Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow :-
The problem of household garbage is common in most Indian cities. Despite the increasing concern for clean environment we do not know to what extent citizens are aware about how to dispose the garbage at home. Sanyogita, a high school teacher took the lead to organise a team comprising of her colleagues in school and started going door to door in the nearby colonies to educate people on how to separate domestic waste and hand it over to the garbage collection agencies. She also avidly read about methods used by other developed countries and felt distressed when she observed how callous some people were towards keeping a clean environment. The local newspapers appreciated Sanyogita's efforts and applauded her publicly. Sanyogita's students and children joined her mission to segregate garbage and send the bio-degradable waste to the nearby recycle plant.
Identify the process of attitude formation that has been demonstrated in the passage:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Learning attitudes through modelling
Option (1) Learning attitudes by association — Incorrect. Here a liking is linked from one thing to another: students often come to like a subject because they see many positive qualities in its teacher. Nothing in the passage is liked because of its link with something else.
Option (2) Learning attitudes through group norms — Incorrect. Norms are unwritten rules about behaviour that everyone is expected to follow, such as offering flowers at a place of worship. Sanyogita’s campaign goes against what most of her neighbours do, so it is not a group norm being followed.
Option (3) Learning attitudes through modelling — Correct. In modelling we learn attitudes by observing others being rewarded or praised for expressing a thought or behaving in a particular way towards the attitude object. The newspapers appreciated Sanyogita’s efforts and applauded her publicly, and her students and children, who watched her, joined her mission of segregating garbage.
Option (4) Learning attitudes through exposure to information — Incorrect. Here attitudes are learnt without the physical presence of others, from the information given by books and the media, as when reading the biographies of self-actualised persons builds a positive attitude to hard work. Sanyogita does read about the methods of other countries, but that reading only tells her how to manage waste; the attitude that spreads in the passage spreads from person to person, as her students and children follow her example.
NCERT (2025-26): “Attitude Formation … Learning attitudes through modelling (observing others) : Often it is not through association, or through reward and punishment, that we learn attitudes. Instead, we learn them by observing others being rewarded or punished for expressing thoughts, or showing behaviour of a particular kind towards the attitude object. For example, children may form a respectful attitude towards elders, by observing that their parents show respect for elders, and are appreciated for it.…” “Attitude Formation … Learning through exposure to information : Many attitudes are learned in a social context, but not necessarily in the physical presence of others. Today, with the huge amount of information that is being provided through various media, both positive and negative attitudes are being formed. By reading the biographies of selfactualised persons, an individual may develop a positive attitude towards hard work and other aspects as the means of achieving success in life.” |