Attitudes, Behavior, and Social Practice
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RR
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haiklin
University of Maryland
School of Social Work
The relationship between attitudes and behavior is not sym
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metrical. A literature review is used to organize a sum
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mary of methodological and practical problems in this area.
In turn, these findings are used to comment on how soci
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ology and social work practice can take this into account.
Key words:
attitudes, behavior, sociology
“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will
never hurt me.” For generations this doggerel has been used
by children to mitigate the hurts that come from cruel words.
Translate this epigram into social science language and the
focus of interest becomes behavior and attitudes and the possi
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ble relationship between them. This article is a selective review
of the literature which examines their possible connection, es
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pecially as they relate to prejudice and discrimination. In turn
the implications of this for social work education practice are
discussed.
The concept “attitude” is one that has been frequently
studied in social science. There is no universally accepted con
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vention where definition and measurement are integrated. This
article is not intended to resolve differences among competing
definitions. It would not be possible to do this. A recent com
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prehensive examination of one aspect of this issue had more
than 15,000 references (Schneider, 2004)