DOES ATTITUDE INFLUENCE BEHAVIOUR OR VICE VERSA

[ABSTRACT

Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing, or event – this is often referred to as the attitude object. People can also be conflicted or ambivalent toward an object, meaning that they simultaneously possess both positive and negative attitudes toward the item in question (Wikipedia, 2010). Behaviour is the response(s) – the way in which a person, organism, or group responds to a specific set of conditions. While many social psychologists study social influences on behaviour, others focus on the changing of attitudes. The question that “does behaviour affect attitude or does attitude affect behaviour?” is likened to the question “egg and hen or chicken – which one came first?” Myer (2002) observes that our attitudes will predict our behaviour on three conditions – if ‘other influences’ are minimized; if the attitude corresponds very closely to the predicted behaviour; and if the attitude is potent. Conversely, behaviour or action can affect or mold our attitudes in the following ways – through the ‘foot and door’ phenomenon; through prescribed social roles which mold the attitude of the role player; and the tendency for people to defend or justify already executed actions. Both attitude and behaviour generate each other. As much as Thought (Attitude) is the child of Action (Behaviour), Action is also the child of Thought; that is why people think then act at times and at other times, act before thinking.]