Moral and Political Attitudes

What are moral and political attitudes? What are their characteristics? What are the four stages in the process of forming a political mindset? Read further to know more.

An attitude is an appraisal of an object that is conveyed with a certain degree of intensity and can be either positive, negative, or mixed. The intensity of our attitude might change along with good effect, negative affect, ambivalence, or apathy and indifference.

Moral Attitude

Moral views on what constitutes “right” and “wrong” behavior serve as the foundation of moral attitudes. More powerful than moral concepts are moral attitudes.

It is commonly known that among all categories of natural values, ethical values rank highest. Moral principles such as goodness, purity, truthfulness, and humility of man are valued more highly than qualities such as genius, brilliance, exuberant vitality, and the beauty of nature or of art, as well as stability and power of a state.

Studies have shown that moral ideals are always a person’s particular values. Only man is capable of possessing them and realizing them. A person is morally good or bad depending on his or her acts and attitudes, will and efforts, love and hatred, joy and sadness, and fundamental attitudes.

A man with these qualities—humility, purity, honesty, and affection—will have a personality that exudes moral principles.

Man will lack moral goodness as long as he disregards the moral values of other people, is unable to distinguish between the positive value inherent in truth and the negative value inherent in error, and is unable to understand the positive value inherent in human life and the negative value associated with injustice.

Families, communities, religion, and education all play significant roles in forming moral convictions.

Moral attitudes have the advantageous implication that they are entangled with powerful emotions. As a result, normal societies avoid abnormal behaviors out of fear of social ostracization, such as child molestation.

Moral attitude characteristics

• Reverence
• Faithfulness
• Veracity
• Goodness

Reverence

The foundation for realizing a man’s moral principles is the capacity to hold moral beliefs, uphold them, and respond to them. Only the individual who possesses reverence bears these signs.

An emotion or attitude of profound respect for others that is tinged with wonder is known as reverence. It is the mindset that can be referred to as the beginning of all moral life since it is in it that man first adopts a posture toward the world that allows him to make spiritual judgments and understand values.

Reverence t is the essential prerequisite for all deep knowledge, especially the ability to understand values. Every response to value, every surrender of anything valuable, is predicated on reverence, which is also a necessary component of that response.

The foundation of all moral behavior toward our fellow humans and toward ourselves is the fundamental attitude of reverence.

Every true love begins with the fundamental attitude of reverence. Similar reverence is seen in acts of kindness toward others, respect for another’s rights and freedom to make decisions, restraint of one’s own hunger for power, and awareness of another person’s rights in all contexts.

Faithfulness

Among the characteristics of a person’s moral attitude that are fundamental to his or her entire moral existence, faithfulness is another crucial aspect.

Faithfulness is the idea of consistently putting one’s allegiance into action and remaining faithful to someone or something, despite adverse circumstances.

A man will be more capable of becoming a vessel of moral ideals, a creature in whom purity, justice, humility, love, and goodness will dwell permanently and radiate from him to the world around him, the more faithful, consistent, and solid he is. This loyalty in the truest meaning of the word is a basic moral principle that applies to all people.

Veracity

Reliability is yet another fundamental predicate of a person’s moral life. A person who is dishonest not only displays a serious moral deficiency, but also suffers from crippling effects on every aspect of his personality, moral life, and ability to uphold moral principles.

The dishonest individual does not hold values in high regard. He takes a lordly posture over the being and handles it any way he pleases. This attitude conveys a sense of haughtiness, disdain, and impertinence.

Integrity, constancy, and responsibility awareness are the cornerstones of a moral existence in general. It has a great value in and of itself, and like these other qualities, it is also necessary as a fundamental assumption of a personality which is true.

Goodness

The foundational element of moral principles is goodness. Goodness is the only moral value that more fully embodies the entire reign of moral values than any other.

A man’s goodness is not restricted to having kind thoughts for just one person they adore. When someone is described as being good, it indicates they consistently demonstrate their open goodness and have a loving, giving character toward all men.

Because goodness is a fundamental attitude and position rather than being restricted to a specific transient attitude like every other virtue.

While the other fundamental attitudes, such as respect, loyalty, awareness of one’s responsibilities, and truthfulness, react to the world of values as a whole, better not only reacts to the world of values but also reflect the entire world of values in the person.

Now let us discuss political attitudes.

Political attitudes

When political beliefs shape political behavior, they are significant.

Political attitudes are people’s perspectives on the aspects of public life that political psychology studies, such as opinions on nationalism, political conservatism, political liberalism, and political radicalism.

Political views range from being exceedingly liberal to being extremely conservative. According to a large number of academics, a political attitude refers to the beliefs and values that support the functioning of a given political system.

These attitudes were considered to include both favorable and negative evaluations of the political system, as well as knowledge and abilities on how it functions. Which political parties people support, how they vote, and how they participate are all influenced by these attitudes. Family, gender, religion, race, ethnicity, and area are the factors that influence opinions.

Political attitude reveals which political party a person supports, their preferred political ideologies, and their preferred social, economic, cultural, and foreign policies, among other things.

Political attitude-shaping factors

Political attitude-shaping factors include:

Family

In most cases, the first and most enduring effect on young people’s political ideas comes from their families. Despite generational differences and incongruities within the family, children often have political views that are similar to those of their parents.

Children prefer to vote in the same manner as their parents, which is understandable despite generational differences. Children from politically engaged families are more likely to share their parents’ values and outlooks.

As kids get older and are exposed to outside influences, their perspectives inevitably veer away from their parents.

Religion

Voting behavior is frequently influenced by religious beliefs. Religion is the belief system that individuals adhere to. Recent events have shown that the religious right has favored Republican Party candidates over Democratic Party candidates by endorsing more conservative candidates for public office.

People that identify with the “Religious Right” have different political views than everyone else. The religious right generally leans toward conservatism. This tendency is more obviously connected to social problems like gay rights and cow protection than it is to economic or international concerns.

Race & Ethnicity

It has been determined that African Americans have been more closely associated with the Democratic Party over the past 50 years than any other recognized group.

Some experts think that this allegiance is dwindling. Numerous studies have shown that Asian Americans tend to vote conservatively, although there is still a dearth of hard data to support this.

Economic forces

A lot of academics have stated that economic pressures are a major motivator for selecting a specific political position, and this does actually seem to be a significant role. Typically, those who are prospering in society do not want it to alter.

The impoverished, on the other hand, stand to benefit greatly from gradual change and have little tangible to lose. Possibly, at least.

However, economics is not the only determinant of political beliefs.

Age

Age plays a significant role in the formation of political attitudes. Young people are typically more liberal than older people. This may be due to the elder generations’ inherent interest in maintaining the status quo, which the younger generations do not yet have.

In addition to lacking money, young people also lack a sense of loyalty and community.

Psychological factor

Certain individuals are more suited psychologically to liberalism or conservatism than others. One must have a relatively high tolerance for disarray in order to be liberal.

The nature of people

It is a key determinant of political attitude. One is likely to tilt to the right of the spectrum if one think that most humans are fundamentally selfish, bad, and violent.

Anyone who believes that people are inherently wicked will have a tendency to rely on harsh regulations and severe penalties for those who break them in the assumption that such actions are required to curb inappropriate behavior.

People who believe their coworkers are generally well-meaning and rational, on the other hand, will tend to lean left. They will make an effort to avoid limiting human liberty with “needlessly” strict rules and to negotiate with offenders.

Gender

It has been seen in our social structure that women frequently adopt political attitudes that differ from those of their husbands or other family members, notwithstanding this tendency. Since they seek equal rights, equal pay, better chances, etc., women generally lean toward liberal.

But their political opinions also depend on their family, social position, and religion. Women are more inclined to support their political parties when the chief minister is a woman (such as Jayalalitha or Mamta Banerjee).

Women have started casting their votes for parties that support “women’s issues,” such as women’s protection, reservation, equal pay, and equal legal rights, in the current political climate.

Process of developing a political stance

Every society aims for the efficient governance of its citizens to ensure the smooth operation of the system and to sustain harmony and coordination within the community.

The state, the government, the political parties, and the election or selection of representatives are just a few of the mechanisms or agencies that any society develops. How people develop their political attitudes and how they transmit their ideals from one generation to the next are guided by political attitude formation.

A political system cannot function without the process of forming political views. Political attitude development and political attitude progression go hand in hand.

A person develops orientations, ideas, values, norms, and behavioral patterns relevant to the political system through the process of developing their political attitude.

The patterns of sociopolitical behavior are determined by political attitude formulations. Political attitude formation is a psychological term since it affects both individuals and society as a whole.

Stages in the process of forming a political mindset

There are four stages in the process of forming a political mindset, according to Easton and Dennis.

• A youngster recognizes authority through particular people, such as parents, police officers, and the nation’s president.
• It is necessary to distinguish between private and governmental authorities.
• It develops knowledge about impersonal political institutions like the national legislature, the courts, and voting practices.
• There are differences between political institutions and the people who participate in the activities linked with such organizations, leading to romanticized perceptions of specific people like the president or congress.

Functions of the formation of political attitudes

• Maintaining Political Culture: In stable circumstances, maintaining political culture is a crucial component of forming political attitudes. The communication of political cultures from one generation to the next serves this purpose. However, in the current climate, political socialization does not necessarily serve to sustain political culture.
• Changes in Political Culture: A crucial aspect of developing political attitudes is the modification of political culture.
• Building Political Culture: The practice of forming political attitudes is used to create political culture. With the implementation of a new political system, every society must construct a new political culture.
• The foundation of the current political system is the fact that in totalitarian states, there is no room for opposition or disagreement, whereas, in open societies, there are many opportunities for such things.
• Continuity and Change: The process of forming attitudes involves both continuity and change, and this is a crucial component.
• The process of forming political attitudes is ongoing, and it is accomplished by a number of institutions and agents. People go through a number of stages before becoming fully socialized.

Five groupings can be used to classify the various agents that influence how political attitudes are formed.

• Peer groups and families are interpersonal organizations.
• organizations, including workplaces, schools, and places of worship.
• newspaper, television, and radio are examples of mass media.
• The legislature, the executive, the judiciary, and the bureaucracy are specialized political input systems.

This spectrum generally illustrates how people feel about social concerns and the place of government in society. Liberals, who tend to reside in the Northeast and the West Coast, have traditionally held the view that the government should focus more on assisting the economy and less on foreign policy.

Conservatives, who predominate in America’s middle and southern areas, tend to believe that the economy requires more assertive foreign policy and less government backing.

Liberals frequently advocate unconventional social reforms, such as allowing same-sex marriage, whereas conservatives favor upholding tradition and are more inclined to credit Christianity with influencing their opinions.

Part of Political ideology and attitude are crucial in determining political ethics because:

• Ideology in politics is an edge service. A positive political attitude is required in society for effective politics. Assemblies and Parliament will work longer hours as a result, which is what the constitution and the people ethically expect.
• Politics ethics largely depend on how accessible a party is to the public and how quickly complaints are resolved. While each is supported by political philosophy, both serve as yardsticks for political attitudes, and having a good one is crucial.
• Positive political attitudes promote political ethics, which is significant because it draws young people into politics and restores faith in democracy during trying times when the country needs it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, moral views inspire people to engage in altruism, voluntarism, and social service. Because moral attitude is such a powerful emotion, it may be used as a defense against violent behavior and insane behavior and yet be accepted by society.

It inspires individuals to engage in terrorism, massacres, and riots. People do not get along with individuals who do not share their moral attitude because moral attitude is related to powerful emotions.

Political attitude is a belief and behavior system that bases decisions on electoral outcomes.

Positive political attitudes can result in exhibiting zero tolerance for corruption, being pro-poor, providing welfare for weaker groups, and listening to public grievances; however, negative political attitudes can take the form of regionalism and communalizing the populace in order to polarise them during elections.

The political party it supports is founded on political philosophy.

It resembles a party’s internal constitution. Every political party has a sound and pro-people political ideology, but they rarely adhere to it because, in order to win elections, individual politicians’ political attitudes are put into action, leading to the use of bribery, lobbying, false protests, walkouts, insensitive defamation of other parties, and perks politics.

Article Written By: Atheena Fathima Riyas