Pratap lost his young son due to a pothole accident some years ago. He decided to turn his pain into a purpose and now social media users are calling him a hero without a cape. For the last three years. Pratap has been filling up potholes in the city to ensure that no one else suffers the same fate. Pratap also starts planting trees in the city as he believes that environment is not simply for use by human beings but needs to be respected and valued. For this, he takes inspiration from a very famous movement in the Uttarakhand region which aimed to conserve forests. He also starts helping the poor in the community and observes that these poor people believe that they will continue to remain poor. Such beliefs have been passed on from one generation to another. He decides to change these beliefs by developing an advertisement in which he shows a pressure cooker that saves fuel and hence can help save money.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Personal experiences
Option (1) Family and school environment — Incorrect. In the early years, parents and other family members shape a child’s attitudes, and later the school does. These attitudes are learnt by association, through rewards and punishments, and by modelling. Pratap’s attitude to potholes was not taught to him at home or in school.
Option (2) Reference groups — Incorrect. Reference groups show a person the norms of acceptable behaviour and ways of thinking, so attitudes are learnt through group or cultural norms; their influence is strong in early adolescence. Pratap did not take his attitude from the norms of any group.
Option (3) Personal experiences — Correct. Many attitudes are formed not in the family or through reference groups but through direct personal experiences, which bring about a drastic change in our attitude towards people and our own life. Pratap lost his young son in a pothole accident; that loss gave him his negative attitude towards roads with potholes and turned his life towards filling them.
Option (4) Media related influences — Incorrect. Audio-visual media, the Internet and even school reading material are sources of information that lead to attitude formation and change. Pratap’s attitude came from his own loss, not from information he received; social media only praised him afterwards.
Note: The case study is taken from the chapter ‘Psychology and Life’, but this question is based on the chapter ‘Attitudes and Social Cognition’. However, since it is a case-study based question, all the questions on this case study are tagged to the chapter the case study is taken from.
NCERT (2025-26): “Factors that Influence Attitude Formation … The following factors provide the context for the learning of attitudes through the processes described above. 1. Family and School Environment : Particularly in the early years of life, parents and other family members play a significant role in shaping attitude formation. Later, the school environment becomes an important background for attitude formation. Learning of attitudes within the family and school usually takes place by association, through rewards and punishments, and through modelling.…” “Factors that Influence Attitude Formation … 2. Reference Groups : Reference groups indicate to an individual the norms regarding acceptable behaviour and ways of thinking. Thus, they reflect learning of attitudes through group or cultural norms.…” “Factors that Influence Attitude Formation … 3. Personal Experiences : Many attitudes are formed, not in the family environment or through reference groups, but through direct personal experiences which bring about a drastic change in our attitude towards people and our own life.…” “Factors that Influence Attitude Formation … Media-related Influences : Technological advances in recent times have made audio-visual media and the Internet very powerful sources of information that lead to attitude formation and change.…” |