Attitude and Behavior

Attitude is an individual’s predisposition to behave toward an object, thing, idea, person, or people.  Attitude can either be favorable or unfavorable.

As determinant of behavior, attitude can be considered to be part of processes that include motives, desires, wants, satisfactions, pleasures, interests, hopes, and other factors.

Attitudes are formed by a variety of factors, including:  personal values, individual experiences, and personalities.  Attitudes are learned early in childhood by associating an individual’s experience that either provides satisfaction or dissatisfaction.  Drives and motives are associated with relieving tension generated by a human need and achieving satisfaction as a result of such need-fulfillment.  Processes in the past associated with such satisfaction tend to carry over into adult life the disposition or tendency favorable to the attitude-object(s).  On the other hand, experience that produces  dissatisfaction results in learning an unfavorable attitude.

Attitudes are composed of affect, or the feeling component, i.e., expression of an individual’s degree of  preference; cognition or the individual’s knowledge of something based on perception of truth or reality, which reveals  his belief about his  preference; and intention or action tendency, which is usually verbally manifested.

Unlike personality attributes, attitudes are not as permanent and may change or be modified based on an individual’s experiences, motives, and changes in desires, aspirations, and perspectives.

The guidance counselor may be instrumental in changing attitudes through the counseling process.  Teachers and authority figures may likewise  provide interventions to change attitudes.   Parents are in the most strategic position to change attitudes.

In the work situation, administrators and managers consider attitudes as important factors that influence productivity and team effectiveness of employees.  K-A-S-H is a configuration highly valued and fiercely pursued by people managers and human resource development practitioners. K or knowledge takes into consideration the stock knowledge or cognitive attribute of the employee.  A or attitude takes into consideration the attitude  level of the employee.  S or skill level describes  the skill characteristic  of the employee.  H represents the  habits an employee brings to the workplace.

The assumption is that a rotten attitude may damage the long-term success of an individual, or may even contaminate co-workers, thereby damaging work productivity and teamwork.  Hence, the administrator’s or leader’s mandate is to select an employee who has a positive attitude, regardless if a company may  have to invest in training and development on a newly-hired employee who has less of the S (skill).

Screening, testing, and evaluating attitudes of job candidates are some of the responsibilities of recruitment and hiring practitioners.  Psychometricians have attitude inventories among their battery of tests for pre-employment.

Organization leaders and managers value positive attitudes among their workforce.  Positive work attitudes of employees and organization members contribute to an organization’s productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness.

The Pleasure Principle and the Reality Principle

The developing child,  from infancy to babyhood and early childhood, is characterized by pleasure-seeking drive.  He demands immediate gratification of his impulses and desires.  He takes objects that catches his fancy, demands attention and has no clear concept of right and wrong.  Pleasure and pain guide him in his actions.  In this immature state,  the child relates the concept of “right” with what is pleasurable,  and the concept of “wrong” with pain.   He gravitates toward whatever is pleasurable and abhors what is painful.

Thus, the pleasure principle describes the characteristic of the immature child who views the world as his and at  his disposal unbound by  a  sense of responsibility or limits to his actions.

Until he is adequately socialized, he continues with his egocentric ways.  Socialization process, training and guidance from parental figures slowly orient   him to learn ethics and imbibe the socially approved conduct of behavior.

On the other hand, the reality principle describes a condition where one is forced to forego instant gratification because of impediments of reality.  The theory assumes that a more substantial and profound pleasure can be experienced by deferment to the reality principle.

The pleasure principle and the reality principle are psychoanalytic theories introduced by Sigmund Freud to explain certain aspects of human behavior.

If the pleasure principle is infantilistic and childish by giving in to passions and impulses and gratifying the immediate desires of the individual, the reality principle describes  a  more mature adjustment characterized by sacrifice, delayed gratification, enduring pain, and being reasonable in order to give  in to the obstacles imposed by reality.

Studies conducted show that individuals guided by the reality principle were found to be more relatively well-adjusted, successful and led more satisfying lives than those who lived their lives according to the pleasure principle.

Adjustment Mechanisms of the Individual

In the course of the individual’s daily  life, he experiences frustrations in trying to satisfy his motives.  Through maturation and development, he acquires habits directed toward satisfying his motives.  These acquired habits are called adjustment mechanisms.

In the human developmental stages, habits or behavior peculiar to a developmental stage are set.  There is a peculiar adjustment mechanism characteristic of the infantile stage, and childhood stage.  Taking these developmental stages as cues, a particular behavior manifested by an individual is labeled as mature or immature.   A behavior is either labeled “infantile”, “childish”, “immature”, or really “grown-up.”

In infancy, the infant that can not talk, walk, nor negotiate utilizes his reflex response of crying,  and emotional excitement, such as the startle response.  The infant reacts emotionally and obtains satisfaction of his motives dependent upon his parents.  The infant’s characteristic response to uncertainty is anxiety.  Thus, adults prone to anxiety in responding to confusing situations are labeled infantilistic in their adjustment mechanism.  The infant’s dependency is characterized by submission to parental figures, parasitism to adult figures, and desire to be cared for. In effect, being dependent, being submissive, and craving for caring and succor – these response tendencies are all right in infancy.  Habitually employed in the adult stage, these are relatively classified as developmentally immature adjustment  mechanisms.

Childish reaction to success is “boasting” and “denial” is the defense  for failure to satisfy desires.  The emotions of anger, love, fear, and despair are materialized by acts of attack, approach, flight, and surrender.  The inadequately socialized child,  by nature, takes what he wants.  He wants his needs satisfied unconscious of others around him who may also have needs of their own.  The desire for praise or attention may generate attention-getting mechanisms.  Inadequate socialization engenders a drive for relatively selfish acquisition of objects desired or excessive demand for attention  without consideration for the needs of others.  Thus, an individual who exhibits greed or selfishness in the utilization of objects or property normally shared equally, or demanding excessive attention to himself without regard for the needs of others is labeled egocentric. The egocentric is usually considered as childish or immature.

The inadequately socialized child whose goal is blocked employs  attack as his mechanism of adjustment.  Attack is related to aggression, and delinquency.  On the other hand, withdrawal mechanisms are utilized when the individual moves away from the source of  frustration.  Forms of withdrawal are hiding, avoidance, or regression.  Regression is retreating or resorting to earlier forms of behavior which are considered less mature.

The Emotionally Mature Self

Emotional maturity is one of the attributes necessary for maintaining productive interpersonal relations and success in daily endeavors.

Every day a person negotiates a lot of challenges and limitations to surmount.  Prevailing over or coping  with these challenges distinguishes the successful from the unsuccessful person.  One’s daily goals may be thwarted and blocked and may result in feeling frustrated and disappointed.  The emotionally secure self easily glides to bounce from this apparent frustration and face the experience just like an ordinary situation.

The emotionally mature self has a realistic planning for the future so that he has a positive appraisal of events occurring in the day to day grind.  He can arrange his schedules and manage activities to fit in with future goals.  Anticipating the future, his plans and preparation arm him with resources and provisions to face the exigencies that may arise.

The emotionally mature is realistically oriented with regards to self and outer reality.  He exhibits a realistic acceptance of his self.  He has a rational evaluation of his resources, capacities, limits, and weaknesses.  His sensitivity to the demands of the environment enables him to gauge the depth and breadth of obstacles and challenges he has to hurdle.  This warns him to charge his batteries, prepare resources and be ready to deploy.  This insightful characteristic allows him to fashion a response appropriate to the demands of the situation.  This internal preparedness also equips him with a sense of humor to handle tension and anxiety-provoking assaults.   Humor, a capacity found in mature individuals, deflects tension.

With these traits, he is able to readily relate warmly to others.  Endowed with optimism, the emotionally mature easily extricates himself  from a bind that the immature finds awkward, irritating, or annoying.  He projects the image he wants to achieve in the future and guides his actions so that all moves are channeled efficiently to goal attainment.  He is able to utilize help from other people and resources around him.  He  thus tends to be successful.  Success fuels his confidence in himself and  confidence in  his moves.

These characteristics of the mature self translates into an integrating philosophy of  life.  He is guided by a framework that systematically  rationalizes the connections between the purpose and meaning to everything that he pursues and deliberately experiences.

Emotion and Drives

Emotion is one of the most powerful human energies that exerts influence on human behavior.

Primary emotions are love, joy, surprise, anger, sadness, and fear.

Human behavior is triggered by unsatisfied needs that create tension, which impels the organism to act directed at reducing the tension.  This is the process behind the concept of drives and motivation.

Biological and physiological needs such as avoidance of pain or deprivation related to hunger, thirst, rest, sex, and excretion are considered primary drives.  Primary drives have been associated with the concept of homeostasis which is the maintenance of stable balance and equilibrium of the body  in physiological and biological terms.

Secondary drives are learned drives evolving from secondary needs such as affiliative needs that satisfy relationships, self-realization needs, and security needs.  These secondary drives related to secondary needs or psychological needs include acceptance, belonging, approval, love, companionship, achievement, independence, and prestige, among others.

Satisfaction or non-satisfaction of a need is accompanied by emotional reaction.  Satisfaction of a need brings with it pleasant feelings associated with contentment, pleasure, eagerness or optimism.  On the other hand, unsatisfied need evokes unpleasant feelings related to hurt, suffering, despair, sadness, regret, or disappointment.

Emotional security is the most significant among security needs.  Its satisfaction provides feeling that the individual will be able to maintain a stable and satisfactory relationships with people who are emotionally important to his life.

In time the emotion itself serves as a drive and influence behavior.  Anxiety is one of the significant motivating forces that affect human behavior.

Anxiety and Behavior

The Webster dictionary defines anxiety as an abnormal apprehension and fear often accompanied by physiological signs (as sweating and increased pulse), by doubt about the nature and reality of the threat itself, and by self-doubt.

Anxiety is a mood state characterized by an unpleasant feeling associated with uneasiness, fear, or worry.  Anxiety is normally experienced under stress and helps the person cope with uncertain and difficult situations.

Anxiety just like other negative feelings brings negative energy that tends to paralyze the individual.  Anxiety drags the individual down instead of propelling him to move forward or up in growth.  Anxiety is disabling – it ruins a person’s response potential by curtailing his action and movement.  He vacillates and dilly-dallies.  His decision-making is delayed – if at all.

The person in a state of anxiety may manifest physical  responses such as trembling, fatigue, stomach ache, headache, shortness of breath, or vomiting.  Emotional symptoms characterized by feeling of  apprehension, tension, trouble concentrating, jumpiness, irritability, and restlessness are also manifested.

The psychoanalytic theories of Freud, Horney, and Sullivan, among others, attribute feelings of anxiety to tension-triggered reaction over threat to a person’s psychological security and well-being.

“The function of anxiety is to warn the person of impending danger, a signal to the ego that unless appropriate measures are taken, the danger may increase until the ego is overthrown.”

“The individual’s customary reaction to external threats of pain and destruction with which it is not prepared to cope is to become afraid.  The threatened person is ordinarily a  fearful person.”

Anxiety manifested by young children when meeting with unknown people or strangers is common stage of development and considered normal.  Fixated into adulthood, this stranger anxiety or social anxiety is no longer within the common developmental stage.

Test anxiety is apprehension or nervousness experienced by students who fear failing an examination.

In diagnosing psychoneurosis, psychotherapists look for anxiety as the dominant symptom, over delusions and hallucinations.

Karen Horney, one of the early practitioners of the psychoanalytic school, theorizes that “anything that disturbs the security of the child in relation to its parents produces basic anxiety.”  The anxious child develops various strategies to cope: 1) Become hostile and seek to avenge itself against those that  reject it; 2) Become very submissive to win back the love it feels it has lost; and, 3) Develop unrealistic, idealistic picture of itself in order to compensate for feelings of inferiority.

Anxiety in its normal state keeps one on his toes, become vigilant, be reminded of shortcomings.  Its value is that it triggers movement and action.  Too much anxiety freezes one into inaction and is debilitating.

The Self

All human beings are born winners.  Due to their environment and upbringing, some end up being “trained” losers.

Winning is the goal of the self.  The first law of nature is the preservation of the self.

The goal of personal adjustment is maintaining  productive interpersonal relations.  The self  is the vehicle that is instrumental in the materialization of this goal.  The well-adjusted self is a product of its psychological characteristics and how it interacts with its environment.

The self is the representation on one’s identity which is reflected by the unique qualities that differentiates one from others.  The expression of the self is manifested in the psychological attributes that constitute the human energies.  It is the sum total of the physical body parts, sensations, perceptions, thought processes, aspirations, memories, and consciousness.

The self-concept is the image and  persona that  the  individual holds of himself.  It is his perception of his personality, character, capacities,  attributes, potentials, strengths, limits, and weaknesses.  It has a significant influence on his drives and motivations.

The development of the self-concept is shaped by the environmental factors during  early childhood.  Parents, playmates, classmates, peers, and church members are the early influential entities affecting self-concept development.

Parents establish the concept of what is right and what is wrong through guidance and coaching.  Behaviors that are considered right are rewarded by desirable responses such as a hug, verbal approval, and approving smile.  Behaviors considered wrong are penalized through verbal rebuke, disapproving frown, or even physical punishment.  Over time, the child perceives the distinction between socially approved actions and socially disapproved behaviors.

Playmates contribute to the socialization process.  Accepting the individual to the group is rewarding while rejecting through withdrawal of group approval or support is punishing.  The child learns to shape his behavior according to the demands of parents, peers, playmates, church members, and others.

The feedback given and the perceptions the child creates about his persona leads to the delineation of his self-concept.  The accumulation of experiences, one’s perception of the world around him, and his exploits and escapades, contribute to the formation of the self-concept.

Under an atmosphere of achievement and approval, the child grows to develop a positive self-concept.  On the other hand, constant disparagement, disapproval, disrespect, and feeling of failure contribute to the development of a negative self-concept.  This becomes the stereotype of the loser.

Enthusiasm & Personal Adjustment

Productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness are daily goals of the normal individual.  These are described as being well-adjusted, enthusiastic, and energetic.  These are manifested in feelings of well-being, cooperativeness, helpfulness, eagerness, and feeling to be on top of the world.

In the industrial and business environment, these are also the goals that superiors and administrators of organizations wish of their employees.  Business goals demand  efficiency of operations.  Since workers and employees are factors of business operations, enthusiastic, well-adjusted, and energetic  workers are assets that  managers desire to maintain.

Psychological assessment reports generated by psychometricians usually describe the intellectual level, aptitudes, interests, energy level, personal adjustment, and mental health of testees.  The energy level of the individual sets the level of capacity and stamina to produce work output.  Individuals described to have high energy level are  predicted to be  more productive at work.

Business organizations usually require team adaptability as one of the characteristics necessary for success.  Being a team player requires characteristics of enthusiasm, cooperativeness, positive emotional adjustment and mental health, and maturity.

Enthusiasm, emotional adjustment and mental health, and positive outlook are products of processes generated from needs, values, emotions, and conflicts of the individual.  Psychological needs refer to secondary needs such as need for affiliation, power, achievement, recognition, autonomy, and the need to be needed.  These are the higher order needs described by Maslow in his hierarchy of needs theory.  Value refers to a fundamental belief on something of substantial significance and meaning to a person.  Emotion is a spontaneous intense feeling aroused by meaningful stimulus characterized by peculiar bodily changes such as rapid pulse rate, rapid heart rate, muscular movement, and rapid breathing.  Conflicts arise when incompatible response tendencies are aroused.

Collectively, these needs, values, emotions, and conflicts constitute the human energies that arouse the individual to act and behave.  Needs satisfied energize the individual; emotions expressed  activate the individual; values affirm and direct an individual’s drive  and passion; while resolved conflicts  propel the individual to float in a feeling of relief and relaxation and diminution or total loss of stress.

Negotiating conflicts successfully depends on the maturity level of the individual.  Society provides conventions and standards that have to be dealt with.  Expressing emotions and values, demanding satisfaction of personal needs in relation to others have to be expressed in acceptable terms.

Personal adjustment means coping with the limitations and getting satisfaction in the process.  In a way, it is winning without being labeled  an unfair adversary.  And adjustment is tied up with societal norms and conventions.  Imposing oneself by satisfying one’s needs, expressing one’s emotions, values, and resolving conflicts, is judged after the behavior has been manifested.

Enthusiasm evolves from energizing processes starting with satisfying human needs, desires, and aspirations.  These aspirations are tempered by a rational appreciation of one’s capacities, resources, and limitations.  The well-adjusted and energized individual is likely to be efficient, effective, and productive.

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