Factors affecting attitudes

 Psychological factors-The psychological make-

up of a person is made up of his
perceptions, ideas, beliefs, values,
information etc


 It has a crucial role in determining a persons

attitudes


 For eg;If a person perceives that generally all

superiors are exploitative,he is likely to
develop a negative attitude towards his
superior who in fact may not be exploitative
 Family factors-During childhood,a person
spends a major part of his time in the
family


 Thus he learns from family members who

provide him ready made attitudes on a
variety of issues such as
education,work,health,religion,politics,econ
omics etc
 Every family develop such attitudes among its
members as are considered appropriate to
its socio economic status in the society
  A person from a middle class family may hold
different attitude towards spending than
from an affluent family


 In the later years of life any person whom we

respect or fear may have greater influence
on our attitudes

 Peer groups-As people approach their
adulthood, they increasingly rely on their
peer groups for attitude


 However others judgement on an individual

largely determines his self image and
approval seeking behaviour


 Social class and religious affiliation also plays

a vital role in a persons attitude formation
 Reference groups-are any aggregation of
people that influences an individuals
behaviour


 This group may include family or other types

of groupings,either primary or secondary
groups


 Reference groups serve important inputs to

an individuals learning of his attitude and
life style through the process of
socialisation
 Neighbourhood-The neighbourhood people
live in has a certain influence in terms of
its having cultural facilities and religious
groupings


 The neighbours adults or children tolerate,

condone, or deny certain attitudes and
behaviour


 Further we accept these moves and conform

or we deny them


 The confirmity is the evidence of the

attitudes we hold
 Role models in ones life-Some of the attitudes
are developed by imitation of models
 Its formed by noticing how a person behaves
in a particular situation
 The noticing person correctly or incorrectly
interprets his behaviour as representing
certain attitudes and beliefs
 If we identify him and respect his judgement
we tend to accept his way of perceiving
and feeling about the situation
 For eg:the children notices the diverse
behaviour their parents show to different
people and groups
 Social factors-The social classes have
important influence on individuals attitudes
 They have important task of transmitting
cultural behavioural patterns to specfic
groups and families
 They define expectations of society for groups
of people and for families within the groups
 The family then transmits these cultural
expectations to the individual
 The social classes restrict behaviour between
individuals of differing social classes
 Institutional factors-Many institutional
function as sources and support of our
attitudes and beliefs


 For eg:When people come in to a temple,they

bow down to pray,sit with heads
bowed,their clothes are neat and clean and
when the pujari signals they start singing
bhagan
 Economic factors-A persons attitude towards
many issues such as pleasure,work
,marriage wife as working women etc is
influenced by economic factors


 Also his economic status in the society,rate of

inflation in the economy,govts. Economic
policies and countrys economic conditions
affect economy of the society and its
attitude

 Polictical factors-Politics play an important
role in the administration of a country


 Political factors such as ideologies of polictical

parties,polictical stability affect attitudes of
the people


 Political stability and the behaviour of the

leaders greatly affect the attitudes of
people
  Mass communication-All varieties of mass
communication
television,radio,newspapers and magazines
feed their audiences with lot of information


 The presentation of news or information

given affects the attitude of the audience
 How to change ones
attitude
 Qualities of the communicator-One very
important variable is the status of the
manager or marketer


 The higher the status of the manager higher is

the probability he will be able to change the
employees or customer attitude
 The communicator having high prestige
produced the greatest amount of attitude
change
 The attitude change will be effective
depending on the level of trust this manager
has with the employees
 The type and method of communication-


 Communicator by presenting a clear two

sided view will be able to bring change as it
will be considered un biased


 Another method of communication is through

“fear appeals”,communicating the terrible
consequences in continuing with the
present attitudes eg:An anti-smoking ad

 Quality of commitment with the target-The
single most important factor influencing
the attitude change is the degree of
commitment of the target


 Further attitudes that are publicly stated and

openly expressed are more difficult to
change because the person has shown the
commitment


 Attitudes which people are behaviourally or

morally commited are difficult to change
 Situational factors-They are not only extensive
but also plays a major role in influencing
the change in attitudes of people


 How one perceives the message is dependent

on the situation or the prevailing context


 If the employee believes that the group ie his

colleagues are more favourable to the
manager, then he will have less hesitation
changing his attitude
 Different new experience in ones life-whether
or not new experiences will change our
attitudes depends partly upon the strength
or our initial attitudes and beliefs


 If we already have strong attitudes,we are

likely to resist changing them


 Moroever we may be especially sensitive due

to any experiences which are unfavourable
 Providing new information-New information
will help change attitudes


 Negative attitudes are formed owing to

insufficient information


 Workers generally become pro-union because

of the ignorance about good intentions of
the management


 Once they come to know about the

management cares for the welfare of the
workers they turn pro -management
 Use of fear-Researches also show that
attitudes can be changed by giving fear


 However lower and higher degrees of fear

arousal do not cause attitude change


 The reason is that the former is ignored and

the latter makes people stubborn


 The moderate level of fear arousal makes the

people aware of the situations and leads to
attitude change
 Influence of peers and friends-Change of
attitude can come about through persuasion
of friends or peers
 Peers with high credibility shall exercise
significant influence on change
 Resolving discrepancies-Another way in which
attitudes can be changed is by resolving
discrepancies between attitudes and
behaviour
 Thus when people take new jobs and begin
working,they also have negative feelings to
the jobs which they have not chosen and the
new employer will finally conclude that they
have made the right choice