Attitude is the mental outlook of an individual that defines the way one feel or think anything. It is a theoretical construct, that is, whose direct view is not probable. It is a tendency to react in a settled manner to an object, opinion, event, person, and a person among others that reflect is reflected in the body language of an individual. It is a strong impact on the stimuli, actions, and decisions of a person. Environment, experience, and education are the main aspects that affect the attitude of a person (Canada " New Brunswick, 2008). The attitude of an individual can either be neutral, negative or positive which indicates one’s dislike or like for something or someone. Therefore, the kind of attitude one has tells more concerning that person as one gets into the mood and conveys a message to the people who are around. Such thing like an ideal attitude does not exist, for a specific state since it is spontaneous and therefore one usually has a choice to opt for the right attitude.
On the other hand, the term behavior can be described as the way of conducting oneself. It is the manner of controlling oneself or acting towards the other individuals. It is a range of mannerisms, response, and actions set by an organization, system, or a person in association with their environment or themselves, in any situation (Van, 2018). In a nutshell, the behavior is a group or individual reaction to the inputs such as stimulus, environment, or action which can be conscious or subconscious, involuntary or voluntary, and internal or external.
Behavior can be influenced by the attitude but not to a great extent. In most cases, the relationship works the other way round. In the study conducted by a professor in the United States in 1930 better explains this. In the study, a college professor was driving across the United States with Chinese couple. During this time, a lot of individual discriminated against people from China. The professor was worried about getting the accommodation each night, and he was also concern they might turn away from the hotels. However, they stayed at several hotels during their travel across the country and were turned away only once (Choi, 2008). The professor decided to conduct a study after the trip. He prepared questionnaires and distributed to each hotel asking “Will you allow individuals from China to stay in your hotel?” In this case, everyone said ‘no.’ evidently, there is a disconnect between the hotel operators expressed attitude and their actual behavior. There are several possibilities for this. It may be possible that the question asked and as a result the attitude expressed was not specific enough. It is also possible that the hotel could not have allowed the Chinese individuals, who turned up on the doorstep, stay, but the couple who were well educated and well dressed traveling with the college professor ewer allowed being in the hotel (Clinard " Meier, 2016)). There are some instances in which the behavior is predicted by the attitude fairly well. If an individual has a positive attitude towards a certain political party or politician, he or she is fairly likely to vote for them. Some other attitudes cannot be easily predicted. One might have a strong feeling that exercising regularly and eating the right food is essential bust still find himself sitting in front of a screen eating Cheetos.
In some individuals, attitude is more predictable as compared to others. Young individuals show less consistency between behavior and attitude than the older people. The reason for this might be that younger individuals have not had enough time to develop enduring attitudes, and therefore they have less familiarity with them. Furthermore, behavior tends to be influenced by the immediate situations. One might feel that it is crucial to donate blood, but if he or she is far from the donation site and are afraid of needles, it is not possible to take time to donate blood. If an individual learns to practice a set of behaviors that direct them to reassure and calm down an individual with hallucination, then the attitude towards the persons having hallucination is going to change. On the other hand, if an individual act like a person with hallucination is deemed to be dangerous, if one practice and train hauling out handcuffs and weapons then he or she is likely to retain or event have an attitude that such persons are dangerous (Crowell-Davis " Houpt, 2002).
A group of small kids are shown various toys and are asked with which one they would like to play with most. With any toy they pick, they are told that they will get in trouble if they play with a particular toy, but they have a chance to play with other toys. This appears to be well-behaved kids since they do not play with the toys that are banned. After a short period, they are again asked to choose the toy that is most desirable. No one picks the best toy that is original. All of them pick the toy they played with initially. If the kid played with the toy and enjoyed it, then it must be the most preferred toy, and therefore the beliefs are now consistent with the behavior.
On the other, behavior can influence the attitude of an individual. However, in some cases, it may not be true. Some researchers have shown that behavior determines the attitude of a person (Fishbein, 2007). For instance, a person has a negative attitude towards other people. That individual may not indicate the interest to share a common platform with them or join them in a party. On the other hand, there are opinions indicating there is a not enough proof to accept the fact that attitude can be influenced by the behavior. There have been several studies concerning the behavioral prediction on the attitudes. The research shows that there is not enough reason to accept the fact that an overall attitude measure towards an object will necessarily predict a particular behavior (Fishbein, 2007).
Attitude is a hypothetical concept abstracted from the totality of the feelings of individual, behavioral intentions and feelings concerning an object. Therefore an isolated individual behavior may not be related or even have a negative relationship with the overall attitude. For a particular behavior to be predicted, one needs not to focus on the overall attitude of the people towards the object of that behavior, but instead on the attitude towards that behavior. The attitude of a particular behavior is dictated by factors such as social norms related to the behavior and the possible consequences of the behavior (Maio " Haddock, 2015). For instance, an individual may have a positive attitude on the inter-caste marriage; however, due to the social norms that particular individual may show a negative behavior such as disapproving it.
In some instances, a person may not like to have specific attitudes. Nevertheless, such a tendency may result in incompatibility among individuals in the community who are living together. In such cases, one tries to develop attitude based on the conditions. This has been explained by ‘Balance theory’ which is famous. The central principle of this theory is that there is a possibility to restore or maintain the balance in the attitude of an individual and the structures. Since that attitude structures that are not balanced results in unpleasant and uncomfortable feelings.
Even though the influence of behavior on the attitude is not discernible theories that include self-prophecy and cognitive dissonance assists in understanding the direction of the attitude influences. Cognitive dissonance means the feeling of inconsistency in behavior, beliefs, and feelings (the three attitude components). People are made uncomfortable by the feelings, and therefore they are motivated to adjust the situation by changing their behaviors that can result in the disagreement or dissonance. For instance, a nurse can have a negative feeling towards working in the word with the patients suffering from tuberculosis with the belief that his or her health will be affected. But the nurse will not indicate it directly in his or her behavior. Instead, the nurse will remain absent from the duties or try to get a change from the ward itself (Kiesler, Collins, " Miller, 2015).
On the other hand, self fulfilling prophecy is the situation in which individuals try to convert their attitudes, expectations, and beliefs into reality. If a person predicts that there is something that will happen, he or she will try as much as possible to make it happen. For instance, an individual will carry out a challenging task if he or she feels competent. A nurse with a negative attitude to perform a task in the main operation theater will take as a challenge and acquire the necessary skills to work there (Crowell-Davis " Houpt, 2002). As a result, people gain skills and experiences that make them more competent so that they can accomplish the tasks that are more complex. Nevertheless, if people have negative attitudes towards themselves, they will not provide themselves with an opportunity to become more competent.
In conclusion, behavior influences the behavior and vice versa. In some instances, the behavior of a person will be determined by the attitude, and at other times the behavior will be influenced by the attitude. In this result, self-fulfilling prophecies, cognitive dissonance, and regulation of the balance in the society are the primary factor which influences the attitude as well as the behavior of an individual. Attitude as well as behavior plays key roles in the life of an individual.
References
Canada, " New Brunswick. (2008). Behaviour. Ottawa: Health and Welfare Canada.
Choi, H. J. (2008). Factors affecting how individuals explain their behavioral intention to others.
Clinard, M. B., " Meier, R. F. (2016). Sociology of deviant behavior.
Crowell-Davis, S. L., " Houpt, K. A. (2002). Behavior. Philadelphia: Saunders.
Fishbein, M. (2007). Readings in attitude theory and measurement. New York: Wiley.
Kiesler, C. A., Collins, B. E., " Miller, N. (2015). Attitude change: A critical analysis of theoretical approaches. New York: Wiley.
Maio, G. R., " Haddock, G. (2015). The psychology of attitudes " attitude change. London: Sage publications ltd.
Van K. (2018). Behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
