In a very basic sense, an attitude can be defined as someone’s positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, events, activities, or ideas. An attitude can be said to be pervasive, but also changeable.

Attitudes have been a central concept in psychology for many decades, with differing approaches covering different aspects of this construct. These include focusing on the fundamental nature of attitudes and their measurement as well as how attitudes are and can be changed, implicit aspects of attitudes, and how attitudes and behaviours are related to each other. In addition, attitudes have been shown to have memory and judgement elements, as well as both affective and cultural components.

Source:

W. D. Crano & R. Prislin (Eds.) (2008). Attitudes and attitude change. New York: Psychology Press. 3-353

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