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By enlarge attitudes are learnt. They are formed on the basis of learning.
Formation of Attitudes: The term ‘attitude formation’ refers to the movement we make from having no attitude toward an object to having a positive or negative attitude. There are some factors which contribute to the formation of attitudes:
1.Learning: The attitudes are acquired through learning. Many of our views are acquired in situations in which we interact with others or merely observe their behaviour.
-Classical Conditioning/Leaming by Association:
•A basic form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to evoke reactions through repeated pairing with another stimulus.
•Player often develop a strong liking for the bat by which they made good runs. Many students start liking a subject if they like the teacher.
-Instrumental Conditioning/Leaming Altitude by Reward and Punishment: A basic form of learning in which responses that lead to positive outcomes or that permit avoidance of negative outcomes are strengthened.
•It applies to the situations when people learn attitudes which are systematically rewarded by significant others, such as parents, teachers or friends.
-Observational Learning: A basic form of learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behaviour or through observing others.
•Children are keen observers and learn a whole lot of things from their parents and other family members.
•They learn many attitudes about other ethnic groups, neighbours and idealize simply by observing the behaviours of adults.
2.Learning through Exposure to Information:
•Many attitudes are learnt in a social context without physical presence of others. Print media, electronic media, biographies of self-actualized people facilitate attitude formations.
3.Learning Attitudes through Group or Cultural Norms:
•Norms are unwritten rules of behaviour. Gradually these norms may become part of our social cognition, in the form of attitudes, e.g., offering money, sweets, fruits and flowers in a place of worship is a normative behaviour in various religions. People imitate such behaviour shown by others as socially approved and develop positive attitude towards it.