Components of Attitudes & ABC Model of Attitude Show Components of Attitudes in O.B.Attitudes comprise of three basic components: informational, emotional and behavioural. These three components are described below:
ABC Model of Attitude
 All the three components of attitude explained above constitute, what is OF called the ABC model. Here, in the ABC model, the alphabet ‘A’ stands for Affective component, ‘B’ for Behavioural and ‘C’ for the cognitive component. The importance of this model is that to have a proper and thorough understanding of the concept of attitude, all the three components mentioned above must be properly assessed. It is only the behavioural component which can be directly observed, the other two components: affective and cognitive can however only be inferred. Important links Disclaimer: wandofknowledge.com is created only for the purpose of education and knowledge. For any queries, disclaimer is requested to kindly contact us. We assure you we will do our best. We do not support piracy. If in any way it violates the law or there is any problem, please mail us on
There are three main elements of an attitude:
As you can see, the easy way to recall these components is to use the letters ABC. Cognitive componentCognitive component involves the belief or knowledge of the person. This base knowledge is usually objective and without any emotional element. For example, a person might know that McDonald’s is a fast food restaurant that operates in 1,000’s of locations throughout the world. As you can see, this is simply base information/knowledge without any particular viewpoint in regards to McDonald’s. Affective componentThe affective component of an attitude relates to some form of judgment or positive/negative evaluation of the object, person, task or brand. A good way to remember this component is from the word ‘affection’ – but consider that the view can be positive or negative. Using our McDonald’s example again, the same person as above may consider that McDonald’s food is convenient and provides good value for money. This is the affective component of an attitude, as it suggests some form of evaluation. Contrast this against another person who may dislike the taste of McDonald’s view and generally dislike their facilities. Behavioural componentThe third component of an attitude is the behavioural component. As suggested by the name, this is the person’s behavior relative to the subject of the overall attitude. Using a McDonald’s example yet again, there are some people who would frequently visit McDonald’s, others who go occasionally, and others who would never go to McDonald’s. Obviously the behavioral component is interrelated to the effective and cognitive aspects of the person’s attitude.
Do you believe that God exists? What’s your opinion on politics? What are your favorite pizza toppings? These questions may be seemingly unrelated, but it’s likely you have strong opinions about all three of these topics. Developing opinions and forming likes and dislikes about everything around us are part of our daily lives. These attitudes affect the way we live and the choices we make. Attitudes can be defined as evaluations of ideas, events, objects, or people. Attitudes are generally positive or negative, but they can also be uncertain at times. For example, sometimes we have mixed feelings about a particular issue or person. Regardless, attitudes are an important topic of study for social psychologists because they help determine what we do – what we eat, how we vote, what we do with our free time, and so on. Every attitude has three components that are represented in what is called the ABC model of attitudes: A for affective, B for behavioral, and C for cognitive. Although every attitude has these three components, any particular attitude can be based on one component more than another. In other words, each component can also be the answer to the question: where does an attitude come from? There are affectively-based attitudes, behaviorally-based attitudes, and cognitively-based attitudes. Structure of AttitudesAttitudes structure can be described in terms of three components.
One of the underlying assumptions about the link between attitudes and behavior is that of consistency. This means that we often or usually expect the behavior of a person to be consistent with the attitudes that they hold. This is called the principle of consistency. The principle of consistency reflects the idea that people are rational and attempt to behave rationally at all times and that a person’s behavior should be consistent with their attitude(s). Affective ComponentAffective component is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude. It is related to the statement which affects another person. It deals with feelings or emotions that are brought to the surface about something, such as fear or hate. Using the above example, someone might have the attitude that they love all babies because they are cute or that they hate smoking because it is harmful to health. The affective component refers to the emotional reaction one has toward an attitude object. Think of someone – we’ll name her Alice – who has ophidiophobia (a phobia of snakes). A snake is an attitude object. Whenever Alice is exposed to a snake – whether she sees one or thinks about one – she feels extreme anxiety and fear. Behavioral ComponentBehavior component of an attitude consists of a person’s tendencies to behave’in a particular way toward an object. It refers to that part of attitude which reflects the intention of a person in short run or long run. Using the above example, the behavioral attitude maybe- ‘I cannot wait to kiss the baby’, or ‘we better keep those smokers out of the library, etc. Cognitive ComponentThe cognitive component of attitudes refers to the beliefs, thoughts, and attributes that we would associate with an object. It is the opinion or belief segment of an attitude. It refers that part of attitude which is related in general knowledge of a person. Typically these come to light in generalities or stereotypes, such as ‘all babies are cute’, ‘smoking is harmful to health’ etc. Attitude in Organisational BehaviourViewing attitudes as made up of three components – cognition, affect and behaviour– is helpful toward understanding their complexity and the potential relationship between attitude and behaviour. The object of an attitude is represented as a prototype in a person’s memory. Then an individual uses an attitude as a schema for evaluating an object. The person may assess the object as good or bad, positive or negative, favoured or not; then the person determines the strategy to take toward it. The accessibility of an attitude, or ease with which it is activated, affects its implementation. Personal experience with the object and the repeated expression of the attitude increases it accessibility. In this way, attitude-related information helps process complex information. Author amitkakri Posted on April 17, 2019 Categories Uncategorized |
What does ABC in attitude stand for?
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