How Your Attitude Can Influence Your Behavior

In psychology, attitude is an abstract mental construct, an intangible emotional and psychological entity that characterizes an individual, or in short, is part of, their personality. They are an acquired trait through prolonged experiences and are complex. Attitude is the inner state of mind that an individual has concerning a specific situation. It can be very positive or it can be very negative. At times it can even be perceived as ambivalent or vacillating.


In fact, attitude refers to the general disposition toward something. An individual's attitude can be described as his or her feelings about a specific situation. These feelings may be good or bad. If a person tries something and it goes wrong, he will have a negative attitude because he will have been primed or have been led to believe that the attempt was unsuccessful. This may then make him do nothing about it at all.

However, we should not always expect that our lives are a just blank where attitude can be shaped and changed. There is always an influence that is responsible for our behavior. These influences can either positive or negative. And attitude definitely has a considerable impact on these influences. We can alter our attitudes by modifying the way we think and speak about issues.

When we start believing something we often tend to believe it wholeheartedly without any reason. And if we do not want to modify our attitude, we are stuck with these erroneous thoughts and perceptions. And if we want to change our behavior, we need to find some way to challenge the erroneous thoughts and perceptions.

When we start doubting things or are not convinced of something, our attitude turns from positive to negative. The turning from positive to negative attitude happens when our confidence gets undermined. When we do not have sufficient faith in ourselves or lack a positive attitude, our behavior becomes negative. Our thoughts become pessimistic and our behavior becomes unpleasant. And this can create a vicious cycle that leads us nowhere.

But this doesn't mean that our attitude is wholly determined by our cognitive component alone. Our attitude can also be affected by the emotional component. Our emotional responses are the product of how we perceive events and situations. If we see things as bad will only get worse, this may make us develop pessimistic attitudes.

And our cognitive responses can also be affected by the personal experience we had earlier. We can get angry with someone or thing due to our previous negative personal experiences. This again can adversely affect our attitude. We can interpret the situation in a negative way and thereby adopt similar behaviors in order to resolve the conflict.

Therefore, the cognitive dissonance we encounter can be turned around by learning more about the influence of attitude on behavior through operant conditioning. Our attitude can be changed by using the principles of operant conditioning. We can therefore use these principles to change our attitude and thus influence other behaviors such as our behavior in our personal life. If you want to change your attitude and if you want to improve your interpersonal relationships and increase your productivity level, you must master the principles of operant conditioning.

The relationship between our attitude and behavior is actually a relationship between our cognitive beliefs and our bodily behaviors. Our cognitive beliefs are beliefs about the outside world that we tend to adopt without thinking. Our attitude is then an internal state of readiness to try out new things that challenge our comfort zone. As we start believing and acting in accordance with our beliefs, our body language and behavior naturally begin to mirror our attitude.

When we know how to change our attitudes to embrace a more positive direction, however, it is not only our attitudes that can change. Our willingness to act also changes. People who have a good relationship with their bodies are more willing to accept risks, are more flexible when working with others, and have a relatively enduring organization. Conversely, people who have bad relationships with their bodies are typically conservative and have a very adversarial relationship with the environment.


Knowing the influence of attitude on behavior will help in many aspects of your life - you can improve your attitude and behavior. Your attitude is probably the most significant single factor that determines the level of success you experience in nearly every area of your life. Attitude surveys and other tools available can help you determine your unique beliefs about yourself and about the world.