Читать книгу The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics - Carol A. Chapelle - Страница 190

The popularity of the concept of attitude is confirmed by its use in many diverse fields of research: education, sociology, sociolinguistics, social psychology, and political science, to name but a few. Although from an etymological point of view attitude was originally a technical term in art for the posture of a figure in a statue or painting, its current psychological meaning has imposed over the physical one. Among the many available definitions, Ajzen's (1988, p. 4) is probably the most widely quoted one due to its brevity and clarity: “a disposition to respond favourably or unfavourably to an object, person, institution or event.”

Attitudes are not innate but rather acquired and can be learned, and through learning they change and evolve. Attitudes are mainly social and we acquire them through direct or indirect social interaction, which is why the social context plays such a significant role in their analysis. Attitudes are determined by such influential factors as the family, work, religion, mass media, friends, or education, to the extent that individuals tend to adjust their attitudes so that they match those of their social group. So the origins of our attitudes and changes in them can be affected by different agents, and among these institutions are powerful influences. Every individual develops in a social context where institutions are very present, and nowadays most people spend a large part of their lives in education‐related institutions.