THE SYSTEM OF INDIVIDUAL’S ATTITUDES: THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE RESEARCH

Abstract

The approaches of different scholars to the interpretation of the terms “attitudes” and “system of attitudes” of an individual have been analyzed. The authors have described the development of the concept of “attitudes” in psychology and its perception by the founders of this direction of psychological research – A. F. Lazurskiy and his students M. Ya. Basov and V. N. Myasishchev.

The main attitudes of individuals have been studied, where the majority relate to them the attitudes to the society, labor others and themselves.

The authors have researched the structure of attitudes that includes three components: cognitive (knowledge about the object), emotional (feelings caused by the object) and behavioral and motivational (actions that facilitate the attitude to the object or the readiness to such actions).

The authors have provided the definition of the system of attitudes as an hierarchical structure formed by the system of individual attitudes and have defined its following functions: sense-making (reflection of the value of a particular object for a particular individual), goal-forming or steering (reflecting the formation of attitudes to the object of behavior and to its objective in the light of its striking range and desirability), integrating (attitudes smoothing internal contradictions between the mind and the senses) and mastering (stable and permanent attitudes help individuals to resist the actions of external environment).

The authors have defined the forms and types of attitudes, the latter of which are related by A. F. Lazurskiy with personality, and V. N. Myasishchev offers to distinguish attitudes depending on their components.

The authors have demonstrated the separation of attitudes into conscious and unconscious, emotional (feelings form attitudes) and rational (knowledge about the object influence on its perception and evaluation), intrapersonal and interpersonal (emotional and volitional guidance of the subject to itself, or attitudes, the object of which is another person), positive and negative (presence or absence of attitudes to the object).