An attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike for an item. Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing, or event—this is often referred to as the attitude object. Attitudes are judgments There is nothing more trying to the human soul that someone else's bad attitude! And where do bad attitudes come from? Basically speaking, "Attitudes are caught, not taught.

" So, attitudes often go hand in hand with prejudice.All is not lost, however, in that attitudes can be greatly influenced, eradicated, and molded. Attitudes are how values are manifested in our actions and thoughts to others. Attitudes are our feelings towards certain idea or issues. Attitudes dictate how we react in concrete situations. Authors reveal certain attitudes within their texts whether these texts be fiction or non-fiction, print or non-print.

Attitudes are conveyed through the use of specific language which positions you to accept the authoros attitudes ? Oterroristo for example immediately positions us to regard the person in a negative light. As readers or viewers, we need to be aware that texts position us to accept certain attitudes so that we can either accept or reject these attitudes . Our Attitudes are the manifestation of our Values- they are expressed through what we say or do - Values reflect a person’s sense of right and wrong or what “ought” to be. Values tend to influence attitudes and behavior. Values are an integral part of every culture.

With worldview and personality, they generate behavior. Being part of a culture that shares a common core set of values creates expectations and predictability without which a culture would disintegrate and its members would lose their personal identity and sense of worth. Values tell people what is good, beneficial, important, useful, beautiful, desirable, constructive..

. etc. They answer the question of why people do what they do. Values help people solve common human problems for survival.Over time, they become the roots of traditions that groups of people find important in their day-to-day lives.

So, values, morals, and behaviors form our attitudes, either for good or bad. Once we have a certain attitude, it takes concerted effort on ours or someone else's part to change it. These make up our belief system. Values are beliefs that guide our behaviour. They have often been bolstered by religious sanctions: God said this is the way to live.

However, they are socially constructed and devised to allow society to operate with the least amount of conflict. Values define what we accept as good, right or acceptable. We may have our own personally thought-out and constructed values but many of the values we accept are socially or culturally constructed. Society develops a value system or a set of values and conveys these to us through schools, governments, churches, the media, the family etc.

Nationalities often have different values which mean communication between nations is sometimes difficult.We value the freedom of people to have as many children as they wish while China has introduced the value of a one child limit because the value of inhibiting population growth is more important to them. When writing about values, remember generally, values cannot be one-word statements. To say that the text values truth does not really identify the particular value regarding truth that the text encourages us to accept. Also to say we have a value of being anti-war leads to a contradiction.Values are what we consider 'valuable beliefs' therefore we can't have a negative value.

If we value the right to life then our attitude will be anti-war. If we value the innocence of childhood, then our attitude will be against exploiting children. If we value freedom to then our attitude will be against the idea of 'freedom from' (The Handmaid's Tale). Values make us accept certain things and reject others - how we act and what we say present our Attitude- i. e.

our values made manifest