Attitude: Meaning, Concept and
Formation | Psychology
• Meaning of Attitude:
• Social psychologists hardly show any uniformity in
giving a definition of attitude. Some behaviouristically
inclined social psychologists refer to the attitudes as
conforming behaviour. The behaviour is directed
towards a particular standard or norm.
• One cannot speak of conformity if there is no standard
or norm. Attitudes are formed with respect to
situations, persons or groups with which individual
comes in contact in course of the growth and
development of his personality.

Classification of Attitude:
Attitudes have been classified in several ways
such as positive and negative, common or
personal, reciprocal etc.
Based on the existing relation between the
individual of the society different categories
of attitudes develop:
(a) Reciprocal attitude:
The attitude between employee and the
employer, student and teacher is reciprocal.
Such attitudes are designated as reciprocal
ones.
(b) Common attitude:
When large number of people in the society
have similar or uniform attitude towards an
organisation, groups or political parties,
religion etc. it is known as common attitude. If
most of the people in a particular society do
not like to take dowry, this is considered as a
common attitude.

Health benefits that positive thinking may
provide include:
Increased life span.
Lower rates of depression.
Lower levels of distress.
Greater resistance to the common cold.
Better psychological and physical well-being.
Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of
death from cardiovascular disease.

Here are some ways to maintain a positive attitude in the
workplace and in general, regardless of whether it comes
naturally or not:
• 1. Surround yourself with positive people.
• The old saying “birds of a feather flock together” can be viewed two
ways. Either people who are similar naturally find each other, or
people in a group become the same over time.
• Surround yourself with positive people.
• Who you hang around with rubs off on you. If you’re always with
negative people who complain about everything, you’ll become a
complainer and see the world as negative as they do. You might
think you can stay positive and change them, but that’s not going to
be the case. Try to connect with people who like their job, have
new ideas, and are interested in lots of other things besides work.
It’ll make your whole outlook better.
•

2. Fill your mind with positive input.
• The same way that the people you are around
change you to be more like them, so is what you
feed your mind.
• Listen to positive music with headphones. Listen
to uplifting audio books on the drive into work.
Read books that are encouraging. Watch videos
and listen to podcasts that are positive or help
you improve skills.
•

Negative Attitude
• We all have a bad day every now and then.
Maybe you got up on the wrong side of the bed.
Perhaps you notice in front of the mirror that
you're all bent out of shape today. Or maybe it's
just that you got your knickers in a twist.
• A negative attitude is a disposition, feeling, or
manner that is not constructive, cooperative, or
optimistic.
• In this lesson, we'll go over some examples of
negative attitudes.

How to improve interpersonal
relationship skills
• Interact with your colleagues or subordinates more often. Greet your
colleagues every day you see them even if they are from a different team.
Also, provide an open platform for everyone to discuss any issue at hand
and encourage honest feedback. Whether you use verbal or written
communication method makes little difference but you must be able to
make informed decisions. Hiding things from a co-worker or ignoring him
may spoil your relationship with him.
• Conduct as well as attend morning meetings. Leaders should make it a
habit to arrange and members should make sure to attend morning
meetings. However, these meetings should not be made too formal e.g. by
allowing coffee mugs as well as informal interactions between the
members during the meeting.
• Arrange picnics as well as off-site meetings for team members. Meeting
outside the office, in an effort to change the ambience, gives team
members a special opportunity to open up to each other and build strong
bonds of friendship over time.

How to Maintain Your Interpersonal
Relationships
Interpersonal relationships make up every relationship that
fulfills a range of physical and emotional needs for you.
These are the people who you’re closest with in your life.
While romantic relationships are interpersonal, family
members and intimate friends are, too. There’s also such a
thing as secondary interpersonal relationships. These
include acquaintances, neighbors, and others who you
interact with on a regular basis.
In short, you have some kind of interpersonal relationship
with everyone you know.
Given the importance of relationships to our emotional and
physical well-being, it’s necessary to learn how to develop it

Stages of relationships
Relationships don’t develop suddenly. One psychologist,
George Levinger, identified five stages of interpersonal
relationships in a 1980 study. He called this stage theory,
which includes:
acquaintance
buildup
continuation
deterioration
ending (termination)

The emotions he identified were
happiness, sadness, disgust, fear,
surprise, and anger.
...
Other Types of Emotions
Amusement.
Contentment.
Excitement.
Contempt.
Embarrassment.
Relief.
Pride in achievement.
Guilt.

Emotional Intelligence
• 1. You think about feelings
• 2. You pause.
• 3. You strive to control your thoughts.
• 4. You benefit from criticism.
• 5. You show authenticity.

How to Maintain Powerful Interpersonal
Relationships
Now, let’s get into the part of how to maintain
strong interpersonal relationships. Once you’ve
gotten a solid relationship started here’s some
ways you can maintain it.
1. Be Open
Any strong relationship needs to have the
willingness to be open. This means the ability
and desire to share what you’re thinking and
your feelings about different subjects.
It really makes a lot of sense if you think about
it. When you are open and willing to share, it
shows the other person that you care about
the relationship; that you are wanting to
create a close connection by being truthful and
receptive to the other person’s thoughts and
feelings.

SHOW RESPECT - Pretty powerful
stuff. One of the deepest human
desires is to feel understood. When
you show empathy towards
someone else, you are showing
that you care enough to
understand how they feel. And that
goes a really long way in
maintaining strong relationships.
Remember to show empathy
whenever the opportunity
presents itself in your
relationships. This helps all of us
feel more supported, understood,
and most importantly, connected.