meanings it can mean uncooperative
behavior as and when a teenager storms
off after heated argument or it can mean
individuality and self-confidence as in
wow she’s got some attitude or attitude
can be the way you’re feeling and
thinking about something so all your
emotions about a particular topic event
person or object make up the attitude
towards it before we go any further
we’re going to look at attitude from a
psychological perspective and dissect it
so in 2005 psychologist hogs and Vaughn
said that attitude was a relatively
enduring set of beliefs feelings
emotions and behavioral tendencies
firstly because it’s relatively enduring
we can say that while this set may be
rigid and difficult to change it is not
permanent and can be manipulated
secondly since it’s a set of beliefs
emotions and behavioral tendencies we
can say that attitude will affect our
emotions our beliefs and our behavior in
fact attitude is made up of three
components also known as the ABC model
the effective behavioral and cognitive
component so let’s dwell in a little
deeper and find out what these mean
firstly we have the affective component
which which concerns all your emotions
and feelings towards something so when
you have an attitude towards appetit a
particular topic event or person your
affective component helps you understand
how you feel about that object I’m going
to let you think about that for a while
the second is the behavioral component
the cognitive let’s just say and this
encompasses all your thoughts opinions
and reasoning so this can help you
understand the affective component
because it gives you the reason for the
feeling towards the out attitude object
in question lastly you have the
behavioral component we
which is basically the result of the
first two components because your
emotions and your cognitions effect and
dictate how you behave now take a moment
and try and apply this to yourself try
and think of something that you have an
attitude towards it can be something as
simple as a animal or chore or as
complex as a relationship or a person
try and think of the affective component
how do you feel about that object
doesn’t make you feel happy sad
optimistic or even angry try and think
of why you feel those and justify it is
it because of the way someone else feels
about it or is it because you feel a
certain way about that object and then
think about the behavioral component if
you were exposed to this object how
would you feel about it because that’s
how your actions will come to conclusion
hopefully now after my comp clumsiness
of forgetting my words you have a clear
understanding of what attitude and its
components are but why am i standing
here and telling you about attitude you
know what’s what’s the purpose why do we
have attitudes so remind yourself of
what and remind yourself of the attitude
you thought of before and psychologists
have tried to answer this question and
come up with four functions the first
function is utilitarian this looks like
a really really complex word to say but
it means something quite simple and it
means it provides when your attitude is
utilitarian it provides you with
avoidance tendencies so it helps you
avoid what you want to desire the second
one is the knowledge component or the
knowledge function this helps you
understand the information that’s been
provided to you it can be information
like politics or person or event or the
information I’m giving you right now the
last one the third one is ego defensive
but this is a self esteem protecting
attitude and the last one is value
expressive this is the one where it
reflects your central values in your
beliefs and shapes our identity and
social interactions now I’m going to
take you back and I’m going to tell you
to remind yourself of the attitude you
thought of before so when we were
discussing the ABC model the effective
the behavioral and the cognitive
components figure out its purpose is it
an attitude towards something you want
to avoid or desire is it an attitude
towards information you recently
received is it an attitude that is
self-esteem protecting or is it one that
reflects your central beliefs or values
now the reason why I’m telling you to do
this is because I believe that
understanding the functions and the
components is the underlining principle
of becoming aware of them and later on
controlling and even manipulating them
so this beautifully brings me to my
conclusion you can do one of two things
with the information I’ve given you
today you can either absorb it and store
it or you can use it you can use it for
the better ladies and gentlemen I’m
going to leave you with the challenge if
you choose to accept it I challenge you
to think of an attitude that as negative
negatively affected you or the people
around you and I would like you to
dissect it in into its effective its
behavioral and its cognitive component
so like we just did there and from this
deconstruction of attitude I hope you
form a clearer picture of how you can
change it whether by making appeals to
its function or persuading yourself of
more logical and beneficial attitudes or
by stopping the chain of components
before your emotions cause your actions
and behavior so I compel you to use this
information and change your life because
we all have an ideal image of what we
want to achieve and what we want to
become and I believe that attitude is
the key
so unlocking those goal as Gandhi said a
man is but the product of his thoughts
what he thinks he becomes thank you
[Applause] [Music]