that behavior which is negatively reinforced. So, our behavior and responses are conditioned on the basis of the type of reinforcement that is received. 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. Attitudes can be formed depending upon on pleasant or unpleasant experiences with members of a particular group. For E.g.: During a communal riot, we tend to extend our negativity towards the entire community just because our interaction with a couple of them had been negative.

All of us aware that attitudes once formed remain more or less consistent. Then does it mean that they don’t change at all? Not really… attitudes do change…It should be noted that people always look out for modifying and adopting their attitudes depending upon the needs or requirements. There are some factors which play an important role in bringing about attitude change. The three components – cognitive, behavioral and the affective aspects which are important aspects of an attitude are used to explain the change in the attitudes as well.

Attitudes change when:

1.A person receives new info from others or media- Cognitive change.
2.Through direct experience with the attitude object- Affective change.
3.Force a person to behave in a way different than normal- Behavioral change.
Favoring factors for attitude change:

1.Change in attitude is more likely to occur if the suggestion is accompanied by change in other factors underlying belief and attitude.
2.If the changes are suggested by a person who is perceived as trustworthy or expert by the person receiving it.
3.If the changes to be incorporated is in harmony with valued group norms and loyalties.

We have often have heard others talking about positive attitude and developing positive attitude………what is positive attitude??

Positive attitude simply means having an optimistic outlook towards things be it an event, situation, person or a thing. It means to keep a set of ideas, values and thoughts that tend to look for the good, to advance, to overcome problems, to find the opportunities in every situation; to look, as they say, 'on the bright side of life'. It involves aspects like never give up attitude, being persistent and handling adversities.

The three important steps to develop positive attitude are

1.Awareness: The first step is to be aware of what and how we are thinking. We must train ourselves to be aware at all times of how our mind is working – the thoughts, thinking patterns and tendencies. Make this a habit.

2.Acceptance: Awareness, however, brings about a heightened sensitivity to the issues. We tend to become judgmental and critical of ourselves or of others. This has the danger of sending us into a vicious cycle of negativity UNLESS we learn to accept what we see and understand.

3.Attitude: Once we have accepted what lies within our thoughts, we can actually start working upon how we ‘want’ to look at that particular person, situation or thing. This is very important in attitude change. While developing positive attitude, it is very important to replace all the negative statements with the positive ones and deliberately decide how we want to look at that particular aspect.


Thought provoking sayings:

1.The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
2.The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.
3.Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
4.The only disability in life is a bad attitude.
5.Our attitude to life determines life’s attitude towards us.


Each one of us can choose the attitude we decide to have. So, choose the right attitude and be positive……………………………..