This document defines attitudes and discusses their components and formation. An attitude is a positive, negative, or mixed evaluation of an object expressed with a certain intensity. Attitudes have three main components: cognitive (beliefs about an object), affective (feelings toward an object), and behavioral (tendency to behave in a certain way regarding an object). Attitudes are formed through direct experience, association with other attitudes or objects, and influence from family, peers, neighborhood, economic status, occupation, and mass communication. They help with adjustment, ego defense, value expression, and understanding the world.