Attitude is a person 's standpoint, his viewpoint that leads to his responses to different stimuli. It is often the single most important trait with which can one move from failure to success and vice versa. Attitude can convert negative situations into positive opportunities and a last minute negative viewpoint can lead to missed chances. Like other inner traits, attitude can be developed at any point in life. Helping one to lead a joyful life; but first, one must accept and understand, through introspection, why one has a particular viewpoint and then accept the need to change it for better results. Attitude can be positive and negative.
Factors leading to attitude formation
Attitude form easily and from the very early stages of one's life. From early childhood, through adolescence and into adulthood and maturity, attitudes form and change all the time. To a large extent, it is up to us to choose our attitudes just as we choose whom we'll vote for ! Some influences on attitude forming are---
Family - a positive family develops positive attitudes and gives us a 'can do' spirit while cautioning us about risk we may face.
Reference Group - this includes our teachers, peers, neighbors, books, magazine, newspaper, television channels, and almost anything we come into contact with.
Social Group - a limited social group develop a limited understanding of people and may develop a fragmented attitude. The more varied one's group - the more one interacts with different societies, knowledge banks, economic levels, cultures / languages, the more globally oriented doe' s one become.
Different Personalities - one interacts with people of different personalities, IQs and backgrounds. This effects and shapes one's attitudes too.