Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values

When you consider what makes you you, the answers multiply as do the questions. As a baby, you
learned to recognize that the face in the mirror was your face. But as an adult, you begin to wonder
what and who you are. While we could discuss the concept of self endlessly and philosophers have
wrestled and will continue to wrestle with it, for our purposes, let’s focus on self, which is defined as
one’s own sense of individuality, motivations, and personal characteristics.[1] We also must keep in
mind that this concept is not fixed or absolute; instead it changes as we grow and change across our
lifetimes.

One point of discussion useful for our study about ourselves as communicators is to examine our
attitudes, beliefs, and values. These are all interrelated, and researchers have varying theories as to
which comes first and which springs from another. We learn our values, beliefs, and attitudes through
interaction with others. Table 3.1 “Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values” defines these terms and provides an
example of each.

Definition Changeable? Example

Attitudes Learned predispositions to a concept or object Subject to change I enjoyed the

writing exercise in class today.

Beliefs Convictions or expressions of confidence Can change over time This course is important
because I may use the communication skills I am learning in my career.

Values Ideals that guide our behavior Generally long lasting Effective communication is important.

An attitude is your immediate disposition toward a concept or an object. Attitudes can change easily and
frequently. You may prefer vanilla while someone else prefers peppermint, but if someone tries to
persuade you of how delicious peppermint is, you may be willing to try it and find that you like it better
than vanilla.

Beliefs are ideas based on our previous experiences and convictions and may not necessarily be based
on logic or fact. You no doubt have beliefs on political, economic, and religious issues. These beliefs may
not have been formed through rigorous study, but you nevertheless hold them as important aspects of
self. Beliefs often serve as a frame of reference through which we interpret our world. Although they
can be changed, it often takes time or strong evidence to persuade someone to change a belief.

Values are core concepts and ideas of what we consider good or bad, right or wrong, or what is worth
the sacrifice. Our values are central to our self-image, what makes us who we are. Like beliefs, our
values may not be based on empirical research or rational thinking, but they are even more resistant to
change than are beliefs. To undergo a change in values, a person may need to undergo a transformative
life experience.
For example, suppose you highly value the freedom to make personal decisions, including the freedom
to choose whether or not to wear a helmet while driving a motorcycle. This value of individual choice is
central to your way of thinking and you are unlikely to change this value. However, if your brother was
driving a motorcycle without a helmet and suffered an accident that fractured his skull and left him with
permanent brain damage, you might reconsider this value. While you might still value freedom of choice
in many areas of life, you might become an advocate for helmet laws—and perhaps also for other forms
of highway safety, such as stiffer penalties for cell-phone talking and texting while driving

The Relationship Between Beliefs, Values, Attitudes and Behaviours

MOHAN KUMAR

Mohan is a family physician and a Postgraduate Associate Dean working in the UK. He has a keen
interest in self-regulated learning.

Attitudes are a construct of internal beliefs and value systems.

Attitudes are a construct of internal beliefs and value systems.

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their
attitudes of mind.”

— William James

What Are Beliefs, Values and Attitudes?

In our various roles, our beliefs, values and attitudes are constantly interacting with those of our peers,
friends, family or teachers. We seem to instinctively ‘like’ the individuals who share our core values and
beliefs. Harmonising our value systems is what makes a relationship successful, be it personal,
educational or professional.

Teaching-and-assessing-attitudes

Proponents of adult learning state that in order to achieve competence and excellence, one needs to be
able to teach and assess not only knowledge and skills, but attitudes, as well. To achieve excellence, we
must be able to identify the core values and belief systems that underpin attitudes2.
Performance improvement can only come from learning the appropriate knowledge and skills.
Possessing the right value and belief systems may influence our motivation, intention and engagement
with a specific task.

We may come across individuals who seemingly possess the knowledge and skills to a do a task, but only
with a positive attitude towards the task will there be motivation, engagement and intention to
complete the task.

The ‘iceberg’ diagram below shows the relationship between our hidden values and belief systems and
our outward behaviours. However, there are two factors displayed that directly influence behaviours—
one is the attitude that underpins the behaviour, the other is the capability to express the expected
behaviour.

Iceberg demonstrating implicit and explicit bias.

Iceberg demonstrating implicit and explicit bias.

‘The power of knowledge to organise, select, learn and judge comes from values and beliefs as much as,
and probably more than, from information and logic’

— Thomas Davenport and Laurence Prusak (2000) Working Knowledge

Attitude: Description and Significance

Almost all educational theories encompass teaching and assessment of knowledge, skills and attitudes.
While we find it easier to define knowledge and skills, definitions of attitudes vary.

Attitudes have been described as hypothetical constructs that represent a person’s like or dislike for
anything. Attitude is a judgment made on the ‘attitude object’ (a person, place, task, event, skill, etc.).
Judgments from attitude can range from positive, negative or neutral.
Attitudes arise from an inner framework of values and beliefs, developed over time. Carl Jung, in his
essay on psychological types, defines attitude as “the readiness of the psyche to act or react in a certain
way,”1.

Beliefs, Values and Attitudes

Beliefs, Values and Attitudes

The Three Components of Attitude

Attitudes are comprised of three components: emotions, behaviours and thoughts. These three
components can also be described as the ‘ABC’ model: affective, behavioural and cognitive.

The ‘affective’ response is one’s emotional response to a task or an entity. The ‘behavioural’ response is
the displayed verbal or behavioural tendency to a task or entity, whereas the ‘cognitive’ response is the
cognitive evaluation of the entity based on an internal belief system.

There is considerable overlap in the semantics of beliefs, values and attitudes, however, these are also
distinct constructs (as illustrated above).

Attitude: Based on the Behaviours of Ourselves and Others

One of the key lessons to be learned is that we are at the mercy of expressed behaviours. Both in
ourselves and in others, we ‘assume’ attitudes based on observed behaviour.

For example, someone who regularly arrives late may be considered not very punctual or organised.
However, this same person may spend time caring for somebody who is very ill, and their personal time
delivering this care may interfere with their prompt arrival to work or lessons. With this new
information, they may be viewed from a different perspective.

Our attitudes toward observed behaviour will also tint our judgements. For example, if a person arrives
shoddily dressed for an interview, we may feel they have not taken the time to prepare. However, if the
said person believes their talent and skills are what should be recognised and not their appearance—this
mindset influences their attitude toward dressing ‘smart’ and thus influences their behaviour.
Behaviours may also be ‘false’. A person may display false obeisance and ritualistic behaviour when they
need a favourable review, or feel they are being observed for performance. This may indicate a certain
attitude, but the observer needs to delineate the difference between a true attitude and a false
behaviour implying an attitude. A person who is constantly fawning and agreeing to everything their
superior says may not necessarily be in agreement, but may fawn in order to carry favour.

In assessing behaviour, one needs to be aware of capability. There have been situations where a
particular person may be considered ‘rude’ due to a raised voice or lack of clear idioms and phraseology,
such as saying ‘thank you’ and ‘please’. Yet, if the person or persons observed have never received any
training to modulate their speech pattern or learn the idioms and phraseology of the language they are
communicating in, they may not have the capability to express the right behaviour for the situation.
This, in turn, may be perceived as a ‘bad attitude’ by those that have the capability to express a more
appropriate behaviour.

“It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its
successful outcome.”

— William James

Provide Feedback on Behaviours, not Attitudes

Positive attitudes are needed in an individual in order for them to be motivated and engaged in a task.
Attitudes arise out of core values and beliefs we hold internally. Beliefs are assumptions and convictions
we hold to be true based on past experiences. Values are worthy ideas based on things, concepts and
people. Behaviours are how these internalised systems (attitudes, beliefs and values) are expressed.

These factors heavily influence the ability to learn and organise knowledge and skills. In order to
influence performance in a learning context or an organisation (or even at home!), one needs to be
aware of the key differences between these constructs.

Feedback on attitudes will always be perceived as judgemental as it is about others’ behaviour filtered
through our value systems. It is better, therefore, to provide feedback on behaviours. It is even better to
determine ideal behaviours for an organisation, situation or learning environment and set the scene
before the behaviours are being assessed. This way, feedback can be contextualised on behaviour that is
observed and factual. This reduces the potential for conflict and low morale.
Attitudes are not the same as behaviours.

Attitudes are a construct of internal beliefs and value systems.

Attitudes, capability or circumstance influence observed behaviour.

Use caution when assessing attitudes and use behaviours as examples.

Feedback and behaviour management can change attitudes.

Changing attitudes can also change values and beliefs and vice versa.

An understanding of these constructs helps personal and organizational management