Attitude - Simple or Complex

Winston Churchill said “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference”

 “My Life is Miserable” is one statement that is going round the corner these days.

I have heard people respond by saying - don’t have negative attitude towards life. This made me think aloud, on the term ATTITUDE.

ATTITUDE can be the evaluative statements either favorable or unfavorable about objects, people or even events, going by the typical meaning.

After spending some time reading books, articles on the subject, I came up with something very interesting. 

Attitude is quite a complex word and it is made up of 3 components.

·        Cognitive Component – In the example here “My Life is Miserable” it’s the description or belief in the way things are right now.

·        Affective Component – This component talks about the feeling & emotion, because my life is miserable I am very upset, angry, unhappy and stressed

·        Behavioral Component – This component talks about the specific intention to behave in a particular way. Since my life is miserable, I don’t want to celebrate the festival with my family, or spend some time with my family.

We often think, cognitive causes affect and that in turn causes behavior. In reality, these are difficult to separate. When we talk about organizations, attitude is important for their behavioral component. 

So next time when the word attitude comes into picture, we know it does not stand alone, but with 3 main components, may be understanding of these components will help us understand people or problem better. 

May be, May not be – So, what do you all think ?