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What is Attitude?

Attitude is one very important concept. Social psychology and communication, and the term is widely used. For the definition of the word attitude, there are many scholars who have given the following meanings:

Roger (Roger, 1978: 208 – 209, cited in Surapong Sothanasathien, 1990: 122) mentioned attitude as an indicator of how a person thinks and feels about the surrounding people, objects or environment, and various situations. The attitude is rooted in Beliefs that may affect behavior in the future. Attitude is therefore only a readiness to respond to stimuli and is a dimension of evaluation to show likes or dislikes. on one issue, which is considered an intrapersonal communication (Interpersonal Communication) that is the effect of exposure that will affect behavior in the future

Rosenberg and Hovland (1960: 1) defined attitude as that attitude can generally be defined as an incentive to tendencies in a specific response to what is going on

Keller (Howard H. Kendler, 1963: 572) states that attitude is the state of a person’s readiness to act in favor of or against a person, institution, situation, or idea.

Carter V. Good (1959: 48) defines attitude as the readiness to act in some way in favor of or against a situation, person, or thing.

Newcomb (1854: 128) defines an attitude that exists in a particular person, depending on the environment, may be expressed in behavior, which can be of two types: like or preference. which causes others to be affectionate, wanting to be close to that thing or another characteristic, expressed in the form of dissatisfaction, hatred, not wanting to be close to that thing.

Norman L. Munn (1971: 71) states that attitudes are the feelings and opinions that a person has about things, people, situations, institutions, and proposals in the way of accepting or rejecting them. Makes people ready to react and react with the same behavior all the time.

G. Murphy, L. Murphy and T. Newcomb (G. Murphy, L. Murphy and T. Newcomb, 1973: 887) defined the term attitude as liking or dislike, preference or dissatisfied with how a person reacts to things

Decho Savananon (1969: 28) mentioned attitude as a personality that can be created. It is changeable and is a motive that determines the behavior of an individual towards various environments.

Sak Soonthornseni (1988: 2) mentions attitudes linked to behavior of a person that attitude means
1. Complexity of feelings or the bias of individuals in order to create readiness to do something according to the person’s experience gained
2. Inclination To react to something in a good way or against the environment that will come in any way
3. In terms of behavior, it means preparation or readiness to respond.

From these definitions, it can be seen that there are important common points as follows:

1. inner feelings
2. readiness or tendency to behave in a certain way

Therefore, it can be concluded that attitude is an overlapping relationship between a person’s feelings and beliefs or knowledge. with the tendency to have reactive behavior in some way towards the goal of that attitude
In summary, the attitude in this work is a matter of mind, attitude, feeling and thought. and the inclination of the person with information and exposure The given situation filter list can be both positive and negative. and that feeling out through behavior

Elements of Attitude

From the definition of such attitudes, Zimbardo and Ebbesen (1970 cited in Pornthip Boonniphat, 1988: 49) can distinguish 3 components of attitudes:

The Cognitive Component is the part of a person’s beliefs. about things in general, both likes and dislikes, if a person has knowledge Or think that something is good, always have a good attitude towards that thing But if there is a prior knowledge that something is bad, there will be a bad attitude towards that thing.

The Affective Component is the part related to emotions related to things that have different effects according to the personality of that person is a characteristic of the values of each individual.

The Behavioral Component is the expression of a person towards one thing. or one person as a result of components of knowledge, thoughts and feelings.

It can be seen that people have different attitudes toward something. because of People have different understandings, feelings, or concepts.

Therefore, the components of thinking or knowledge and understanding can be regarded as the basic component of attitude and this component is related to the feelings of the person. It may come in different forms, both positive and negative, depending on experience and learning.

Attitude Formation

Gordon Allport (1975) argues that attitudes can arise from the following things:

• born of learning New born children are taught about culture and traditions by their parents. Both directly and indirectly, as well as seeing the practices of parents receive and follow
• Caused by the ability to distinguish between what is good and bad, such as adults and children will act differently.

arising from individual experiences which are different, for example, some people have a bad attitude towards teachers because they used to blame themselves, but some people have a good attitude towards the same teacher. because he always praised himself

Caused by imitating or accepting other people’s attitudes as their own, for example, children may adopt the attitudes of their parents or teachers that they like as their own.

Krech and Crutchfield (1948) suggested that attitude may arise from…

1. Satisfying the needs of individuals, that is, what satisfies their needs. That person has a positive attitude towards that. If something does not meet one’s needs, the person will have a bad attitude towards it.
2. Learning the truth may be by reading or from other people’s stories, so some people may have a bad attitude toward others. from listening to the criticism that anyone had told me before
3. Becoming a member or belonging to any one group Most people tend to accept a group’s attitude as their own if that attitude is not too conflicting with their own.
4. Attitude is an important part of a person’s personality as well. People with perfect personality tend to look at others in a positive light. As for those who are difficult to adjust, they have the opposite attitude, that is, they tend to think that there are people waiting for jealousy. or think bad thoughts against them

Prapapen Suwan (1977: 64 – 65) talks about the birth of attitude that attitude is something that arises from learning (Learning) from many sources of attitude (Source of Attitude). and the source that causes people to be born, attitudes that are important

Specific Experience: When a person has a specific experience of something in a good or bad way. Will cause him to have an attitude towards that in a good or bad way, will cause an attitude towards that in the direction that he has experienced before
Communications from Others (Communication from others) will cause attitudes from receiving various messages from others, for example, children who have been taught by adults will have attitudes towards various actions as previously known.
Exemplary things (Models) imitating others can cause attitudes such as children who obey their parents. Will imitate a gesture of like or dislike for one thing as well

Institutional affiliation (Institutional Factors) Many attitudes of a person arise from their affiliation with an institution such as family, school or agency, for example.

Thongchai Santiwong, 1996: 166 – 167) said that attitudes were formed. and change Due to several factors together, namely

1. Physical Motivation (Biological Motivation) Attitude occurs when a person Implementing on-demand response or physical pressure The person creates a positive attitude towards the person or thing. That can help him have the opportunity to meet his needs.
2. Information news (Information) Attitudes are based on the type and size of the message received, as well as the nature of the source of the message. Selective Perception Mechanisms of some information enter that person It will make the person keep thinking and create an attitude.
3. Group Affiliation Some attitudes may come from different groups. In which people are directly or indirectly involved, such as family, temples, colleagues, sports groups, and social groups, these groups are not only a source of values, but also convey information to people in the community. group which makes it possible to create attitudes, especially family and co-workers It is the most important group (Primary Group) that will be a source of attitude for individuals.
4. Experience (Experience) the experience of people with objects. Inevitably, it is an important part to make people value what they have. Experience can become an attitude.
5. Personality: Many personalities have an indirect effect on the attitude of a person.

The various factors of the formation of attitudes as mentioned above. in fact will not be sorted by importance in any way This is because each of these factors, which one is more or less important to the formation of attitudes, is in the least. Which factor is most relevant?