Attitude is how a person thinks and feels about something, affecting their behavior. It’s shaped by experiences, culture, upbringing, and surroundings, and can be positive, negative, or neutral.

Attitudes can be expressed openly or shown through actions, which may change over time based on new experiences and information.

Attitudes serve various functions in our lives. In 1960, psychologist Daniel Katz outlined four functions, and this framework still proves useful today.

Knowledge Function

Your attitudes play a role in shaping your understanding of the world. Despite being subjective and not based on objective facts and figures, attitudes assist you in organizing objective information and highlighting the facts that are deemed important. 

For example, your likely negative attitude towards Adolf Hitler is probably due to his role in the Second World War and the Holocaust rather than his being a vegetarian and a painter. Simply put, your attitudes direct your attention to specific facts rather than others.

Utilitarian Function

The term “utilitarian” suggests that your attitudes can serve a practical purpose by helping you achieve important goals.

One universal life goal is the desire to feel connected to a group. Aligning your attitudes with those of the group members is a potent way to foster a sense of closeness with them. For instance, have you ever pretended to like a band or love a book just to fit in with a group?

Additionally, adopting attitudes can serve various other purposes. Expressing a negative view of individuals who engage in drinking and driving, for example, can contribute to reducing such behavior in society. This aspect of attitude function is sometimes called “instrumentality,” emphasizing that each attitude serves as a means to an end.

Ego Defense Function

“Ego defense” refers to the idea that individuals tend to be happier when they maintain a positive view of themselves. However, your self-esteem can face challenges from various sources, such as receiving a low grade on an essay, receiving a breakup text, or even experiencing the triumphant expression on a 6-year-old’s face as they beat you at chess.

One role of attitudes is to shield individuals from potentially detrimental effects.

If you convince yourself that the teacher who gave you a low grade is incompetent, that you never really liked the person you broke up with, or that you let the child win at chess because you’re a kind person, these interpretations help preserve a positive image of yourself. 

Related: What Causes Low Self-Esteem

Value Expressive Function

Certain attitudes go beyond mere preferences and passing whims; they reflect values that are integral to your identity.

For instance, if equality is a fundamental principle for you, it can shape how you respond to injustice, influence your political affiliations, and even guide your choice of career. These values represent some of the most resilient attitudes individuals hold, displaying resistance to change and exerting a potent influence on behavior.

Moreover, recent evidence suggests that articulating your core values has a positive impact on mental functioning. If you aim to improve test performance, bolster willpower against temptations, or enhance your abilities as a negotiator, consider jotting down a list of your core values beforehand. This practice appears to yield benefits in cognitive functioning and self-control.

Summary

Attitudes encompass a person’s mental and emotional orientation toward something, influencing their thoughts, feelings, and actions concerning that particular subject. They serve 4 functions: Knowledge, Utilitarian, Ego defense, and Value expressive.

Reference:  Richardson, D. (2014). Social Psychology for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.