Attitudes paper for school

Attitudes

"We are each born as individuals, but where do we get our behaviors and attitudes from? Are they taught to us? Do we form them ourselves? Well, both are true. As children we learn things from our parents and everyone we are around. This is how we learn what facials to make to show that we are sad or happy, it is also how we learn to express each attitude we feel. We are more likely to show the same attitude traits as those we grew up around, especially our parents.

Then as we grow up and become more of ourselves as an individual, we take on other traits and form our own by altering the ones we were taught. These alterations can come from anything that we expose ourselves to, friends, television shows, movies, coworkers and music. Everything we expose ourselves to can have an affect on us an alter our attitudes or behaviors.

Especially who we surround ourselves with. It is seen that people take on the traits and attitudes of the people they are around, causing them to change based on the social circle they're in. I know that I, personally, will not speak the same way I speak around my friends as I do at work. Around my friends, I am making jokes left and right and am not in a professional attitude mind set at all. Obviously at work, I take on a more professional attitude and persona. Its putting on different hats and knowing when to wear each one.

The three main components of attitude are referenced as the ABC model of attitudes. A is affective component, B is behavioral and C is cognitive. Though this model is used frequently, there is evidence that the cognitive and affective components of behavior don't always match with the individual's personal behavior.

Affective component is the area that involves a person's feelings and emotions about the attitude object. This can be any emotional response: fear, sadness, happiness. This would be sentences like when you state what you're fearful of, like for me it would be "I'm scared of clowns".

Behavioral component is the attitude that influences how we act or behave. So, to tie that into the effective component, behavioral component is how we respond to our emotional response. If I were to see a clown, chances are that I would try to avoid it or walk by it quickly. This is part of the behavioral component.

The cognitive component is what the individual believes or their knowledge about the attitude objects. For my example it would be that I have had a bad experience with clowns, so that is why I'm scared of them.

Since our attitudes are related to our enduring of different things around us, how we feel, what we believe and how our behavior is developed towards social times, events or symbols - there is no questioning on why human behavior is such a complex topic. There are many levels of each emotion and different ways to express each, an not everyone expresses each the same."