Attitudes
What about Our Attitudes?
Our attitudes are favorable or unfavorable opinions toward people, things, or situations. Many things
affect our attitudes, including the environment we were brought up in and our individual experiences. Our
personalities and values play a large role in our attitudes as well. For example, many people may have
attitudes toward politics that are similar to their parents, but their attitudes may change as they gain more
experiences. If someone has a bad experience around the ocean, they may develop a negative attitude
around beach activities. However, assume that person has a memorable experience seeing sea lions at the
beach, for example, then he or she may change their opinion about the ocean. Likewise, someone may
have loved the ocean, but if they have a scary experience, such as nearly drowning, they may change their
attitude.
The important thing to remember about attitudes is that they can change over time, but usually some sort
of positive experience needs to occur for our attitudes to change dramatically for the better. We also have
control of our attitude in our thoughts. If we constantly stream negative thoughts, it is likely we may
become a negative person.
In a workplace environment, you can see where attitude is important. Someone’s personality may be
cheerful and upbeat. These are the prized employees because they help bring positive perspective to the
workplace. Likewise, someone with a negative attitude is usually someone that most people prefer not to
work with. The problem with a negative attitude is that it has a devastating effect on everyone else.
