What is an attitude in psychology? Concept, structure, examples

Story

The concept arose after a study by W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki was published in 1918.
Scientists analyzed letters from people who emigrated from Poland to the United States. It turned out that when emigrants went to a foreign country, having determined for themselves that this was a temporary need to earn money, the period of their adaptation passed slowly and, one might say, even painfully. They had a hard time learning the language and culture and for a long time they could not get along in the new place. But there were also those who moved with the idea of staying in the country forever and starting life anew. And such individuals adapted to unusual conditions much faster and more productively.

As a result of these observations, the researchers concluded that each individual consciously or subconsciously forms an internal attitude towards his own presence in the United States. And existence and motivation depend on it. This phenomenon is called “attitude”.

But this was only the beginning of studying this issue. In 1929, Lewis Thurstone created the first ways to measure installations. He began to assert the presence of an emotional factor in its structure.

There were also opposing opinions. For example, scientist V. Park believed that the state is not subject to direct observation. It is latent in nature and develops through life experience.

Besides this, there were many other theories. But the work of W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki gave impetus to their emergence and development and made the phenomenon central to psychology.

The concept of social attitude

Defining this term is not the easiest task. Discussing in Capital about such a phenomenon as the “commodity”, Karl Marx joked that it was not clear from which side to take it. The same is true with attitude. I'll go from the beginning.

From the very beginning, the concept represented the psychophysiological readiness of the human body to react to certain aspirations and stimuli. Researchers such as L. Lange, and later T. Schumann and G. Müller noticed that when an individual does the same thing, he develops a predisposition to react to a certain external event.

Around the beginning of the 20th century, the term began to be used in various branches of psychology, in particular depth. K. Jung considered this phenomenon fundamental in order to reveal the mental and mental state that influences specific types of his behavior.

But the simplest and most understandable definition was given by the same Thomas and Znaniecki. In their opinion, the social attitude of an individual is the assimilation of a certain social value, which, in essence, is its subjective awareness. In other words, it is a generally accepted norm in the form of individual existence.

Let's take freedom, for example. Each individual perceives and follows it in his own way. Therefore, a person’s attitudinal state in relation to this phenomenon will be personal.

Therefore, we can say that this is a unique form of relationship between the individual and society. At the same time, it represents both a detail of the mental structure of an individual participant and an element of a system of generally accepted values.

What is the psychological attitude of the individual?

Every thought that flashes through our heads, every phrase that we mentally repeat to ourselves, every statement or judgment we make about ourselves is our psychological attitudes.

Psychological attitudes can be long-term or short-term.

Attitudes depend on our mood, well-being, attitude towards ourselves or something, our beliefs, principles, worldview and even our desires. So, if you want to change your life today, then you can use one or another psychological attitude.

There are also psychological attitudes of the individual that contribute to its self-development.

Every psychological attitude is a command given to your brain

Psychological attitudes influence your way of thinking and focus your attention on the fulfillment of a particular desire. Setting up for success

Psychological attitudes are formed both unconsciously and consciously

When you have formed any idea about yourself, you strive - completely unconsciously - to communicate with those people, read those books, watch those films that confirm your beliefs. You can consciously use the possibilities of psychological attitudes to change your way of thinking. Change minus to plus

Formation of the psychological attitude of the individual

This process involves speaking out your desired ideas about yourself. Almost like in the movie “The Most Charming and Attractive.”

Wanting to become charming and attractive, you seem to convince yourself that this is so through regular repetitions of a certain phrase. These phrases are called affirmations, or psychological attitudes. You give a certain task to yourself and your brain to become what you want to become. Or the way you imagine yourself

When forming psychological attitudes, it is important that they do not contain tasks that you are not able to complete. Or those that, by your nature, do not correspond to you at all. One of the functions of psychological attitudes is the development of a harmonious personality, which is why it is so important to choose affirmations that do not contradict your inner self.

Make sure you are in a good mood when you say this or that affirmation. If you are tired or in a bad mood, use the setting that best suits your condition.

When speaking affirmations, it is very important what you feel at that moment. Each attitude that you pronounce should evoke a pleasant feeling in your soul. And after saying the installation, you should feel better.

Choose one or two settings. Don't use the same ones all the time, but change them regularly so that you can feel which affirmations make you feel good and are most consistent with your goals.

You can create your own personal psychological attitude, or you can use the general ones.

Approximate psychological attitudes of the individual

"My actions are consistent with my thoughts"
“I live in harmony with nature and myself”
“I am full of creative ideas that bring joy and happiness to people.”

• I am full of self-confidence and believe in my abilities. • All events that happen in my life are for my benefit. • I am full of strength and energy.

• I will definitely achieve all my goals. • My inner strength and self-confidence are growing every day. • I am successful in everything. • I enjoy all events that can teach me something new.

Other psychological attitudes

I remember the values that are important to me.
I know what I want and how to achieve it.
I make decisions with confidence.
I am happy and successful in work and personal life.
I myself create positive events in my life.

• I hear my inner voice clearly and distinctly. • I am grateful to fate and happy to be alive.

When choosing a setup, use your intuition. After all, the affirmation that causes a pleasant feeling is correct for you.

Recite the mental attitude for five minutes over and over again. Feel its positive impact on your personality, how it contributes to the realization of your potential.

Talk about a setting that suits you throughout the day as often as possible. Repeat it before going to bed and in the morning immediately after waking up. Just smile and mentally say one of the psychological attitudes several times.

Psychological attitudes or affirmations?

Affirmations are one of the best and most effective methods of combating indecision and doubt. Use attitudes especially when negative thoughts begin to overwhelm you.

Doubts are also just thoughts. Doubts gain strength and power over you only when you focus on them. So are affirmations.

There is no need to fight doubts. It’s better to cast doubt aside as if it has nothing to do with you. Instead of doubting, say your favorite psychological attitude several times and smile.

A person decides for himself which thoughts to allow and which to discard. With the help of a psychological attitude, you essentially control your life.

Abstract on psychology “Social attitudes”

Branch of the State Autonomous Professional

educational institution of the Republic of Khakassia

"AGRICULTURAL TECHNIQUE"

ABSTRACT

Social attitudes of the individual according to V. A. Yadov

Master of Industrial Training: Redkina Tatyana Leonidovna

Kopyovo, 2019

The problem of attitude in social psychology actually occupies a very important place, since it is the formation of numerous individual attitudes that makes it possible to determine how the social experience acquired in the process of socialization is refracted by the individual and specifically manifests itself in his actions and actions. It is through this attitude that it is possible to resolve the issue of regulating human behavior and activity.

The formation of the concept of social attitude should be considered in the development of two traditions: domestic general psychology and Western social psychology.

Dmitry Nikolaevich Uznadze and his students consider attitude as a primary holistic undifferentiated state that precedes conscious mental activity and underlies behavior. Individual acts of behavior, all mental activity, are phenomena of secondary origin. An attitude is a mediating formation between the influence of the environment and mental processes that explains human behavior, his emotional and volitional processes, i.e. acts as a determinant of any activity of the body. Thus, thinking (as well as creative imagination, work, etc.) arises in a situation of difficulty in acts of behavior caused by a certain attitude, when the complication of the situation makes it necessary to make this difficulty a special object of study.

Types of attitudes: diffuse, motor, sensory, mental, social - readiness to perceive and act in a certain way.

In Western social psychology, the term “attitude” is used to denote social attitudes, which in Russian literature is translated either as “social attitude” or is used as a copy of the English attitude. For the term “installation” (in the sense that was given to it in the school of D.N. Uznadze) there is another designation in English - “set”. The study of attitudes is a completely independent line of research that does not follow the development of set ideas and has become one of the most developed areas of social psychology. The current situation in American research on attitude issues is characterized by an abundance of mini-theories (Shikhirev) and the absence of any generalizing theoretical concept.

The term “attitude” was proposed in 1918 by the American sociologist and social psychologist William Isaac Thomas and the greatest sociologist of the 20th century, Florian Witold Znaniecki. Later, many definitions of this concept were developed, after 10-12 years there were more than 100 of them, but all researchers’ understanding of attitude included the following: attitude is an individual’s psychological experience of the value, significance, meaning of a social object. Attitudes are an evaluative attitude because they contain a positive or negative reaction to something. This state is formed on the basis of previous experience; it necessarily has a guiding and dynamic influence on human behavior.

The attitude serves to satisfy some important needs of the subject, but it was necessary to establish which ones. Four functions of attitudes were identified:

adaptive (sometimes called utilitarian, adaptive) - the attitude directs the subject to those objects that serve to achieve his goals;
knowledge function - attitude gives simplified instructions regarding the method of behavior in relation to a specific object;
function of expression (sometimes called the function of value, self-regulation) - attitude acts as a means of freeing the subject from internal tension, expressing oneself as an individual;
protection function - attitude contributes to the resolution of internal conflicts of the individual.

The attitude is able to perform all these functions because it has a complex structure.

Later, in 1942, Brewster M. Smith finds three components in the structure of attitude: cognitive, affective and behavioral (conative). In his opinion, a social attitude is nothing more than awareness, evaluation and readiness to act.

The affective component of attitudes is prejudice. The essence of prejudice is a negative preconceived opinion about a group and its individual members. Although some definitions of prejudice also refer to positive bias, the term “prejudice” is almost always used to refer to negative tendencies. Gordon Allport, in his classic work The Nature of Prejudice, called prejudice "an antipathy based on an erroneous and inflexible generalization."

Racial and gender prejudices have been studied most thoroughly.

Thanks to the mobility of people and the migration processes that have marked the last two centuries, the races inhabiting the world have mixed, and their relationships are sometimes hostile and sometimes friendly. However, surveys even today reveal people who are not without prejudices. Agreeing or disagreeing with the statement “I am likely to feel uncomfortable dancing with a black gentleman (a black lady) in a public place” provides a more accurate picture of a white person's racial attitudes than agreeing or disagreeing with the statement “I am likely to , I will feel awkward if a black person (black woman) is on the bus with me.” Many people who have a very favorable attitude towards “national diversity” at work or in an educational institution, nevertheless spend their free time in the company of people of their own race, choosing their lovers and life partners among them. This helps explain why, according to a survey of students at 390 colleges and universities, 53% of African Americans feel excluded from “social contact.” (24% of Asian Americans, 16% of Mexican Americans, and 6% of European Americans reported this.) And the problem with this majority-minority relationship is not just that the majority is white and the minority is people of color. On NBA basketball teams, white players (and in this case they are the minority) feel a similar disconnect from their teammates.

Prejudice and discriminatory behavior can be not only overt, but also hidden behind some other motives. In France, Great Britain, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands, vulgar racism is being replaced by disguised racial prejudices in the form of exaggeration of ethnic differences, less favorable attitudes towards emigrants from national minorities and discrimination against them on supposedly non-racial grounds. Some researchers call this hidden racism "modern racism" or "cultural racism."

The cognitive component of attitudes is represented by stereotypes. The term is taken from printing - a stereotype literally means an imprint. The eminent journalist Walter Liepmann, who in 1922 first introduced the term stereotype and described the difference between reality and stereotypes, called them “the little pictures that we carry in our heads.”

Stereotypes can be both positive and negative; in fact, people often hold positive stereotypes about groups against which they have negative prejudices. For example, people who dislike fellow citizens of Asian descent may nevertheless consider them intelligent and well-mannered.

The reasons for the emergence of stereotypes are usually a lack of knowledge, dogmatic upbringing, underdevelopment of the individual, or a stop for some reason in the processes of its development.

Stereotypes are generalized ideas about a group of people and that, as such, they can be true, false, or overgeneralized relative to the “rational grain” they contain. Stereotypes are useful and necessary as a form of economy of thinking and action in relation to fairly simple and stable objects and situations, adequate interaction with which is possible on the basis of familiar and experience-confirmed ideas.

According to gender stereotypes, men and women differ in their socio-psychological characteristics. Most people are of the opinion that men are characterized by such qualities as independence, self-reliance, emotional restraint, efficiency and professionalism, while women are characterized by softness, emotionality, indecisiveness, helplessness, and dependence. The assessment of all these qualities included in gender stereotypes is ambiguous and depends on the ideological and attitudinal positions of a person.

Indeed, the average man and woman differ somewhat from each other in such parameters as sociability, empathy, social influence, aggressiveness and sexual initiative, but not in intelligence. However, individual differences between men and women vary widely, and it is not uncommon for stereotypes to be misused altogether. Moreover, gender stereotypes often exaggerate differences that are actually minor;

Less noticeable, but perhaps no less powerful, is the effect of a person's awareness that others hold negative prejudices and stereotypes about the group to which he or she belongs. Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson hypothesized that stereotype threat—the fear of confirming the negative stereotypes of others—makes it difficult for a person to perform a task at the level of his or her true capabilities. In a series of experiments undertaken to test this idea, students were asked to answer difficult questions taken from the oral section of a final exam. Black students performed worse than their abilities on a task, but only if their race was made visible and they were convinced that a poor answer would confirm the cultural stereotype that blacks are inferior to whites in their intelligence.

The behavioral component of the attitude manifests itself in discrimination. Discrimination generally refers to the unfair treatment of others based on their group membership. Prejudice and discrimination are processes that occur at the individual level. When similar processes occur at the group or organizational level, they are called various "isms" and institutional discrimination.

Jane Eliot, an American educator and anti-racist, became world famous after she invented a psychological experiment showing the groundlessness and complete unfoundedness of racial discrimination. On April 5, 1968, she began the lesson by asking the children what they thought about blacks. The children began to respond, mostly citing various racial stereotypes, such as that all blacks are mentally retarded, or that they are unable to do any kind of work. Then Jane asked the children if they wanted to know what it was like to be black and they agreed. Eliot divided the students into two groups - children with light, blue eyes were placed in the privileged group, and children with dark, brown eyes were placed in the oppressed caste. On the day of the experiment, the Blue Eyes were allowed to play in the new gymnasium, they could get a second helping for lunch, their recess was extended by five minutes, and Eliot praised them for their diligence and good answers in class. The other group, on the contrary, was deprived of all these privileges and, in addition, Eliot tied ribbons around the necks of all brown-eyed students. On the very first day, the results of the experiment were stunning - the blue-eyed people began to behave arrogantly and arrogantly, treating representatives of the other group with disdain. The grades of blue-eyed students improved, even those students who had previously performed worse. With the brown-eyed ones, the situation was completely opposite - they became quiet and submissive, even those who had previously shown dominant positions in the class. They couldn't cope with simple tasks that previously didn't cause any difficulties. The next day, Jane conducted the same experiment, but switched the groups' roles. And the same situation repeated again - the previously servile and quiet brown-eyed people now began to be caustic and mocking towards the blue-eyed ones, and they, in turn, no longer showed the arrogance that they had shown the day before, having become humiliated and depressed. At 14:30 Jane stopped the experiment - she allowed the blue-eyed ones to remove the ribbons from their necks and the children rushed into each other's arms crying.

Jane then conducted a series of similar experiments in subsequent years with other children. Her experiments caused heated debate among educators and psychologists and brought understanding of the racial problem to a new level. The experiment showed that backwardness, failure and other unfavorable characteristics of dark-skinned racial groups are caused not by their original origin, but by their oppression by the dominant race.

Racism, sexism, ageism are just a few examples of the many prejudicial thoughts and feelings that large groups of people may harbor towards other groups based on their biological, sociological or psychological characteristics

Institutional discrimination is discrimination that occurs at the level of a large group, society, organization or institution. These are unequal or unfair patterns of behavior or preferential treatment of people by a large group or organization solely on the basis of group membership. These patterns may or may not be conscious and intentional. We see daily reports of similar institutional discrimination occurring in the education system, commercial and industrial organizations, legal and judicial systems, and professional sports.

Three components have been identified in numerous experimental studies. Although they produced interesting results, many problems remained unresolved. Another difficulty arose regarding the connection between attitude and actual behavior. This difficulty was discovered after the famous experiment of Richard LaPierre in 1934.

LaPierre traveled around the United States with two Chinese students. They visited 252 hotels and in almost all cases (with the exception of one) they received a normal reception that met the service standards. No difference was found in the service provided by LaPierre himself and his Chinese students. After completing the trip (two years later), Lapierre contacted 251 hotels with letters asking them to answer whether he could hope for hospitality again if he visited the hotel accompanied by the same two Chinese, now his employees. The answer came from 128 hotels, and only one contained consent, 52% refused, and the rest were evasive. Lapierre interpreted these data to mean that there is a discrepancy between the attitude (attitudes towards people of Chinese nationality) and the actual behavior of hotel owners. From the responses to the letters, one could conclude that there was a negative attitude, while in actual behavior it was not manifested; on the contrary, the behavior was organized as if it were carried out on the basis of a positive attitude.

This finding was called “Lapierre's paradox” and gave rise to deep skepticism regarding the study of attitude. It turned out that real behavior is not built in accordance with the attitude. The decline in interest in attitudes was largely due to the discovery of this effect.

Thus, the attitude is a psychological mechanism for regulating both the unconscious and conscious activity of the subject; it “serves” both the simplest and most complex forms of social behavior. The mechanism of “triggering” of a social attitude depends not only on the needs, situation, their satisfaction, but also on the motivation for committing a specific act by an individual or a group of people. This depends on the so-called disposition in which the subject of activity finds himself.

Leningrad sociologist V.A. Yadov, developed his original dispositional concept of social attitude.

Disposition (or predisposition) – readiness, predisposition of the subject to a behavioral act, action, deed, their sequence. In personalistic psychology (V. Stern), disposition denotes a causally unconditioned propensity to act; in G. Allport’s personality theory, it refers to numerous personality traits (from 18 to 5 thousand), forming a complex of predispositions to a certain reaction of the subject to the external environment. In Russian psychology, the term “disposition” is used primarily to denote a person’s conscious readiness to assess a situation and behave, conditioned by its previous experience.

The concepts of “attitudes” or social attitudes also emphasize their direct connection with a specific (social) need and the conditions of activity in which the need can be satisfied. The change and consolidation (fixation) of a social attitude is also determined by the corresponding relationships between needs and situations in which they are satisfied.

Consequently, the general mechanism for the formation of a fixed attitude at one or another level is described by the formula P -> D <— C,

where P is a need, D is a disposition, C is a situation or conditions of activity.

Both needs, activity situations, and dispositions themselves form hierarchical systems. As for needs, it is generally accepted to distinguish the needs of the first (lower) level as psychophysiological or vital, as well as more elevated, social ones.

V.A. Within the framework of his concept, Yadov structured the needs according to the levels of inclusion of the individual in various spheres of social communication and social activity. These levels of human inclusion in various spheres of social communication can be designated as:

initial inclusion in the immediate family environment,
into numerous so-called contact groups or small groups,
in one or another field of work,
inclusion through all these channels, as well as many others, into an integral social class system through the assimilation of ideological and cultural values of society.

The basis of the classification here is, as it were, a consistent expansion of the boundaries of the individual’s activity, the need or need for certain and expanding conditions for the full functioning of a person.

The conditions of activity or situations in which certain needs of an individual can be realized also form a certain hierarchical structure.

The basis for structuring is the length of time during which the main characteristics of these conditions are preserved (i.e., the activity situation can be accepted as stable or unchanged).

The lowest level of such a structure is formed by subject situations, the peculiarity of which is that they are created by a specific and rapidly changing subject environment. Over a short period of time, a person moves from one such “objective situation” to another.

The next level is the conditions of group communication. The duration of such situations of activity is incomparably longer. For a considerable period of time, the main features of the group in which human activity takes place remain unchanged.

The conditions for activity in one or another social sphere are even more stable - in the spheres of work, leisure, family life (at home).

Finally, maximum stability in terms of time (and in comparison with those indicated above) is characteristic of the general social conditions of human life, which constitute the main features (economic, political, cultural) of the social “situation” of his activity.

In other words, the social situation undergoes significant changes within the framework of “historical” time; conditions of activity in a particular social sphere (for example, in the sphere of labor) can change several times during a person’s life; the conditions of a group situation change over the course of years or months, and the subject environment changes in a matter of minutes.

Let us now turn to the central term of our scheme P -> D <— C, i.e. to personality dispositions, these dispositional formations are also formed into a certain hierarchy.

Its lowest level apparently includes elementary fixed attitudes. They are formed on the basis of vital needs and in the simplest situations. These attitudes, as a readiness for action fixed by previous experience, lack modality (experience “for” or “against”) and are unconscious (there are no cognitive components). According to D.N. Uznadze, consciousness is involved in the development of an attitude when a habitual action encounters an obstacle and a person objectifies his own behavior, comprehends it, when the act of behavior becomes the subject of comprehension. Although not the content of consciousness, attitude “lies at the basis of these conscious processes.”
The second level of dispositional structure is social fixed attitudes, or more precisely, a system of social attitudes. In contrast to elementary behavioral readiness, a social attitude has a complex structure. It contains three main components: emotional (or evaluative), cognitive and behavioral. In other words, it is an “attitude” or “attitude”. Social attitudes are formed on the basis of the assessment of individual social objects (or their properties) and individual social situations (or their properties).
The next dispositional level is the general orientation of the individual’s interests in one or another sphere of social activity, or basic social attitudes. With some simplification, we can assume that these attitudes are formed on the basis of complex social needs of familiarization with a certain field of activity and inclusion in this field. In this sense, the orientation of the individual represents identification with a particular area of social activity. For example, you can find a dominant focus on the sphere of professional activity, in the sphere of leisure, on the family (the main interests are concentrated on family life, raising children, creating home comfort, etc.). It is assumed that social attitudes at this level also contain three components: cognitive, emotional (evaluative) and behavioral. Moreover, the cognitive formations of such dispositions are much more complex than those of the lower level. At the same time, the general orientation of the individual is more stable than attitudes towards individual social objects or situations.
The highest level of the dispositional hierarchy is formed by a system of value orientations towards the goals of life and the means of achieving these goals. The system of value orientations is ideological in its essence. It is formed on the basis of the highest social needs of the individual (the need for inclusion in a given social environment in a broad sense as the internalization of general social, social-class conditions of life) and in accordance with general social conditions that provide opportunities for the realization of certain social and individual values.

The advisability of including in the regulation of activity a certain dispositional formation, fixed in past experience, directly depends on the needs of the corresponding vital or social level and on the level of the situation or conditions of activity.

To regulate behavior at the level of an elementary behavioral act in a certain objective situation, one or another elementary fixed attitude may be adequate; to regulate a socially significant act in given circumstances, leading dispositions are most likely extracted from a system of fixed social attitudes; in the case of regulation of activity in a certain social sphere, “responsibility” for general readiness lies with basic social attitudes and the direction of an individual’s interests, and in the regulation of an individual’s social activity as a whole, his value orientations acquire dominant importance as the highest level of the dispositional hierarchy.

However, under certain conditions, a relatively elementary behavioral act can be regulated by a higher-level disposition, as is the case if this act is given unusual social significance due to prevailing circumstances.

Based on the concepts of dispositional regulation of behavior, the cognitive, emotional and behavioral components, reflecting the basic properties of the dispositional structure, form relatively independent subsystems within the framework of the general dispositional hierarchy. The basis for this assumption is experimental data from “attitude” studies.

The development of the proposed concept eliminates the “isolation” of a social attitude from a broader context and assigns it a certain, important, but limited place in the regulation of the entire system of individual activity.

Now, from the point of view of dispositional regulation of behavior, the Lapierre paradox is easily explained: cases of inconsistency between a particular social attitude and an observed action can be explained by the fact that the leading role in the regulation of behavior belonged to a disposition of a different level. Thus, the value orientation towards the prestige of the establishment dictated a negative response regarding service to people of color. And the same orientation presupposes compliance with accepted rules of service if the client, as they say, is “standing on the threshold.”

One of the main problems that arise when studying social attitudes is the problem of changing them. Ordinary observations show that any of the dispositions possessed by a particular subject can change. Many different models have been put forward to explain the process of changing social attitudes. These explanatory models are constructed in accordance with the principles that are applied in a particular study.

Asmolov A. G. Activity and installation. M., 1979.

Myers D. Social psychology / Transl. from English M., 1997.

Dispositional concept of personality V.A. Yadova [Electronic resource] / article (access date 01/11/2019). Access mode - https://students-library.com/library/read/60109-dispozicionnaa-koncepcia-licnosti-va-adova

Concept and main types

Modern sociology and psychology include various definitions of social attitudes. Most often, Gordon Allport's interpretation is used to explain this term. According to the American psychologist, a social attitude is a psychological state of an individual in which the person is ready to behave in a certain way, according to past experience of “collision” with an object.

G. Allport

In the socio-psychological literature one can find 5 main types of social attitudes:

Perceptual. Attitude is characterized by an individual's readiness to see what he wants to see.
Situational, in which a person is ready to behave differently in relation to the same object, depending on the circumstances.
Social, aimed at an object. This attitude is characterized by specific actions of the individual, regardless of the current situation.
Generalized or general. The emergence of an attitude is influenced by a collection of identical objects.
Private or partial. An attitude towards a certain object arises on the basis of the individual’s personal experience.

Depending on the modality, attitudes are:

positive or positive;
negative or negative;
neutral;
ambivalent.

Basic functions of social attitudes

Attitudes are characterized by 4 key functions:

Utilitarian, adaptive or instrumental. Social installation ranks first among important attitudes. The mechanism of action is aimed at helping the individual achieve his goals. The function also helps the individual adapt to the situation, reduce losses and increase rewards. Attitude influences individual identification in a group.
Self-protective. Helps resolve conflicts within the individual. Protects the individual from traumatic information that can negatively affect the psyche. The function allows you to guide a person along a more “gentle” path.
Self-realizing. Helps a person to discover his own abilities and organize behavior in such a way as to satisfy the necessary needs. Thanks to attitudes, the individual realizes himself and begins to understand what kind of person he is.
Organizational. The main direction of this function is to organize the world around us. With the help of attitudes, an individual evaluates the acquired knowledge and correlates it with his own goals, interests and motives. Attitude helps to learn new information in the process of social cognition. This helps solve many problems.

Structure and components of social attitude

Scientist M. Smith in 1942 defined a three-component structure of a social attitude. It includes:

Cognitive component. It is characterized by the subject having knowledge about the area of life to which this or that attitude relates.
Affective component. Expressed in emotional assessments, feelings and experiences associated with events, objects or processes.
Behavioral component. It is characterized by real actions that a person can perform in relation to the object in question.

Behavioral component

Attitude components can either overlap or exist separately.

Important! If all components of the structure are not in conflict with each other, then the settings can be considered consistent.

For example, the presence of a favorable background, positive knowledge and positive actions indicates the presence of harmonious attitudes. When social attitudes are inconsistent, there will be a chaos of negative information, positive attitudes, and neutral actions.

To take consistent steps, a person requires consistent attitudes. Otherwise, the individual will be tormented by ambivalent feelings, and contradictory actions will begin to dominate his behavior.

What approaches are used

The following approaches can influence the formation of social attitudes:

cognitive;
motivational;
structural;
behaviorist;
genetic.

With the cognitive approach, attitudes are formed as a result of the individual’s desire to resolve internal conflicts that arise due to cognitions and attitudes.

The genetic direction suggests that the development of all attitudes is inextricably linked with innate personality characteristics:

temperament;
intellectual abilities;
biochemical reactions.

Such “innate” attitudes are considered the most durable, in contrast to “acquired” ones.

Congenital and acquired forms of behavior

In the behaviorist approach, attitudes are understood as intermediate variables between the external world and objective stimuli. Therefore, the subject practically does not take part in the formation of attitudes. Development is carried out with the help of:

observing the behavior of other individuals and analyzing the consequences;
positive reinforcement;
formation of associative connections between existing attitudes and stimuli.

Within the framework of the structural approach, the development of attitudes is carried out through comparison with the attitudes of surrounding people. The individual begins to “adjust” his own worldview and value views in order to correspond to one or another social category of persons.

For the motivational approach, the basis for the development of social attitudes is a series of balanced arguments “for” and “against” a particular attitude.

Changing social attitudes

During a person’s life, not only social attitudes are formed, but also they change.

Additional Information. It is this feature that distinguishes attitudes from other psychological characteristics of a person.

Example, formation and change of character, abilities, temperament are carried out slowly and insignificantly throughout life, and the transformation of social attitudes can occur rapidly and repeatedly. Therefore, in order to predict an individual’s behavior, it is necessary, first of all, to pay attention to his attitudes, and not other personality traits.

The main goals of changing attitudes are:

adding knowledge;
adjustment of views;
improving relationships with other people.

The best way to change attitudes is through suggestion. It can be implemented through:

authoritative personalities;
parents' beliefs;
mass media.

To change attitudes, the psychological or social proximity of a particular source of information is of great importance.

Changing social outlook

Important! If a person does not have trust in the subject trying to correct his attitudes, there will be no positive result.

Also, the speed and quality of changes in beliefs are influenced by the order and content of incoming information. The first information has a stronger influence on attitudes than subsequent information. In the event that a person is warned that it is impossible to trust the initial materials, subsequently this primary information will not be taken seriously by the individual.

Additional Information. If a person first received information and then learned that it was unreliable, then in most cases this information will not be able to influence a change in attitudes.

The simplicity of the material presented is an important key to correcting attitudes. An individual will not want to understand complex and distorted information.

Psychological attitudes are an integral part of every individual. To learn how to use them for good, you need to not only be aware of their presence, but also engage in self-reflection. Deep work with your own emotions, feelings and beliefs will help you get rid of internal barriers and improve your life and relationships with society.

Changing social attitudes

Personal attitudes may change in the process of communication and social interaction. The reason for this is that in the process of communication there is always an element of influence on the other person, there is an attempt to change his attitudes. Attitudes form a system; they are interconnected, so rapid change does not occur.

In the system of attitudes, there are central focal attitudes, and there are peripheral ones, with a small number of interconnections, and these are the ones that can be changed more quickly. Focal attitudes are associated with the individual’s worldview, moral creed, and the main central attitude is the attitude towards one’s own “I”, around which the entire system of attitudes is built. The focal setting can be changed only if it is removed, which can lead to the destruction of the entire integrity of the personality.

Thus, a change in the central setting is painful and occurs very rarely.

When changing any setting, the following situations are possible:

neighboring attitudes change in emotional sign from (+) to (-) and in intensity, which is possible for peripheral attitudes;
possible change in the degree of importance and significance of the installation;
changing the principle of communication between neighboring installations.

Social and political attitudes differ depending on a person's age - the older the person, the more conservative his attitudes.

The change and formation of attitudes occurs in the course of a person’s real activity, his involvement in a particular group.

Group influence is very strong and forces its members to abandon previous attitudes, thus isolating a person from society, which leads to “social collapse.” A person loses the ability to think critically and his only reality becomes the life of the group.

Little changing social attitudes gradually develop into stereotypes and prejudices.

Stereotypes are the fruit of personal experience, and prejudice is a social attitude with a distorted content of its cognitive component.

Is it possible to change social attitudes?

This question cannot be answered unambiguously, because it is still unclear how exactly social attitudes are formed. As we wrote above, there are several theories on this matter: some believe that they are formed genetically, others believe that they are acquired.

If we assume that anything can be learned, then perhaps the answer is yes, social attitudes can be changed. But to change yourself completely, you need to focus on a deep level - the level of values, moral and religious beliefs.

The sight of a cake reminds someone of a bad birthday as a child, while others remember a great time with their family. After some time, the opinions of these two people may change under the influence of future experiences. A person also likes to imitate the behavior of other people, even if he does not always admit it. Therefore, social attitudes are born and die constantly.

It takes full awareness and self-reflection to change destructive attitudes and replace them with productive ones. This process is quite long, so you will need patience.

And one last thing. Ask yourself three questions as often as possible:

Why do I act this way and not otherwise?
Why do I think this way and not otherwise?
Why do I feel this way and not differently in this situation?

Answers to these questions, reflection and self-reflection will help to identify the roots of many deep attitudes and change them if necessary.

Attitudes and role behavior

Part of the process of socialization of an individual is the mastery of social roles, which is a prerequisite for the individual to “grow into” society.

Definition 3

A social role is a way of behavior of people depending on the position they occupy, corresponding to accepted norms.

During his life, any person enters into one or another social group, where he occupies a certain position and certain expectations are placed on him. In each group, a person must behave in accordance with the requirements of the group, i.e. act in different roles.

Note 1

A social role is a kind of stable pattern of behavior for a certain status, which answers the question - who is this person, what rights and responsibilities does he have.

Position in society determines only one status - main or integral.

When a person learns his social role, he learns the social standard of behavior and, as if from the outside, learns to evaluate himself and exercise self-control. Each social role leaves its mark on a person’s self-awareness, on his personality, for the fulfillment of which a person mobilizes the resources of his body and psyche.

When performing a role that does not correspond to the individual “I,” an intrapersonal conflict may arise.

Intrapersonal conflicts can be the following:

the possibilities of one’s own “I” are lower than the possibilities of the social “role”;
the social role is below the capabilities of the “I” and is unworthy and humiliating for a person

A person is driven mainly by internal motives, needs, and desires to master a particular role.

The social roles performed by a person in real life may have conflicting requirements, and in order to maintain the integrity of his “I”, there is a need for some kind of mechanism.

This mechanism is a functional organ and the personality itself, which allows one to integrate one’s “I”, carry out a moral assessment of one’s actions, and refuse one thing in favor of another. A developed personality can use role behavior as a tool for adaptation to a particular social situation.

A social role is a manifestation of the external “I”, and there is also an internal “I”. External behavior can be exemplary, the person himself can be a law-abiding citizen, but in his inner world he can be a rebel.

Based on social status and its requirements, a person’s role behavior is determined mainly by the social “I”, the demonstrative “I”, also expected by others, the reflected “I” and the real “I” of the individual.

The social roles performed by a person reinforce the corresponding patterns of behavior, opinions, views, attitudes, attitudes, and have a great influence on the style of speech, clothing, and lifestyle.

When social roles change, a change in behavior, attitudes, values, and personal attitudes may occur.

Formation of social attitudes

Let us note that their formation is gradual and sometimes even imperceptible. After all, what we generalized today becomes a firm belief for us in a couple of weeks.

Mental activity works according to a specific algorithm developed on generalizations and assessments. This program makes the functioning of the brain much easier. After all, every time a person encounters a phenomenon that is already familiar to him, he does not have to waste energy on analyzing it. Since he already has a scheme that leads to quick actions.

The main characteristic of this phenomenon is its versatility. After all, at the same time it represents skills and abilities, sensations and emotions, reactions and the desire to act in a certain way.

But attitude can not only help, but also create obstacles. Of course, with its help we focus on important things, but at the same time, such patterns can lead to the wrong path. I will help you understand what is good and what is not, and also get rid of interfering beliefs in my personal consultation.

I have already talked about how social attitudes are related to individual behavior and what it is in general. But such a complex concept categorically cannot be viewed from one angle. After all, the term exists in different areas of psychology. Which is worth mentioning.

Levels

the simplest form – regulates behavior in everyday life;
social;
basic social – the individual’s attitude to his areas of life (profession and work, interests, family);
instrumental - acceptance and inclusion in the set of norms that have developed in society.

Attitude controls activity at 3 hierarchical stages:

Semantic - is of a general nature and determines people’s position towards objects and events that are important to them.
Target. Determines the relatively stable course of functioning and has a connection with the desire to bring the task to its logical conclusion.
Operational. The perception of a specific phenomenon occurs through previous experience, as well as through forecasting the possibilities of productive actions and decision-making under certain circumstances.

Capacity for Change

It is impossible to say for sure about this, since it is still unclear exactly how they are formed. Of course, there are many theories, and I described the main ones above, but scientists have not come to a general conclusion.

If we rely on the belief that it is possible to acquire any skills, then perhaps we can say that attitudes are changeable. But to do this, you need to focus on a deeper level - values, religious and moral principles.

A striking example of a psychological attitude: when one person sees a birthday cake, he remembers an unsuccessful celebration, while another, on the contrary, experiences positive emotions, recalling a pleasant evening with family and friends. But over time, this perception can change, and future experiences will have a huge impact on this.

In addition, the individual, even if unconsciously, imitates the actions of others. This is why attitudes arise and disappear regularly. But in order to change them, absolute awareness and self-reflection will be required. This will help change destructive beliefs to more effective ones and resolve many internal conflicts.

Social influence from the perspective of social attitudes research

Things, phenomena and events in the world are not inherently good or bad, beautiful or ugly, significant or insignificant, small or large; they acquire meaning or significance only through our perception. In this context, the ancient Greek skeptical philosopher Protagoras argued that man is the measure of all things. It is he who defines or “measures” things. And, as the famous saying goes, “everyone measures by his own measure.” The ratios we will be talking about are precisely those “bars” or “measures” by which people measure or define things.

A person does not just know about every phenomenon. He forms a certain attitude towards the object of knowledge. For example, your attitude towards opera can be either positive or negative. We may like some people and not like others. Likewise, there are people who like us and those who don't really like us. To this they answer: “One likes the priest, and the other likes the priest’s daughter.”

Our attitude towards people, phenomena, things and events is determined by many factors, but ultimately by our assessments. In fact, a social attitude is our attitude towards someone or something, formed on the basis of knowledge and assessments. Self-concept or self-awareness is a person's attitude towards himself. In other words, we can say that self-awareness is a person’s attitude towards himself.

This self-perception is also based on evaluation - self-esteem. At the same time, most people have a purely positive attitude towards themselves, sometimes even a very positive one. From the point of view of clinical psychologists, this is a good symptom, since high self-esteem is the key to mental health. Correct, if this does not lead to excesses in the form of narcissism, egoism, self-absorption, delusions of grandeur and other social and psychotic personality disorders.

Attitudes are prototypes and stereotypes, other cognitive schemas that we discussed when discussing social cognition. Our attitude towards other people, events and even things is largely determined by our attitude towards ourselves, in other words, our self-perception.

It is obvious that our attitude towards something or someone influences our behavior in one way or another. In other words, people's attitudes and behavior are somehow related. Therefore, by influencing attitudes, we can influence behavior. However, today we can rightfully say the opposite: by changing people’s behavior, we can change their attitude. Of course, this statement sounds unusual from the point of view of traditional approaches to psychology, but Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance states exactly this. Daryl Bem's theory of self-concept also insists on this.

William Thomas and Florian Znaniecki believed that attitude is the dual value of a person to society; and that activity in any form is nothing more than a connection between them. Attitude is a process of individual consciousness. It determines the actual or potential activity of a person in society. By virtue of its connection with individual consciousness and activity, value differs from a natural thing. Due to its connection with activity, and therefore with the social world, an attitude is not identical to a physical state.

G. Alfort defines the attributes of an attitude as a special state of mind and nerves, readiness to respond, structure, the significance of past experience, as well as a guiding and sometimes dynamic influence on behavior.

Since attitudes and behavior are somehow related, the problem of social attitudes has become one of the most important topics in social psychology.

Basic information about rigid installations

In psychology, rigidity is the inability of an individual to change the nature of behavior and thinking in certain situations.

Literally, this term means steadfastness and inflexibility. Previously, the term was used only in physiology and medicine to denote the response of organs and tissues to certain stimuli. In the psychological field, rigidity is used to describe a permanent type of personality that has difficulty acquiring new knowledge and skills.

Rigid people do not change their thinking and behavior tactics even in situations where such changes are necessary. This psychological feature can significantly worsen the quality of life.

In more detail, in psychology, rigidity is described as the inability to change point of view, give in in arguments, adapt behavior to certain situations and develop emotional intelligence.

If we talk about the emotional state of a rigid person, then it is necessary to pay attention to the person’s fixation on his own feelings. Such people usually have a low level of empathy, so the ability to empathize is undeveloped or completely absent.

Emotional rigidity may be a prerequisite for the development of narcissistic personality disorder. Milder forms of this psychological trait only slightly limit personal development.

A specific example of psychological (personal) constancy is fixation on already created models of behavior and thinking. Normally, throughout life, a person constantly gains new experiences that allow him to modify cognitive and emotional patterns.

Systematic research into this condition began in the field of Gestalt psychology. More than 100 years ago, scientists described the main characteristics of this personality type. Scientists such as Charles Spearman, Milton Roach, and Kurt Goldstein have studied rigidity in detail. Today, the problems of cognitive persistence are dealt with by psychologists and psychiatrists.

Manifestations of mental rigidity in humans

Rigidity can be an innate character trait or an acquired one. In both the first and second cases, this is not a deviation from the norm of mental development, if the rigidity has not acquired a pathological character. This problem is not so much a public problem as an individual one.

Nowadays, there are more and more people with pronounced manifestations of rigidity. People diagnosed with mental rigidity are not required to register with psychiatric hospitals. They exist calmly in society, but it is quite difficult for them to adapt to new living conditions, to a new team at work, to any acquaintances, etc.

Rigidity can be a congenital character trait or acquired

The first manifestations of rigidity in a person are aggression and a high level of anxiety. A person who is not able to quickly navigate non-standard life situations, who is not able to adequately perceive new circumstances, begins to enter a state of stress. At the same time, he experiences stress not because of his perception of the situation, but because this situation occurred in his life.