ATTITUDES

Attitudes: An attitude can be defines as a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, event, activities, ideas or just about anything in your environment (Zimbardo et al., 1999). Cardno (1975) who was quoted by Shaw and Wright in their book “Scales for the measurement of attitudes” (1977) claims that attitude entails an existing disposition to respond to social objects which, in interaction with situational and other dispositional variables, guides and directs the overt behaviour of the individual. If the attitude of a pupil towards school and education is negative the pupil’s disposition will also be negative.

Campbell (1970) defines an attitude as “a syndrome of response consistency with regard to social objects.” Attitudes are not fixed, but are malleable especially in young children (Lehmann and Mehren, 1973). They are not directly observable, but are inferred from one’s overt behaviour, both verbal and non verbal. An attitude is therefore considered to ...