The Effect of Attitude on Student Achievement

Attitude is a distinctive concept in social psychology and plays an important role in identifying the characteristics of individuals. Attitude is generally defined as an individual’s tendency to react positively or negatively towards a stimulus. In other words, it refers to the tendency of an individual to have positive or negative reactions to certain stimuli (Fishbein and Ajzen 1977). Allport (1935) defines attitude as follows: “… mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related” (p. 798). In another definition, attitude is seen as the accumulation of knowledge of an individual about an issue, another individual, a situation and an experience. In addition, attitude is believed to emerge from the beliefs, feelings and intended behaviors of an individual (Simpson et al. 1994). Attitude is not a trait given at birth; in fact, it is acquired later on. Above all, attitude belongs to human himself. However; it is not a directly observable trait; rather it emerges indirectly from other observable behaviors of individuals. Attitudes mainly develop at early childhood and are shaped by the influences of parents and peers. It is inevitable that life experiences, cultural roots and social interactions influence attitudes. Other distinct attitudes are highly likely to be retained in individuals’ memories and affect their behaviors (Aronson 1999). According to Petty et al. (2003), attitudes develop during socialization depending on individuals’ personal knowledge and experiences. There are three components of attitude: • Affective: feelings and emotions towards an object • Cognitive: beliefs and knowledge • Behavior: tendency to act, intentions and behavioral expectations