Correct Answer - Option 2 : Valence
Attitude
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It is a state of the mind, a set of views, or thoughts, regarding some topic (called the ‘attitude object’), which have an evaluative feature (positive, negative or neutral quality).
- It is accompanied by an emotional component, and a tendency to act in a particular way with regard to the attitude object.
- The three aspects have been referred to as the A-B-C components (Affective-Behavioural Cognitive components) of attitude.
- The thought component is referred to as the cognitive aspect,
- the emotional component is known as the affective aspect, and
- the tendency to act is called the behavioural (or conative) aspect.
The A-B-C components, attitudes also have other properties. Four significant features of attitudes are :
Valence (positivity or negativity),
- The valence of an attitude tells us whether an attitude is positive or negative towards the attitude object.
- Suppose an attitude (say, towards nuclear research) has to be expressed on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 (Very bad), 2 (Bad), 3 (Neutral — neither good nor bad), and 4 (Good), to 5 (Very good). If an individual rates her/his view towards nuclear research as 4 or 5, this is clearly a positive attitude. This means that the person likes the idea of nuclear research and thinks it is something good. On the other hand, if the rating is 1 or 2, the attitude is negative. This means that the person dislikes the idea of nuclear research, and thinks it is something bad
Extremeness,
- The extremeness of an attitude indicates how positive or negative an attitude is.
- Taking the nuclear research example given above, a rating of 1 is as extreme as a rating of 5 : they are only in the opposite directions (valence). Ratings of 2 and 4 are less extreme.
- A neutral attitude, of course, is lowest on extremeness.
Simplicity or Complexity (multiplexity),
- This feature refers to how many attitudes there are within a broader attitude.
- Think of an attitude as a family containing several ‘member’ attitudes. In case of various topics, such as health and world peace, people hold many attitudes instead of single attitude.
- An attitude system is said to be ‘simple’ if it contains only one or a few attitudes, and ‘complex’ if it is made up of many attitudes.
Centrality
- This refers to the role of a particular attitude in the attitude system.
- An attitude with greater centrality would influence the other attitudes in the system much more than non-central (or peripheral) attitudes would. For example, in the attitude towards world peace, a negative attitude towards high military expenditure may be present as a core or central attitude that influences all other attitudes in the multiple attitude system.
Hence, Whether an attitude is positive or negative is shown by valence.
