SODHI’S ATTITUDE SCALE

Aim: To assess the attitude of a student using Sodhi’s attitude scale.

Basic concept:
Social Psychology is a branch of Psychology which investigates how the behaviour of individuals is
affected by others and the social environment.
We form attitudes or develop ways of thinking about specific topics and people. We form impressions
about persons we meet. We are also interested in why people behave in the ways they do-attribution.
The combination of social processes like attitude, impression formation, attribution and pro social
behaviour is called social cognition.
Social cognition refers to the mental activities related to the gathering and interpretation of
information about the social world.
Social cognition of all’ the individuals is affected by the social environment (Societal conditions in
the society peace, harmony, trust or aggression, frustration, disharmony and distrust towards
individuals, groups, peoples, relationship and social issues.)
Because of social influences, people form attitudes or ways of thinking about specific topics and
people. Impression formation is when we make inferences about personal qualities of people we meet.
Attribution is when we assign causes to the behaviour shown in specific social situation.
Attitude:
• Attitude is a state of the mind, a set of views or thoughts, regarding some topic (called the ‘attitude
object’), which have an evaluative feature (positive, negative or neutral quality).
• The thought component is referred to as the cognitive aspect, the emotional component is known as
the effective aspect, and the tendency to act is called the behavioural (or conative) aspect. A-B-C
components (Affective-Behavioural-Cognitive components) of attitude.
Beliefs refer to the cognitive component of attitudes and form the ground on which attitudes stand,
such as belief in God, or belief in democracy as a political ideology.
Values are attitudes or beliefs that contain a ‘should’ or ‘ought’ aspect, such as moral or ethical
values. One example of a value is hard work or honesty. Values are formed when a particular belief or
attitude becomes an inseparable part of the person’s outlook on life.
Features of Attitude:
(i) Valence (positivity or negativity).
(ii) Extremeness indicates how positive or negative an attitude is.
(iii) Simplicity or Complexity (multiplexity) refers to how many attitudes there are within a broader
attitude. An attitude system is said to be ‘simple’ if it contains only one or a few attitudes and
‘complex’ if it is made up of many attitudes.
(iv) Centrality: This refers to the role of a particular attitude in the system much more than non-central
(or peripheral) attitudes would.
Attitude Formation:
In general, attitudes are learned through one’s own experiences, and through interaction With others.
Process of Attitude Formation:
• Association, e.g., a positive attitude towards a subject is learned through the positive association
between a teacher and a student.
• Reward or punishment increases/decreases the further development of that attitude.
• Modelling observing others being rewarded or punished for expressing thoughts, or showing
behaviour of a particular kind towards the attitude object.
• Group or Cultural norms through the norms of our group or culture which may become part of our
social cognition, in the form of attitude.
• Exposure to information, e.g., positive and negative attitudes are formed through the media.
Factors that Influence Attitude Formation:
(i) Family and School Environment particularly in the early years of life.
(ii) Reference Groups indicate the norms regarding acceptable behaviour/ways of thinking, reflect
learning of attitudes through cultural norms, noticeable during beginning of adolescence.
(iii) Personal Experiences (direct).
(iv) Media-related Influences. Technological advances have made audio-visual media, school level
textbook and the Internet very powerful sources of information
Attitude Change:
Attitudes that are still in the formative stage, and are more like opinions, are much more likely to
change compared to attitude that have become firmly established and have become a part of the
individual’s values.
1. Balance or P-O-X triangle (Fritz Heider) represents the relationships between three aspects or
components of attitude.
• P is the person whose attitude is being studied,
• O is another person
• X is the topic towards which the attitude is being studied (attitude object). It is also possible that all
three are persons. The basic idea is that an attitude changes if there is a state of imbalance between the
P-O attitude, O-X attitude, and P-X attitude. This is because imbalance is logically uncomfortable.
Imbalance is found when all three sides are negative, or two sides are positive, and one side is
negative. Balance is found when all three sides are positive or two sides are negative, and one side is
positive.
2. Cognitive Dissonance (Leon Festinger) emphasises on the cognitive component. Cognitive
components of an attitude must be ‘constant’ (opposite of‘dissonant’), i.e., they should be logically in
line with each other. If an individual finds, that two cognitions in an attitude dissonant, then one of
them will be changed in the direction of consonance.
Both balance and cognitive dissonance are examples of cognitive consistency which means that two
components or elements of the attitude, or attitude system, must be in the same direction. If this does
not happen, then the person experiences a kind of mental discomfort, i.e. the sense that ‘something is
not quite right’ in the attitude system.
3. The Two-Step Concept (S.M. Mohsin): According to him, attitude change takes place in the form
of two steps:
(i) The target of change (person whose attitude is to be changed) identifies with the source (person
through whose influence the attitude is to be changed). Identification means that the target and the
source have a mutual regard and attraction.
(ii) The source himself/herself shows an attitude change, by actually changing him/her behaviour
towards the attitude object. Observing the source’s changed attitude and behaviour, the target also
shows an attitude change through behaviour. This is a kind of imitation or observational learning.
Factors that Influence Attitude Change:
• Characteristics of the Existing Attitude: All four properties of attitudes mentioned earlier,
namely, valence (positively or negatively), extremeness, simplicity or complexity (multiplexity), and
centrality or significance of the attitude, determine attitude, determine attitude change. Positive, less
extreme, peripheral (less significant) and simpler attitudes are easier to change.
In addition, one must also consider the direction and extent of attitude change. Congruent (same
direction of the existing attitude) or incongruent (direction opposite). Moreover, an attitude may
change in the direction of the information that is presented, or in a direction opposite to that of the
information presented.
• Source Characteristics: Source credibility and attractiveness. Attitudes are more likely to change
when the message comes from a highly credible source rather than from a low- credible source.
• Message Characteristics: Attitudes will change when the amount of information that is
given about the topic is just enough, neither too much nor too little. Whether the message contains a
rational or an emotional appeal, also makes a difference. The motives activated by the message and
the mode of spreading the message (face-to-face transmission is more effective than indirect
transmission).
• Target Characteristics: Qualities of the target, such as persuasibility (open and flexible
personality), strong prejudices, self-esteem, more willing because they base their attitude on more
information and thinking.
Attitude-Behaviour Relationship:
Psychologists have found that there would be consistency between attitudes and behaviour when—
(i) the attitude is strong and occupies a central place in the attitude system.
(ii) the person is aware of his/her attitude.
(iii) there is very little or no external pressure for the person to behave in a particular way.
Preliminaries:
Name
Age
Gender
Educational Qualification

Brief description of the test:

Sodhi’s attitude scale measures attitude of a student on 5 important dimensions.
a. Attitude towards teachers and parents
b. Attitude towards discipline
c. Attitude towards life of humanity
d. Attitude towards country
e. Attitude towards religion

Sodhi’s attitude scale is a reliable and a valid test. The regional norms, gender norms and percentiles
for the test have been established by the author.

Procedure:
a. Rapport
The participant is made comfortable in the lab. The instructions and the objective of the test are made
clear to him/her and then the test is started.
b. Instructions
‘This is an attitude scale, and it measures attitude of a person in five dimensions namely- attitude
towards teachers and parents, Attitude towards discipline, Attitude towards life of humanity,
Attitude towards country & Attitude towards religion. There are simple statements. Circle ‘yes’ if
you agree to the statement. Circle, ‘no’ if you disagree to the statement and circle ‘?’ if you are
finding it difficult to say yes or no. Choose a “?’ only when its too necessary.
c. Precautions
 It is not a timed test. The participant can take time to respond to the questions after
understanding their meaning.
 Laboratory conditions should be comfortable for the participant
d. Scoring
Answer sheet has been designed for hand scoring. Table tool of page number 6 (in the manual)
explains the scoring procedure.
if the value shown for the item is positive and (i) the student has marked yes in his response, give
him +1; (ii) if he has marked ‘no’ give him -1; (iii) if he has marked “?”, give him 0.
 Conversely if the value shown for an item on the scoring key is negative and (i) the student has
responded ‘yes’ give him -1. (ii) if he has marked ‘no' give him +1. (iii) In case he has encircled
‘?’ Give him 0 in this case.
When you have scored one scale at the scores of the item algebraically and that will be the score
of the individual does each individual will get 5 separate scores on 5 scales we should be recorded
on the back page of the answer sheet printed thereon.
What's the score of each part is there after converted into percentile making use of the tables
given in the manual.

Introspective report

Behavioral report

Result table
Area of attitude Percentile Grade Level of attitude
1 Attitude towards
teachers and
parents
2 Attitude towards
discipline
3 Attitude towards
life of humanity
4 Attitude towards
country
5 Attitude towards
religion

Interpretation

Conclusion