attitude

Meaning: An attitude is a learned, relatively stable tendency to evaluate a person, object, event, or idea favorably or unfavorably. The ABC model gives three components: affective (feelings), behavioral (how one tends to act), and cognitive (beliefs and thoughts). Attitudes form through direct experience, mere exposure, conditioning, observational learning, and socialization.

On the MCAT: Passages often describe persuasion. In the elaboration likelihood model, the central route (careful weighing of argument quality, used when motivation and ability are high) tends to produce more lasting change than the peripheral route (cues such as speaker attractiveness or credibility). Attitudes predict behavior better when they are strong, specific, and not overridden by situational pressure; the theory of planned behavior adds subjective norms and perceived control. Cognitive dissonance questions ask which change would reduce the discomfort when behavior conflicts with an attitude.

Common confusion: Students assume attitudes cause behavior in one direction. The link runs both ways: acting against an attitude can shift the attitude (cognitive dissonance, self-perception). Also keep related terms apart: prejudice is a negative attitude toward a group, a stereotype is a cognitive generalization, and discrimination is behavior.