IGNOU : M.COM : MCO 1 : UNIT 7 : Q - 2. Explain how attitudes influence behaviour, and how behaviour influence attitudes?

Ans. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR

The basic purpose of your studies on attitudes is to know the degree of impact of attitude on work behaviour. Early research works suggested that attitudes simply influence behaviour. However in the late 1960s, researchers had different tone. They opined that behaviour is far from simple, but it is understandable, and certainly not random. It was found that attitudes and behaviour are at best only weakly related. Now the more recent research works suggest that the influence of attitude on behaviour is significant, provided that we choose to focus on specific, relatively narrow attitudes (well defined) rather than more general ones. In other words, in presence of certain moderating variables (conditional factors), impact of attitude on behaviour is significant. Following are the factors, which determine degree of influence of attitudes on behaviour.

 

• Attitude Specificity: Specific attitudes are much better predictors of behaviour than general ones.

• Attitude Strength: Intense or strong attitudes are generally much better predictors of overt behaviour than weak ones.

• Attitude Relevance: It means the extent to which attitude objects actually have an effect on the life of the person holding various attitudes. The stronger such effects, the stronger the link between attitudes and behaviour.

• Attitude Accessibility: It is the ease with which specific attitudes can be brought into consciousness from memory. The greater such accessibility, the stronger the effect of various attitudes on behaviour.

• Existence of Social Pressure: When social pressures hold exceptional power, individuals’ overt behaviour follows the pattern set by such pressures, though there may be discrepancies between attitudes and behaviour.

• Direct Experience: Attitude may influence behaviour more strongly if an attitude refers to something with which the individual has direct personal experience.

 

So, do attitudes influence behaviour? Systematic research on this question indicates that they do. Researchers have shown interest in other direction also- whether or not behaviour influences attitudes? Interestingly higher correlation has been found in this direction, and it has been concluded that behaviour influences attitudes more strongly than attitudes influence behaviour. This view is called Self-perception theory. This theory proposes that attitudes are used after the fact to make sense out of an action that has already occurred, rather than as devices that precede and guide action. This concept appears to be in opposite tune with respect to the theory of Cognitive Dissonance. However, it may be beneficially used to shape the attitudes of individuals by encouraging them to participate in certain actions. For example if students are made to visit an institution engaged in providing vocational training to handicapped, students’ attitude towards handicapped may be positive in future. Taking help of our understanding on influence of attitudes on behaviour, as well as, influence of behaviour on attitudes- and making best use of both- we can say that in formative years (when experience is limited) there is significant influence of behaviour on attitudes. Once attitudes are formed after exposure to sufficient experience, attitudes start influencing behaviour in significant way.