Page 155 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

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Psychology and Communication | 143

to whether one is attracted to, repulsed by or simply indifferent to a particular
course of action; it also refers to whether one evaluates a thing positively or
negatively. You may or may not like someone, or on the other hand, might not
care at all. You may or may not approve of birth control, or you are ambiva-
lent about it, oscillating between one direction and the other. You have atti-
tudes on just about everything you know about. You will judge what people
communicate to you in relation to the background of your existing attitudes
about that ‘message’. When you do not know much about something, and,
thus, have no particular attitude about it, what people communicate to you
will usually help you form one.

Intensity

‘Intensity’ of an attitude refers to how strong it is - to how much you like or
dislike someone or something. You may not like science courses. Attitude
has been defined as predisposition to respond, either positively or negatively
to an object situation. Classical consistency theories seek to explain how
people respond to information that does not fit with existing perceptions
and attitudes. Many different terms have been used to explain this: balance
and imbalance, congruity and incongruity, consonance and dissonance, in
which people tend to avoid or alternatively rationalize their psychologically
uncomfortable situations. All these situations involve internal conflict, in
which the person confronts inconsistencies in what he or she knows and
believes.
Newcomb (1953) discussed a situation in which cognitive imbalance
results when two people who like and respect each other—a teacher and the
pupil—disagree on an issue, in such circumstances, the desire to maintain
the relationship can stimulate attitudinal shift on the part of both. The final
position will be somewhere in-between the two original positions. The
teacher and the taught can experience change of attitude towards the object
of discussion as well as the person, with the greatest attitude change occur-
ring towards the least valued. Second, the person can distort the position of
the other person in his or her own mind. Finally, the person can disassociate
his or her thoughts, even his or her physical self from the uncomfortable
situation. It is obvious, that the last two situations are not required in any
interpersonal context and certainly not in a teaching and learning situation.
Hence the knowledge of attitude on the part of the teacher is essential
for effective communication, or it would lead to imbalance, incongruity,
dissonance, and conflict.
The aim of the teacher through communication would be to try toward
co-orientation rather than direct attitudinal change. Co-orientation refers to
the extent to which parties are willing to change to accommodate the posi-
tions of persons or groups with opposing points of view, that is, achieve a

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