Introduction.

Attitude:
Attitude refers to a psychological tendency to react positively or negatively to
an object, person, place, event, issue, or piece of news. In other words, attitude
is a state of mind that is expressed when assessing a specific entity with a
degree of favour or disfavour.
What is an attitude?
Attitudes are about our likes and dislikes. Attitudes are important. They
influence how we see the world, what we think and what we do. That's why we
have social psychologists have paid a lot of attention to understanding how we
form attitudes, how they affect our daily lives, and how they change.
The attitude concept has been defined in many different ways.
Eagly and Chaiken defines an attitude as “a psychological tendency expressed
by evaluating a specific entity with a certain degree of favor or disfavor'. Fazio
defines an attitude as 'an association in memory between a particular object and
a particular summary evaluation of the object'. Despite the subtle differences,
the definitions all include the notion that reporting an attitude involves the
expression of an evaluative judgment about an object. So, we define an attitude
as: an overall evaluation of an object that is based on cognitive, affective, and
behavioral information.
An attitude, when conceptualized as an evaluative judgment, can go one of two
ways important ways vary; valence (or direction), i.e. positive/negative/neutral,
and in strength (very negative or slightly negative). Anything that can be
evaluated along a favorability dimension can be conceptualized as an attitude
object. Some attitude objects are abstract (e.g. liberalism) others concrete (a red
car).
Rosenberg and Hovland took a tripartite approach, claiming that an attitude is
made up of cognitive, affective, and behavioural components.

● Every attitude is made up of three parts, which are represented by the

ABC model of attitudes: A for affective, B for behavioural, and C for
cognitive.
● Despite the fact that these three components are present in every attitude,
any particular attitude can be based on one component more than the
others.
 1. Cognitive component: It refers to the beliefs, thoughts, and attributes that
people associate with a particular object.
● A person's attitude is frequently influenced by the negative and positive
characteristics they associate with an object.
● It is the cognitive part of an attitude that we are talking about when we
form our opinion or judgement based on available information and decide
whether we have a favourable or unfavourable opinion on it.

2. Affective component: The affective component of attitudes is linked to

people's feelings or emotions (e.g., fear, sympathy, hate, like, and
pleasure).

● Affective responses have a variety of effects on attitudes.

● Many people, for example, are afraid of spiders. As a result of this
negative affective response, you're likely to have a negative attitude
toward spiders.
● Affect plays a crucial role in the formation of attitudes.
● Affect is also a common factor in changing one's mind. Purely cognitive
rationales may be overridden by how we feel about a result.

3. Behavioural component: A tendency or predisposition to act in a certain

way is referred to as the behavioural (or conative) component of
attitudes.

4. Affective and cognitive factors may contribute to a person's proclivity to

behave in a certain way.

EXPLICIT VS IMPLICIT ATTITUDE

1. Explicit Attitude (Conscious) – A person's attitudes are explicit if he is

aware of them and how they influence his behaviour. Explicit attitudes
are consciously formed. The cognitive component is largely in charge of
these.
2. Implicit Attitude (Sub-Conscious) – Implicit attitudes exist when a
person is unaware of his or her attitudes (beliefs) and how they influence
his or her behaviour. Subconsciously formed attitudes are referred to as
implicit attitudes. Affective experiences have a big influence on these.

Note: Explicit Attitudes are attitudes that are formed consciously, are easy to
self-report, and are at the conscious level. Implicit Attitudes, on the other hand,
are unconscious attitudes that are formed involuntarily and are usually unknown
to us.
With the help of the following example, let us try to understand the difference
between explicit and implicit attitude.

1. Assume you're out with your pals and you meet someone new. This new
acquaintance is wearing a 'Blue and Gold' Mumbai Indians jersey, which
happens to be your favourite IPL team. You decide you like this person
and strike up a friendly conversation with them. You consciously noticed
the jersey and determined that this is obviously someone with whom you
would get along well from an attitude standpoint. Your attitude is formed
on a conscious level; it was purposefully formed, and you can tell
someone else about it.
2. Consider the following scenario. You're having a good time with your
pals. You notice a few strangers around you but don't interact with them.
You converse with your friends but are extremely uneasy. Perhaps your
friend will notice and inquire as to what's wrong. You, on the other hand,
have no idea. It's possible that one of the strangers near you reminds you
of someone from your past whom you despise in this scenario. It's your
attitude toward this person that makes you feel uneasy. The attitude, on
the other hand, is unconscious; it was formed involuntarily, and you have
no idea it exists, so you can't tell anyone about it.

● It is possible for an explicit attitude and an implicit attitude to contradict

each other, and this is quite common.
Explicit Attitude Implicit Attitude
Consciously and Deliberately formed Develops Subconsciously
They are generally formed due to
They are the result of old experiences
recent experiences
Explicit attitudes have a dominant Implicit attitudes are mainly driven by
cognitive component the Affective component
These exist mostly at a subconscious
These can be expressed and shared
level and therefore sharing such
easily (self-reported)
attitudes is difficult

Habits:
DEFINING HABIT IN PSYCHOLOGY
Thorndike, 1898). These ideas formed the foundations of behaviourism,
especially radical behaviorism’s infamous denial that thoughts and feelings
guide action (e.g., Skinner, 1938). Although behaviorism took many forms, a
common assumption was that stimuli, rewards, and other external forces guide
repeated behaviour

Meaning of Habit:
Habits are found both in man and animal. It is acquired by the living organism.
As instincts motivate one to do various activities, similarly one’s habit also
motivate him to do different activities. Habit is the result of practice of one’s
own individual like.

According to James, habit is man’s second nature. According to Behaviourists,

“As instincts motivate man for a specific experience. Similarly habits also make
him restless to get back some past experience.”

Mc. Dougall says, every habit is formed as a result of some instinctive activity
so habit is always related to some instinct.

Characteristics of Habit:
The following are some of the characteristics of habit:
i. Uniformity:
Habit brings uniformity in the activities of an individual. There is a specific
habit in our mode of talking, sleeping, walking and other activities.

ii. Facility:
There is a facility in the performance of an activity if it is due to some habit. In
the beginning it is difficult to ride a bicycle but after the formation of habit, it
becomes quite easy.

iii. Interest:
The basis of habit is interest. At the beginning of schooling, the child runs away
from the school, but after the formation of habit, going to school becomes
interesting to him.

iv. Independence of attention:

Due to our habit we do many things which require no attention at all.

Role of Habit:
Habit plays a vital role in our day to day life. Many of the behaviours of an
individual are according to his habits. The development of character depends on
our habits and sentiments.

Habit is a great means of our progress in educational situation. It is easy to learn

reading and writing during childhood. But learning is very difficult during
adulthood or old age. Habit strengthens learning activities. Many great things in
the world have been achieved through habits. During early years a child learns
alphabets due to habits. At later period different hard learning tasks can be
overcome by a child through habits.

Test of Study Habits and Attitudes

The "Test of Study Habits and Attitudes" (TSHA) is a psychological assessment
tool developed by C.P. Mathur. It is designed to measure an individual's study
habits and attitudes towards studying. The test consists of a series of questions
that assess various aspects of studying, such as time management,
concentration, motivation, and learning strategies.
The TSHA is commonly used in educational and research settings to understand
students' study habits and attitudes, identify areas for improvement, and provide
guidance for effective studying. It can help educators and counsellors tailor their
teaching and support strategies to meet the specific needs of students.
The test typically takes around 30-45 minutes to complete and is available in
both paper-and-pencil and online formats. It provides a comprehensive
assessment of study habits and attitudes, allowing individuals to gain insights
into their strengths and weaknesses in studying.
Test of Study Habits and Attitudes scale contains 60 statements of which
contains two sets scoring sheet A and scoring sheet B. Scoring sheet A means
the areas which are going well with student and scoring B has 9 areas which
are:
1. Attitudes towards teachers
2. Home environment
3. Attitude towards education
4. Study habits
5. Mental conflict
6. Concentration
7. Home assignment
8. Self – confidence
9. Examination
If any one of these areas has more score, we have to give counselling
specifically to this area.

METHODOLOGY
Aim: To asses the Study Habits and Attitudes of the student using Test of Study
Habits and Attitudes.
Materials required:

● TSHA questioner which contains 60 statements.

● TSHA scoring key

● Writing material

● Timmer

Procedure:
This assessment is administered on students,
Build the rapport, make them feel comfortable, ask them to be relaxed, explain
the procedure “I am going to give a questions feel free to answer and give best
out of it, provide a questions and ask them to mark response Yes/NO/?. ? =
means if they are confused.
After this scoring is done using scoring sheet and result is predicted as per
norms of the test score. Among 9 areas which area has more issue that area need
to be addressed by qualified counsellor.
Individual discussion
Table no 1 shows Individual scoring and interpretation.
Name Raw score Grade Category

The subject ___ has scored raw score of __ and grad _ and belongs to category
of _____. Which states that the individual has no problem/ which shows that
individual has problem needs counselling for coping up with study habits and
attitudes (NOTE: write according to your interpretation).
Conclusion: (discusses the area which students needs counselling based on
scoring and interpretations.)