Three Components of Attitude

Attitude is the tendency to evaluate and learn things in a certain way. A habit of sorts. The way we interpret events, let ideas affect our beliefs, other people, objects...i.e., pretty much how you handle being a living thing.

If your attitude (the way you evaluate things) is oceans apart from the way your dad evaluates things, well...it’s going to be hard for the two of you to have certain conversations. In a sense, you’ll be talking past each other, since you two use different methods of evaluation.

There are three main components that make up our attitude:

Cognitive: Beliefs about things. A lot of things we believe are probably true thanks to self-fulfilling prophecies. Like, “I am bad at math.” Others are more obvious, like, “The sky is blue most of the time.” Usually, people are unwilling to consider new beliefs about things unless they already fit into their existing framework of beliefs. If you and your friends and family think the Earth is flat, and you’re presented with information that contradicts that belief, you’re unlikely to change your beliefs. There’s just too much at stake. If you decide to believe the Earth is spherical, there will be major social consequences, and you’ll likely have to change a lot of other beliefs in your head (which is also roughly spherical, btw). A domino-effect of downfalling beliefs.

Affective: Emotions and feelings. As much as we’d like to think we’re super-rational beings, we’re not...and that’s in large part because of how we feel about things. Tarantulas aren’t very scary from a scientific perspective, but they sure do look scary to many. Anything we fear, anything we like or don’t like...all those “feeling” words are the affective part of our attitude.

Behavioral: The actions taken, usually as a result of the other two components. How we feel and what we think about something dictates what makes sense for behavior. If you really believe immigrants are bad for the economy and pillage and plunder like pirates, you’re probably not going to like them...and that might even cause you to take action, whether small (like snide remarks in your head) or large (like going to a protest) in scale.

Putting all three together: "Mom always taught us to curl up in a ball and remain motionless when confronted,” said Buster. Cognitive: Buster believes mother knows best. Affective: He believes this action will make him safer in the face of confrontation, since mother knows best. Behavior: Well...he’s done it. So...yeah.