Difference between Attitude and Behavior

Every stimulus is different from each other, especially in behaviors and attitudes. A person’s behaviour is the reflection of his personality. Most people say that attitude is a negative thing just because they are not having the correct knowledge about it. Both have different tendencies.  Let’s discuss the difference between Behavior and Attitude.

Attitude: In psychology, attitude is the internal mindset of an individual. It is shelled within the man, which nobody can approach until a person doesn’t show it.

Behavior: Behavior is the attribute of an organism controlled by the nervous system, which diffuses and comes outside in the form of actions of an individual. It is an output of thoughts and feelings, which everyone can see.

Most people call behavior an attitude and attitude a behavior, But it is not the same as it appears. Let’s diffuse the difference by driving into a psychology shell. 

Psychological point of view:

Well! Psychologists say that what you think is an attitude and what you do is behavior. In other words, we can say that it is the attitude that shapes the behavior.

Surely there is a Difference! Attitude is what and how we react to stimuli in society. An attitude develops with our experiences and observation. We set our attitude based on judgments on different statements. It’s totally internal, and the individual is dealing with it. Whereas behavior is something which is a diffused form of attitude, what we think is an attitude when performing an action is considered to be the behavior of a stimulus. Behavior is a natural action, and are highly dependent upon others and the environment. What others feel, It automatically reflects in the behavior.

Factors that supports these two Tendencies: 

There are some factors that do support in building our attitudes and behaviors.

The factors which are responsible for building an attitude are the following:

Intelligence: A more intelligent stimulus will possess much positive attitude through his intelligence

Self-esteem: A person with moderate self-esteem will be much more successful than those who possess higher and lower esteems.

The triple E’s of Attitude:

• Environment: Environment plays a vital role in building a person’s positive attitude. For example, home, school, media, peer groups, etc.
• Education: In education, a child’s interaction with classmates and teachers.
• Experience: Experience can be good or even bad. If it is good, a person will keep a good attitude and if not then will develop a bad attitude, of course

Now, let’s jump to the factors which mainly influences our behaviour:

Genes: It plays a vital role in influencing a stimuli’s behaviour. The genes consist of parents and ancestors affects the behaviour of a child, and he starts showing similar response to certain things E.g., if a father has a love for cars, the son will automatically feel attraction towards cars.

Cognitive Approach:  It is the attitude that defines mainly the behaviour.

Control: It means how you react to certain things, and how you control yourself over things you don’t like. It mainly defines the control stimuli possess in controlling themselves.

 Fundamental Faith: It involves the faith and beliefs which are acquired from society, family, friends, and peers.

Social Norms: The behaviour is highly dependent upon the Social values we adopt from society. 

Is behavior an attitude? No! It is undoubtedly not the attitude. From the  above-mentioned points and discussion, it is clear that attitude and behaviour are two separate dimensions. An attitude is the feeling lies in the individual, when it gets poured outside, it moulds itself into behaviour. So, a  right attitude leads you towards good behaviour and makes you a successful being.

Behaviour is just a reflection of our attitude- thoughts. When a person feels good or bad, he doesn’t resist a minute to show it. His actions or expressions act as a mirror of his thoughts which instantly reflects his feelings, that is a behaviour which other people see and observe.

What is followed by a thought , is an attitude. An attitude is deeply influenced by social norms, values, religion, environment, peers, literature, media or politics. Attitude is inherent quality; but, it can be changed gradually over time.  So, the right attitude leads you towards good behavior and makes you a successful being.

Let’s take an example to make it easy. If a person takes a bath daily to go to an office but doesn’t take a bath on Sunday by saying, “who will know I have taken a bath or not. I am not going to meet anybody, so there is no need of taking a bath today”. It is person’s mindset that reflects his thought, called an attitude of a person. At the moment, his mother asks him to go to take a shower, and he obeys her. It shows his behavior. To simply put, we can say that attitude is an internal expression of thought, while the behavior is an external expression and demonstration of feelings. What is your point of view?