Introduction to Attitudes

Placing Time In Action

Attitudes are a mental framework that we project on the world to organize and better understand it. Attitudes represent how the personality organizes its activities in time and indicate a person’s primary perspective on life. Research indicates that people have a pre-established way that we contribute based on time, for example remembering the past so we don’t repeat our mistakes is what Stoics and Realists do. The opposite end of the spectrum is the Spiritualist or Idealist who believe that only by focusing on the future do we create it. Each Attitude has a particular relationship to time that focuses the personality’s actions. Attitudes generate opinions that can polarize some individuals with each other. The point of understanding Attitudes is to notice the orientation of others so we can meet them where they are in a way that lets them integrate our ideas to their personality framework. While most people do not understand or appreciate Attitudes, understanding them allows us to integrate faster with another in order to get things done. Attitudes are the single most important instinctive factor to deal with if we have to move forward quickly with someone who is Distant or unconscious.

Attitudes reflect a way of engaging a situation intellectually, a timeframe perspective, and a type of intelligence or thinking in action. The concept of Attitude conveys the combination of thought and emotion to put a certain spin on how we engage others. Attitudes describe a range of perspectives in which individuals either meet or discount others. The seven attitudes are: Stoic, Spiritualist, Skeptic, Idealist, Cynic, Realist and Pragmatist. Each individual has one primary attitude but may be imprinted by several others. When we become identified with our Attitude, it becomes a mental framework we project on the world to better understand it. Unfortunately, it can also become a limited framework fixated on particular content that discounts other ways of showing up. Becoming more aware of Attitudes allows for more fluidity and flexibility with others. It breaks down preconceived ways of looking at things, especially when we have to include and engage others with different Attitudes in our lives. It is important to realize that every Attitude is a major contribution, despite our past experiences with them.

The seven Attitudes are aligned similarly to modes and goals: Stoic, Spiritualist, Skeptic, Idealist, Cynic, Realist, Pragmatist. The introverted attitudes are Stoic, Skeptic, and Cynic. The extroverted attitudes are Spiritualist, Realist and Idealist. The neutral is Pragmatist. Attitudes are not as fixed as other personality factors; often an individual may use or “slide” to as many as three or four different Attitudes in the course of a day. Perhaps you have noticed that different friends seem more “grounded” with respect to planning for the future; that they seem more practical and able to deal with the step-by-step nature of getting from here to there? Yet other friends have a concrete and real vision of the future, but little or no awareness of how to get there. Still others have a strong sense of the past or the present, believing that the past will repeat itself or that the only thing that really counts is “what’s so” in the present moment.

The purpose of our attitude is to support us in filtering and coalescing our experience. We form our concepts through Attitudes, each with a slightly different view. This makes it interesting, encourages more investigation for everyone, and promotes multiple conclusions. Through our Attitude (how we see the world) we form the concept of our Goal (where we want to go) and get there through our Mode (how we operate). Attitude is the intellectual view, flavored with emotion, pessimism, or optimism, and is directed inward or outward. Attitudes are related to our way of thinking. Our Attitude is pivotal. When we respond, rather than react to our Attitudes, we are more likely responding positively to our other personality characteristics (Goal & Mode). This is because our personality will always follow our train of thought (or lack of it).