ATTITUDES IMPLY BELIEFS AND VALUES

In speaking about the composition of an attitude, we have noted several of the constructs that go into the process. We have noted the meta-stating process, the gestalting process, the meta- program process. Yet there’s more. Attitudes also imply beliefs and values and where you have beliefs and values, you have identities. The bottom line is that where there is an attitude, there will be inside it and supporting it beliefs and values.

Consider optimism. To develop an optimistic attitude, what do you have to believe? Don’t you have to believe that the future can be better than the past? Don’t you have to believe that you actions make a difference and that you can do something that will reap positive rewards? What else do you have to believe? Along this same line, optimism implies certain values—things we consider important.

In this way, within any and every attitude are also beliefs and values. A learning attitude of curiosity and openness implies that learning is good, it contributes to the quality of life, that there are things we don’t know which are important, that learning opens doors to creativity and higher quality development. Woven into the very texture of an attitude then are beliefs and values. So when you know an attitude, a constructive one or a destructive one, you at the same time know several of the person’s beliefs and values.

And that leads to identities. Notice how closely related an attitude is to an identity. “I am an optimist person.” “I am a continuous learner.” There’s a principle here. Namely, whenever you live with an attitude for a period of time, there will be a natural tendency to identify with it and use it to identify yourself. There should therefore be a warning on every attitude: Be careful with this attitude, it will slowly begin to define you. When this happens, changing the attitude seems like a much harder objective.

The warning, of course, is mostly for anyone with any of the destructive attitudes, especially attitudes like pessimism, fatalistic, perfectionism, entitlement, hedonistic, etc. Live in the thoughts, emotions, beliefs, values, etc. that make up entitlement or victimhood, and it won’t be long that you will start to think of yourself as entitled and/or a victim. Then, as with any meta- level structure, it will begin to operate as a self-organizing attractor.

If you believe you are entitle and that you are special above others, then you will start acting in arrogant and superior ways, putting others down, and demands special privileges for yourself. And why are you entitled? What do you base that entitlement upon? Some base it on being smarter, wealthier, of royal blood, having more power or influence, etc. Others base it upon

wanting it. “If I want it, I should get it.” Talk about an attitude!

The fatalistic attitude that things are fixed (the fixed mindset, Carol Dweck), leads to other attitudes and problematic behaviors such as procrastination, giving up, irresponsibility, etc. In these examples, the holistic nature of an attitude is easily recognizable. It is not just some thoughts, or just some emotions, it involves how a person lives, acts, and relates. It involves how a person talks and the way a person shows up in the world.

Given all of this, when you have an attitude or when you recognize an attitude in someone else, you really have a full package of psychological components. You have beliefs, values, and identities all at once. You have key gestalts of the person’s “personality” which then, in turn, tells you a lot. And if you are a coach, consultant, therapist, parent, or friend, attitude can become a pathway into the person’s inner world. In this every attitude is revealing. Well, it is revealing if you know how to read it.