A Talk on

Personality, Attitude & Behavior

By
Hem Raj Singh
Jr. Works Manager
OFIL-Dehradun
 Personality
 Personality is the distinctive, consistent, and enduring
patterns of behavior that characterize an individual’s
responses to situations in his or her life.
Or
 An individual’s unique pattern of thoughts, feelings,
and behaviors that persists over time and across
situations.
Or
 Personal characteristics that lead to consistent
patterns of behavior
May be inborn or learned
 Environment: Shapes at least 50% of
personality?
 Culture

 Family

 Group Membership

 Life Experiences
 Attitude
Attitude is defined as the way of
regarding life and events,
It is a personal view of something, an
opinion or general feeling about
something.
OR
A state of mind or feeling with regard to
some matter
 Factors of Attitude
 1- Environment
 2- Experience

 3- Education
 Environment

 Environment depends upon the

following elements:-
1- Home ( Positive or negative influence)
2- School (peer or friends pressure)
3- Workplace ( Supportive or over critical
Supervisor)
4- Media (Television, Newspaper, Magazines,
Radio, Movies)
5- Cultural Background
6- Religious Background
7- Tradition and Beliefs
8- Social Environment
9- Political Environment
 ATTITUDE

During childhood, we form attitudes that last a

lifetime, undoubtedly, it would be easier to
acquire a positive attitude during our formative
years.

If the combination of your inborn temperament

and your early childhood experiences have
produced a positive attitude, you are indeed very
fortunate.
THE BENEFITS OF A POSITIVE ATTITUDE

There are many advantages to having a positive

attitude, the advantages are easy to see, But

what is easy to see is also easy to miss!

A Positive Attitude

Benefits for you:

-Makes for pleasing personality

-Is energizing

-Increases your enjoyment of life

-Inspires others around you

-Helps you become a contributing member of
society and asset to your country And for the
organization.
-Increases productivity

-cultivate teamwork

-Solves problems

-Improves quality
-Makes for a friendly atmosphere

-Breeds loyalty

-Increases profits

- cultivate better relationships with employers,

employees and customers.

- Reduces stress
How to develop Positive Attitude
 Be a good finder.
 Make a habit of doing it now.
 Develop an Attitude of Gratitude.
 Get into a continuous educating programme.
 Build a positive self esteem.
 Stay away from negative influence.
 Learn to like the things that need to be done
 Start your day with a positive.
The Consequences of a Negative Attitude
Life is an obstacle course and we become our
biggest obstacle by having a negative attitude.
People with negative attitudes have a hard time
keeping friendships, jobs, marriages, and
relationships. Negative attitudes lead to

-Bitterness

-anger

-A purposeless life

-Ill health

-High stress levels for themselves and others.

Negative attitudes create an
unpleasant environment at home, at
work and become a danger to
society. They pass their negative
behavior to others around them add
to the future generations.
 Behaviour
 The manner of conducting own self.
The response of an individual or
group to it’s environment.
 Values and Attitudes
 If you want to understand a person’s
behavior, you must understand his or
her values
 Values are basic convictions (notions)
about what is right and wrong.
 Army Values
 LOYALTY
 DUTY
 RESPECT
 SELFLESS SERVICE
 HONOR
 INTEGRITY
 PERSONAL COURAGE
 Importance of values
 Values generally influence attitudes and
behavior.
 Value system is a hierarchy based on a
ranking of an individual’s values in terms of
one’s intensity.
 Values
 Values differ between generations.
 Values differ between regions.
 Values differ between cultures.
 Terminal values are the end-state we
hope to achieve in life.
 Instrumental values are means of
achieving these terminal values
 VALUES, ATTITUDES AND
BEHAVIORS
 Overview
 Define values, attitudes, behaviors and beliefs

 Explain the importance of beliefs, values, and norms

 Explain the value system and the significance of the

socialization process

 Explain Louis Rath’s seven value criteria

 Explain cognitive dissonance and ways to reduce it

 Categories of Values
 Personal Values
 representative of an individual's moral character

 Social Values
 Folkways- values people accept out of habit
 Morals- morality which governs values
 Institutional- ways or practices set up under law
 Taboos- the emphatic do’s and don’ts of a particular society
 Categories of Values
 Political
 “American Way”, public service, voting, civic
responsibility
 Economic
 Such mediums as equal employment, stable economy,
money, private property, pride of ownership, and taxes
 Religious
 Characterized by reverence for life, human dignity and
freedom of worship
 Socialization
 Major source of individual values
 Louis Rath’s Value Criteria
 Choosing Freely
 No one can force you into a value

 Choosing from alternatives

 Choosing after consideration of the consequences

 Choosing after the thoughtful consideration

 Being committed to the choice

 Prizing and cherishing

 Being happy with your choice
 Louis Rath’s Value Criteria
 Affirming
 Letting others know where you stand

 Acted upon
 Your actions speak louder than words
 Repeated
 Consistent in your pattern of life
 Characteristics of Attitude
 Difficult to measure
 Indicated by behavior, reactions to individual
situations, social values
 May create inflexibility and stereotypes
 Based on inconsistencies, incorrect assumptions or
other false data
 Demonstrated by behavior
 Characteristics of Attitude
 Formed largely from the continuous process of
socialization

 Positive or negative

 Once formed not easily changed

 Takes a SEE, new conditions, new experience, and new
information
 Attitudes may be affected by age, position, and education
 Attitude Measurement
 Measuring the unobservable in order to predict behavior and to
assess people’s responses to persuasion.
 Attitude properties:
 Evaluative
 Strength (accessibility, ambivalence, certainty, etc.)
 Cognitions vs. affect
 Functions
 Attitudes as systems interconnected with other systems.
 Not all attitudes are created equal: Attitudes can be self-
defining  potential measurement issues.
 Measuring Attitude
 Ways to know another person’s attitude
 Direct (Ask):
 Structured vs. unstructured
 One-item vs. multiple items (scales)
 Indirect:
 Observe reaction
 Observe behavior
 Judgmental biases
 IAT (automatic evaluation/associations)
 Physiological response
 Personal Attitudes vs. Shared (General) Attitudes
 Structured vs. Unstructured
 Unstructured
 Advantages: Does not constrain people’s responses
 Provide rich data
 Especially useful during the early stages of investigating a particular issue
 Structured
 Advantages
 Easier for respondents to answer
 Easier for researcher to score
 Focus precisely on specific properties of the attitude
 Attitude Strength
 Can strength-related dimensions be studied in
isolation?
 Measures of other strength-related properties (i.e.,
repeated expression and elaboration)
 Manipulations that can eliminate differences in one
or more dimensions (i.e., distraction task).
 Measures and manipulations might not be
interchangeable
 Self-Defining Attitudes
 What about measuring self-defining attitudes?
 Self-presentation
 Contingencies of self-worth and editing of
responses
 Shall we anticipate whether certain attitudes
we want to measure are self-defining?
 What should we do about it?
 Attitudes Toward Advertising
 Personal vs. Shared attitudes
 Which one is more important?
 Would both lead to same behaviors?
 Interconnectedness of Attitudes
 If we want to measure attitude toward an object, can
the questionnaire itself change individual’s prior
attitudes? I f so, How can that happen?
 Changing cognitions through previously presented
information (i.e., other questions – context effects?)
 Affecting emotions toward the object (i.e., prejudice).
 Making accessible in memory certain behaviors (i.e.,
associating the objects to recently recalled behaviors)
 Measuring attitude toward related objects (assimilation or
contrast?)
 Learning Outcomes – Values and
Attitudes
 Recognize the need for studying values
 Describe the differences in values between
generations and cultures
 Explain the differences between values and attitudes
 Explain cognitive dissonance
 Recognize the three components of attitudes
 Through self assessment, gain a greater
understanding of one’s own values
Source of our Value Systems
 A significant portion is genetically determined.
 Other factors include national culture, parents,
teachers, friends, and similar environmental
influences
 Values are relatively stable and enduring.
 If we know an individual’s values, we are
better able to predict a behavior in a
particular situation.
 Attitudes
 Attitudes have three evaluative components:
 Cognitive component of an attitude is the opinion
or belief segment of an attitude.
 Affective component is the emotion or feeling
segment of an attitude.
 Behavioral component is the intention to behave
in a certain way toward someone or something.
 Attitudes
 Sources of Attitudes:
 Acquired from parents, teachers, and peer

group members.
 There are “genetic” predispositions.

 Observations, attitudes that we imitate.

 Attitudes are less stable than values.

 Cognitive Dissonance
 Cognitive dissonance is a conflict between
two values or between values and behavior.
 Job-Related Attitudes
 Job involvement
 Extent that a person identifies with his job.
 Organizational commitment
 Extent that a person identifies with the
organization. This is a great predictor for turnover.
 Job satisfaction
 A person’s general attitude toward work.
 Attitude Point # 1
 It is our attitude that tells the world what we
expect in return. A cheerful expectant attitude
communicates to everyone we come in contact
with that we EXPECT THE BEST in our
dealings with our customers.
 Attitude Point # 2
 It is our attitude toward life that determines
life’s attitude toward us. A simple cause and
effect.
 It is your attitude toward others that
determines other’s attitude toward you.
 Attitude Point # 3
 To achieve and find the life you want, you
must think, act, talk, and conduct yourself as
would the person you want to become.
 For example, if one wants to be successful, he or
she must think, act, talk, and conduct himself as
would a successful person.
 Attitude Point # 4
 The higher you go up in any organization of
value, the greater the attitude you will find.
 A great attitude is not the result of success;
rather success is the result of a great attitude.
 Finally!!
 The greatest discovery of my
generation is that a human being
CAN alter his life by changing his
attitude.