Zen (v ntin chan, ve vietnamtin thien, v korejtin sn, v sanskrtu dhjna) je oznaen pro odno mahjnovho buddhismu, vzniklou v 5. stolet v n. Podle tradinho pbhu pinesl zen do ny indick mnich Bdhidharma roku 520, v n zen prosperoval a do doby dynastie Ming (13681643), kdy zaaly vznikat rozdly mezi rznmi kolami buddhismu. Pozdji se zen rozil do dalch zem, zejmna ve 12. a 13. stolet do Japonska. Sem piel zen v podob sekty Rinzai a sekty St. Svou spontnnost a psnost se kola Rinzai stala brzy nboenstvm samuraj a vedla ke kultu vlenka. Pvodn sanskrtsk vraz dhjna (), oznaujc soustedn spovn, byl do ntiny pevzat v podob chan (meditace), z eho se vyvinulo japonsk ten zen.

Stoupenci zenu asto uvdj mnoho odlinost zen-buddhismu od tzv. tradinch kol buddhismu, kter je mon rozdlit na oblast teorie, morlky a praxe. Nsledujc strun shrnut m nejen ukzat zkladn znaky, kter zen odliuj od ostatnch kol, ale i opan stanoviska, kter ukazuj, e tvrzen rozdly nemus bt vdy tak zsadn:

Misti ranho zenu nezanechali dn psemn zznamy, protoe byli proti jakmukoli psemn pedvanmu vdn.

Vyznavai zenu zdrazuj nalezen pravdy skrze probuzen. Nalezen pravdy probh formou meditace (zazen), zpravidla vsed. Vem kolm je spolen pohrdn studiem text. Domnvali se, e Buddhova nauka v intelektulnch spekulacch je nepoznateln a oznaovali kosmologie za nesmysl, kter odvd od probuzen. Podle jejich chpn m kad povahu buddhy a me ji uskutenit meditac a uvaovnm o sob.

Zen, jak se s nm dnes setkvme v japonskch klterech koly Rinzai i koly St, klade velk draz na zazen. Tomuto vcviku je vnovno mnoho hodin denn a velk dleitost se pikld sprvnmu dren tla a sprvnmu dchn. Praktikovat zen znamen provdt za-zen, k emu kola Rinzai pidv jet sanzen periodick nvtvy u roi, pi kterch k pedkld svoje een koanu.

Paralely k poekadlm zenu lze vidt v tantrick psni Sarahy z 10. stolet.

Jestlie je to ji zjevn, k emu meditace? A jestlie je to skryt, m lovk jenom temnotu. Mantry a tantry, meditace a soustedn, to ve je jen zleitost sebeklamu. Nezneiujte kontemplac mylenku, kter je ve sv podstat ist, nbr pebvejte v blahu sebe samch a pestate s tm trpenm. A vidte cokoliv, je to vpedu, vzadu, ve vech deseti smrech. Prv dnes dopuste, aby v mistr uinil konec sebeklamu! Pirozenost nebe je pvodn jasn, ale samm hlednm se pohled zatemn.

Tradin je uvdno tchto 6 nskch patriarch zenu:

en-siou (Shenxiu) (jap.: Din) 605? 706 (est patriarcha chanu podle tzv. severn koly)

Rozdlen kol na severn a jin viz Tribunov stra

Read more here:
Zen Wikipedie

We offer multiple service packages and pricing levels designed for businesses at different stages. If you like what you get and we know you will sign up for one of our monthly plans. If for any reason you decide not to continue using 1&1, we offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can cancel your service and receive a refund as long as you cancel before the 30-day trial ends. The amount you pay for your plan depends on both your contract term and billing cycle. You can visit this page to look at each package in detail, but here's a quick summary of which plans tend to work for which kinds of businesses:

Basic Only the essentials Our basic plan provides you with a mobile-friendly free website, storage for your website files and databases, and email addresses using your domain name. Our website templates include text and layouts unique to your industry. We also integrate your website with social media, provide analytics to help you understand your traffic, and provide Google Maps integration so that people can find your company. - Good for: Businesses that are just getting started, or people who take care of SEO, email marketing, and social media on their own.

Plus The basics plus helpful marketing tools With our Plus plan you can add a document viewer and event calendar to your website design. You also get powerful marketing tools, including 1&1 Social Media Center, 1&1 Email Marketing Manager, and 1&1 SEO Spotlight. 1&1 SEO Spotlight helps you track your SEO performance and provides tips for improving your site's optimization, but it's not a professional SEO consultation. If you need professional SEO guidance, sign up for our Premium package. - Good for: Companies that want to integrate Twitter and Facebook with their websites, and companies that want to utilize email marketing. Also, companies that use private SEO services or prefer to handle SEO on their own.

Premium Comprehensive SEO assistance The Premium plan comes with not only the features of the Plus plan, including social media and email marketing tools, but also a professional SEO consultation. This package maximizes your chances of improving your search engine rankings so that customers can easily find you online. - Good for: Businesses that are serious about improving search rankings, incorporating email marketing, and getting social with their customers. Also, customers that want to put all of their marketing tools in one easy-to-use location. Are you ready to build a website and take your small business to the next level? Sign up for a plan.

Read more here:
Create a website | How to make a website with 1&1's ...

LATEST NEWS

Artists who work in oils, watercolors, graphic arts, photography and 3-dimensional art work are invited to apply for a one-month, one person show at the Freeport Memorial Library in 2016-2017. The deadline for submission of an application with CD-Rom with ten images, or ten 8x10 photographs is February 5, 2016. Click on thelink above for more information.

The Nassau Public Libraries Mobile application, which is currently available for Apple and Android devices, is available for download free of charge. The app provides a user-friendly interface for patrons to take advantage of all that the Library offers through their personal smartphone or tablet.

Users have the ability to search for materials, view events and programs, find additional information, reserve musuem passes, or select the research button to be directed to online resources and homework help.

To download the free app, visit your app store and search for Nassau Public Libraries Mobile.

Freeport Memorial Library cardholders 18 years of age or older may now borrow one of five Roku Streaming Sticks. A Roku Streaming Stick is a device that, when plugged into a televisions HDMI port, allows the user to stream a selection of movies and television programs over the users WiFi. Roku Streaming Sticks may be borrowed for 7 days, and may not be renewed. Users may not purchase or add additional content. Click here for a list of movies and TV series accessible through the Library's Roku Streaming Sticks.

The Library now offers access to a new online learning tool called Lynda.com. This service contains over 5,000 different courses on a variety of technical, creative, and business topics taught by experts in their fields. Courses can be viewed from your computer, as well as on your tablet or your phone after downloading and installing a free app.

SALVATION ARMY HUMANITARIAN OF THE YEAR

Freeport Memorial Library Director Ken Bellafiore with LibraryTrustee George Boulukos as Mr. Boulukosreceives the Humanitarian of the Yearaward at the 27thAnnual FreeportSalvation Army Civic Dinner for his currentvolunteer work with the National BoyScouts of America, his past positionas a Freeport School District Trustee, and his current position as Freeport MemorialLibrary Trustee.

The Freeport Memorial Library can now accept book donations in our new book drop from Better World Books. This book drop is located near the rear entrance of the Library. The books are sold, and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Friends of the Library.

Please note that this book drop is for donations only; do not return Library materials in this book drop.

See the original post here:
Freeport Memorial Library Online - Home

Your cookies seem to be disabled. Setting preferences will not work until you enable cookies in your browser.

Guide to Kissimmee Vegan Restaurants, Vegetarian Restaurants, Natural Foods, & Health Food Stores.

407-966-4664

Mon-Thu 11:00am-8:00pm, Fri-Sat 11:00am-10:00pm, Sun 11:00am-8:00pm

Serves meat, veg options available. Part of buffet-style salad bar chain restaurant. Features a large salad bar plus soups, breads, pizza, and desserts. Inexpensive.

407-507-3900

Tue-Sun 11:30am-11:00pm

Serves meat, veg options available. Has a large vegetarian menu with vegan options. Wheelchair accessible. Accepts credit cards. Moderate.

407-846-7454

Now Open: Mon-Sat 9:00am-8:30pm, Sun 11:00am-5:30pm

Market with several locations. Stocks a large selection of vitamins, supplements, herbs, health & beauty products, food and beverages. Has a deli.

Once-a-month update on the latest veg related news, global restaurant and travel highlights, plus giveaways!

Voted "Best Vegetarian Restaurant Guide" on the Internet, this is the place to find good vegan restaurants & healthy food! HappyCow was created to assist in making healthy vegetarian food available to all wherever possible. These Kissimmee vegetarian and vegan restaurant listings are primarily from you, the users, and some maybe arbitrary, outdated, or incomplete. If you are a local to Kissimmee, FL and know of any places (vegetarian restaurants Kissimmee) that are not included here please add them. HappyCow and its creators claim no responsibility for any information that might be inaccurate in any way.

Go here to see the original:
Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants, Healthy, Organic, Kissimmee ...

Buddhism is Buddhas teachings and the inner experiences or realizations of these teachings.

These have a timeless and universal relevance and can be practiced by anyone in any culture, regardless of race, gender, or age.

By practicing Buddhas teachings, or Dharma, we protect ourself from suffering and problems. All the problems we experience during daily life originate in ignorance, and the method for eliminating ignorance is to practice Dharma.

Practicing Dharma is the supreme method for improving the quality of our human life because the quality of life depends not upon external development or material progress, but upon the inner development of peace and happiness.

Buddha first gave his teachings over two and half thousand years ago. Since that time they have been preserved in a pure form and passed down from Teacher to disciple in an unbroken lineage that is still alive today.

Thanks to the kindness of these previous Teachers, we are able to listen to and practice exactly the same Dharma as Buddha originally taught.

Use the menu to find out more.

Read more:
Buddhism - Kadampa Buddhism

1

Go to a place with no noise at all and sit down. If you can't find a completely quiet place, go where at least it is comforting sounds, and sit down. Consider bringing a notebook or journal.

Ad

2

3

Clear your mind from all thoughts. After clearing your mind, either free-think or else, if you have a topic in mind, focus on that. However, avoid dead end, angering, and solution-less subjects. Focus on subjects where you are certain you can find new ground and progress. Another option is to look into your life, or your inner self, and think about what's going on right now. Anything that will help you focus and see helpful pictures or thoughts. If you want, journal or draw.

4

Ask yourself why you are feeling the way that you do or why you are feeling so empty. "How can this be a good or bad thing?" "What causes it?" "How can I solve it?" After looking inward, consider your position among others around you. It may be high or equal or low, but don't let that determine whether it is good or bad. Examine each type of situation, each relationship, and decide whether it would be better to be change or be more flexible.

5

Research the native religions/spiritual beliefs of the people who lived in your country in the past -- check the internet and the library for more information on such old religions for an alternative spiritual view. The spiritual beliefs of your ancestral roots may speak to you about your family history.

6

List some of your life goals, and celebrate if you have achieved them. Create steps to progress with goals still remaining. Say a prayer. Sing a song. Take a break and hop around a bit.

7

Planning for next time. Think about what activity or what action(s) you've done recently that helped you feel fulfilled. Was it reading books, or a holy book(s), or taking a walk, meditating, helping people in need, doing yoga...? Plan steps to do something fulfilling in the next few days and weeks. Close with a prayer, a resolution. Consider sharing it with others.

8

Ask yourself each day before going to bed what you have done to keep your inner self or being healthy or sensitive. Don't only think about your body (though you should do that too), your soul is also important for you. Don't only think about your own concerns, but think about those of others as well.

9

Additional spiritual goals: grow in vulnerability. (Most, though not all, icons of spirituality possessed this quality.) Grow in shrewdness or wisdom. (These teachers also possessed this!) Explore other belief systems. Develop an open mind in order to develop a closed mind. This means learning ideas and perspectives different from your own so that you can develop your own opinion about them. Sacrifice and accept the sacrifice of others.

10

Read or Journal further. Doing this even on scratch sheets of paper is fine. Literate people have some amazing gifts--along with responsibilities--the rest of the world is doing without, so take advantage of them. Have a conversation with people who have experiences you want to know more about or who have 'been there.' Discuss or explain spiritual concepts, practices, or inspiring words with someone else in need. Teachers are learners.

11

Seek out a spiritual group in your environment. Go with a friend. This can be any size group. Have some questions in mind before-hand and ask them at an appropriate time.

12

Follow your hobbies - Do what you enjoy the most. Avoid what you dislike. Look the world as the platform for presenting your talent, always seek advice and guidance from elders. Enjoy all moments of life.

13

Practice non-attachment. Try giving things such as clothes that you no longer need or use to those who could really use them. You'll feel much lighter after the experience, freeing you up to live your path even more.

Ad

See the article here:
How to Become More Spiritual - 13 Easy Steps - wikiHow

I still remember the excitement of reading P.D. Ouspensky's Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution for the first time. It was my first spiritual book and every page was packed with insights into my psychology. Our studies must begin with our selves and not with the heavens. Ouspensky drove home the idea that in our present state we are machines, that we are a conglomeration of voices rather than a unified whole, that we react rather than do, and that we must observe our machines in order to change. According to Ouspensky:

Our aim is to become one, to have one permanent "I". But in the beginning work means to become more and more divided. You must realize how far you are from being one, and only when you know all these fractions of yourself can work begin on one or some principal "I"s around which unity can be built. It would be wrong understanding to unify all the things you find in yourself now. The new "I" is something you do not know at present; it grows from something you can trust. At first, in separating false personality from you, try to divide yourself into what you can call reliable and what you find unreliable.

It is in Ouspensky's aim that his system falls short. While there is talk of becoming a unified whole, a man number 5,6, or 7, there is no evidence that even Ouspensky attained the goal. Ouspensky even said that a school must have two levels: where man number 1,2, and 3 learns to become man number 4 and where man number 4 learns to become man number 5. By that definition, his organization was not really a school, he said. I think Ouspensky is a good beginning, but not a complete system. He lays the foundation for studying our psychology and getting our lives in order, but doesn't venture into the true nature of the mind.

However, the teaching of Ouspensky and Gurdjieff was reportedly by word of mouth. I have only read the books and not studied with a school of this tradition, so I may be missing much data. Objective information on schools is scarce. Even the Gurdjieff Foundation states that there are many spurious groups and declines to provide any contact information. Remember to be wary of those demanding money. Anyone who really knew the Truth would laugh at the idea of charging for it. Try: http://www.fourthway.info: a database of contact information for people interested in the Gurdjieff/Ouspensky Fourth Way teachings.

http://www.kheper.net/topics/Gurdjieff/links.htm: Links to many "Fourth Way" schools.

2011 update: A reader commented, "I enjoyed reading your reviews of the other spiritual teachers too, and particularly happy to see my P.D Ouspensky among them. When reading your thoughts on him, I was surprised to find no mention of his masterpiece, In Search of the Miraculous. Indeed, if you have not read it, I would like to state that Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution can be considered a distillation of Gurdjieff''s teaching, and In Search of the Miraculous its full exposition, running several hundered pages long."

Indeed, such is the case. In Search of the Miraculous covers the years 1915 to 1917 when Ouspensky first met Gurdjieff. It documents many conversations between the two, as well as Ouspensky's frank reactions to Gurdjieff's ideas. Another of Ouspensky's books, The Fourth Way, contains transcripts of Ouspensky's lectures and meetings after his split with Gurdjieff. All three books were published after his death in 1947.

Here is the only video footage I'm aware of that shows G.I. Gurdjieff, Ouspensky's teacher:

Site Map

Last Update: August 2, 2015

See original here:
P.D. Ouspensky: Spiritual Teacher

Bhagwan Shree RajneeshIndian spiritual leader

December 11, 1931

Kuchwada, India

January 19, 1990

Pune, India

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh,also called Osho or Acharya Rajneesh, original name Chandra Mohan Jain (born December 11, 1931,Kuchwada [now in Madhya Pradesh], Indiadied January 19, 1990,Pune),Indian spiritual leader who preached an eclectic doctrine of Eastern mysticism, individual devotion, and sexual freedom.

As a young intellectual, Rajneesh visited with and absorbed insights from teachers of the various religious traditions active in India. He studied philosophy at the University of Jabalpur, earning a B.A. in 1955; he began teaching there in 1957, after earning an M.A. from the University of Saugar. At the age of 21 he had an intense spiritual awakening, which inspired in him the belief that individual religious experience is the central fact of spiritual life and that such experiences cannot be organized into any single belief system.

In 1966 Rajneesh resigned from his university post and became a guru (spiritual guide) and a teacher of meditation. In the early 1970s he initiated people into the order of sannyasis, who traditionally renounced the world and practiced asceticism. Reinterpreting the idea of being a sannyasi in terms of detachment rather than asceticism, Rajneesh taught his disciples to live fully in the world without being attached to it.

The first Westerners came to Rajneesh in the early 1970s, and in 1974 the new headquarters of his movement was established in Pune. The basic practice taught at the centre was called dynamic meditation, a process designed to allow people to experience the divine. The centre also developed a diversified program of New Age healing adopted from the West. Rajneesh became well-known for his progressive approach to sexuality, which contrasted with the renunciation of sex advocated by many other Indian teachers.

Rajneesh moved to the United States in 1981 and, the following year, incorporated Rajneeshpuram, a new city he planned to build on an abandoned ranch near Antelope, Oregon. During the next few years many of his most-trusted aides abandoned the movement, which came under investigation for multiple felonies, including arson, attempted murder, drug smuggling, and vote fraud in Antelope. In 1985 Rajneesh pleaded guilty to immigration fraud and was deported from the United States. He was refused entry to 21 countries before returning to Pune, where his ashram soon grew to 15,000 members.

In 1989 Rajneesh adopted the Buddhist name Osho. After his death his disciples, convinced that he had been the victim of government intrigue, voiced their belief in his innocence and vowed to continue the movement he started. In the early 21st century it had some 750 centres located in more than 60 countries.

See the original post:
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh | biography - Indian spiritual ...

This article is about the psychological construct. For other uses of attitude, see Attitude.

In psychology, an attitude is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person, place, thing, or event (the attitude object). Prominent psychologist Gordon Allport once described attitudes "the most distinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary social psychology."[1] Attitude can be formed from a person's past and present.[2] Key topics in the study of attitudes include attitude measurement, attitude change, consumer behavior, and attitude-behavior relationships.[3][4]

An attitude is an evaluation of an attitude object, ranging from extremely negative to extremely positive. Most contemporary perspectives on attitudes also permit that people can also be conflicted or ambivalent toward an object by simultaneously holding both positive and negative attitudes toward the same object. This has led to some discussion of whether individual can hold multiple attitudes toward the same object.[5]

An attitude can be as a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, events, activities, and ideas. It could be concrete, abstract or just about anything in your environment, but there is a debate about precise definitions. Eagly and Chaiken, for example, define an attitude as "a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor."[6] Though it is sometimes common to define an attitude as affect toward an object, affect (i.e., discrete emotions or overall arousal) is generally understood to be distinct from attitude as a measure of favorability.[7] Attitude may influence the attention to attitude objects, the use of categories for encoding information and the interpretation, judgement and recall of attitude-relevant information.[8] These influences tend to be more powerful for strong attitudes which are easily accessible and based an elaborate knowledge structure.[9] Attitudes may guide attention and encoding automatically, even if the individual is pursing unrelated goals.

Attitude is one of Jung's 57 definitions in Chapter XI of Psychological Types. Jung's definition of attitude is a "readiness of the psyche to act or react in a certain way".[10] Attitudes very often come in pairs, one conscious and the other unconscious. Within this broad definition Jung defines several attitudes.

The main (but not only) attitude dualities that Jung defines are the following.

In addition, Jung discusses the abstract attitude. When I take an abstract attitude....[14]Abstraction is contrasted with creationism. CREATIONISM. By this I mean a peculiarity of thinking and feeling which is the antithesis of abstraction.[15] For example: "I hate his attitude for being Sarcastic."

Many measurements and scales are used to examine attitudes. Attitudes can be difficult to measure because measurement is arbitrary, meaning people have to give attitudesa scale to measure it against, and attitudes are ultimately a hypothetical construct that cannot be observed directly.

Following the explicit-implicit dichotomy, attitudes can be examined through direct and indirect measures.

Whether attitudes are explicit (i.e., deliberately formed) versus implicit (i.e., subconscious) has been a topic of considerable research. Research on implicit attitudes, which are generally unacknowledged or outside of awareness, uses sophisticated methods involving people's response times to stimuli to show that implicit attitudes exist (perhaps in tandem with explicit attitudes of the same object). Implicit and explicit attitudes seem to affect people's behavior, though in different ways. They tend not to be strongly associated with each other, although in some cases they are. The relationship between them is poorly understood.

Explicit measures tend to rely on self-reports or easily observed behaviors. These tend to involve bipolar scales (e.g., good-bad, favorable-unfavorable, support-oppose, etc.).[16] Explicit measures can also be used by measuring the straightforward attribution of characteristics to nominate groups. Explicit attitudes that develop in response to recent information, automatic evaluation were thought to reflect mental associations through formed through early socializations experiences. Once formed, these associations are highly robust and resistant to change, as well as stable across both context and time. Hence the impact of contextual influences was assumed to be obfuscate assessment of a person's "true" and enduring evaluative disposition as well as limit the capacity to predict subsequent behavior.[17]Likert scales and other self-reports are also commonly used.

Implicit measures are not consciously directed and are assumed to be automatic, which may make implicit measures more valid and reliable than explicit measures (such as self-reports). For example, people can be motivated such that they find it socially desirable to appear to have certain attitudes. An example of this is that people can hold implicit prejudicial attitudes, but express explicit attitudes that report little prejudice. Implicit measures help account for these situations and look at attitudes that a person may not be aware of or want to show.[18] Implicit measures therefore usually rely on an indirect measure of attitude. For example, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) examines the strength between the target concept and an attribute element by considering the latency in which a person can examine two response keys when each has two meanings. With little time to carefully examine what the participant is doing they respond according to internal keys. This priming can show attitudes the person has about a particular object.[19] People are often unwilling to provide responses perceived as socially undesirable and therefore tend to report what they think their attitudes should be rather than what they know them to be. More complicated still, people may not even be consciously aware that they hold biased attitudes. Over the past few decades, scientists have developed new measures to identify these unconscious biases.[20]

The classic, tripartite view offered by Rosenberg and Hovland [21] is that an attitude contains cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. Empirical research, however, fails to support clear distinctions between thoughts, emotions, and behavioral intentions associated with a particular attitude.[22] A criticism of the tripartite view of attitudes is that it requires cognitive, affective, and behavioral associations of an attitude to be consistent, but this may be implausible. Thus some views of attitude structure see the cognitive and behavioral components as derivative of affect or affect and behavior as derivative of underlying beliefs.[23]

Despite debate about the particular structure of attitudes, there is considerable evidence that attitudes reflect more than evaluations of a particular object that vary from positive to negative.[24]

[25] Among numerous attitudes, one example is people's money attitudes which may help people understand their affective love of money motive, stewardship behavior, and money cognition. These ABC components of attitudes formulate, define, and contribute to an overall construct of Monetary Intelligence which, in turn, may be related to many theoretical work-related constructs.[26][27][28][29]

There is also a considerable interest in intra-attitudinal and inter-attitudinal structure, which is how an attitude is made (expectancy and value) and how different attitudes relate to one another. Which connects different attitudes to one another and to more underlying psychological structures, such as values or ideology.

Multicomponent model is the most influential model of attitude. Where attitudes are evaluations of an object that have cognitive, affective, and behavioural components. These components are also known as taxi CAB, that will get you where you want to go.

The theory of attitude evaluation. (Motivation and Opportunity as Determinants of the attitude - behavior relation) When both are present, behavior will be deliberate. When one is absent, impact on behavior will be spontaneous. The MODE Model was developed by Fazio . Your attitude can be measured in two different ways:

Explicit measure are attitudes at the conscious level, that are deliberately formed and easy to self-report. An Implicit measures are attitudes that are at an unconscious level, that are involuntarily formed and are typically unknown to us.[31] Both explicit and implicit attitudes can shape and individuals behavior. Implicit attitudes however, are most likely to affect behavior when the demands are steep and an individual feels stressed or distracted.[32]

Another classic view of attitudes is that attitudes serve particular functions for individuals. That is, researchers have tried to understand why individuals hold particular attitudes or why they hold attitudes in general by considering how attitudes affect the individuals who hold them.[33]Daniel Katz, for example, writes that attitudes can serve "instrumental, adjustive or utilitarian," "ego-defensive," "value-expressive," or "knowledge" functions.[34] The functional view of attitudes suggests that in order for attitudes to change (e.g., via persuasion), appeals must be made to the function(s) that a particular attitude serves for the individual. As an example, the "ego-defensive" function might be used to influence the racially prejudicial attitudes of an individual who sees themselves as open-minded and tolerant. By appealing to that individual's image of themselves as tolerant and open-minded, it may be possible to change their prejudicial attitudes to be more consistent with their self-concept. Similarly, a persuasive message that threatens self-image is much more likely to be rejected.[35]

Daniel Katz classified attitudes into four different groups based on their functions

Utilitarian People adopt attitudes that are rewarding and that help them avoid punishment. In other words any attitude that is adopted in a person's own self-interest is considered to serve a utilitarian function. Consider you have a condo, people with condos pay property taxes, and as a result you don't want to pay more taxes. If those factors lead to your attitude that "increases in property taxes are bad" your attitude is serving a utilitarian function.

Knowledge People need to maintain an organized, meaningful, and stable view of the world. That being said important values and general principles can provide a framework for our knowledge. Attitudes achieve this goal by making things fit together and make sense. Example:

Ego-Defensive This function involves psychoanalytic principles where people use defense mechanisms to protect themselves from psychological harm. Mechanisms include:

The ego-defensive notion correlates nicely with Downward Comparison Theory which holds the view that derogating a less fortunate other increases our own subjective well-being. We are more likely to use the ego-defensive function when we suffer a frustration or misfortune.

Value-Expressive

An example would concern attitudes toward a controversial political issue.

According to Doob (1947), learning can account for most of the attitudes we hold. The study of attitude formation is the study of how people form evaluations of persons, places or things. Theories of classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning and social learning are mainly responsible for formation of attitude. Unlike personality, attitudes are expected to change as a function of experience. In addition, exposure to the 'attitude' objects may have an effect on how a person forms his or her attitude. This concept was seen as the "Mere-Exposure Effect". Robert Zajonc showed that people were more likely to have a positive attitude on 'attitude objects' when they were exposed to it frequently than if they were not. Mere repeated exposure of the individual to a stimulus is a sufficient condition for the enhancement of his attitude toward it.[36] Tesser (1993) has argued that hereditary variables may affect attitudes - but believes that they may do so indirectly. For example, consistency theories, which imply that we must be consistent in our beliefs and values. As with any type of heritability, to determine if a particular trait has a basis in our genes, twin studies are used.[37] The most famous example of such a theory is Dissonance-reduction theory, associated with Leon Festinger, which explains that when the components of an attitude (including belief and behavior) are at odds an individual may adjust one to match the other (for example, adjusting a belief to match a behavior).[38] Other theories include balance theory, originally proposed by Heider (1958), and the self-perception theory, originally proposed by Daryl Bem.[39]

Attitudes can be changed through persuasion and an important domain of research on attitude change focuses on responses to communication. Experimental research into the factors that can affect the persuasiveness of a message include:

Emotion is a common component in persuasion, social influence, and attitude change. Much of attitude research emphasized the importance of affective or emotion components. Emotion works hand-in-hand with the cognitive process, or the way we think, about an issue or situation. Emotional appeals are commonly found in advertising, health campaigns and political messages. Recent examples include no-smoking health campaigns and political campaign advertising emphasizing the fear of terrorism. Attitudes and attitude objects are functions of cognitive, affective and conative components. Attitudes are part of the brains associative networks, the spider-like structures residing in long term memory that consist of affective and cognitive nodes.

By activating an affective or emotion node, attitude change may be possible, though affective and cognitive components tend to be intertwined. In primarily affective networks, it is more difficult to produce cognitive counterarguments in the resistance to persuasion and attitude change.

Affective forecasting, otherwise known as intuition or the prediction of emotion, also impacts attitude change. Research suggests that predicting emotions is an important component of decision making, in addition to the cognitive processes. How we feel about an outcome may override purely cognitive rationales.

In terms of research methodology, the challenge for researchers is measuring emotion and subsequent impacts on attitude. Since we cannot see into the brain, various models and measurement tools have been constructed to obtain emotion and attitude information. Measures may include the use of physiological cues like facial expressions, vocal changes, and other body rate measures. For instance, fear is associated with raised eyebrows, increased heart rate and increase body tension (Dillard, 1994). Other methods include concept or network mapping, and using primes or word cues in the era .

Any discrete emotion can be used in a persuasive appeal; this may include jealousy, disgust, indignation, fear, blue, disturbed, haunted,and anger. Fear is one of the most studied emotional appeals in communication and social influence research.

Important consequences of fear appeals and other emotion appeals include the possibility of reactance which may lead to either message rejections or source rejection and the absence of attitude change. As the EPPM suggests, there is an optimal emotion level in motivating attitude change. If there is not enough motivation, an attitude will not change; if the emotional appeal is overdone, the motivation can be paralyzed thereby preventing attitude change.

Emotions perceived as negative or containing threat are often studied more than perceived positive emotions like humor. Though the inner-workings of humor are not agreed upon, humor appeals may work by creating incongruities in the mind. Recent research has looked at the impact of humor on the processing of political messages. While evidence is inconclusive, there appears to be potential for targeted attitude change is receivers with low political message involvement.

Important factors that influence the impact of emotion appeals include self efficacy, attitude accessibility, issue involvement, and message/source features. Self efficacy is a perception of ones own human agency; in other words, it is the perception of our own ability to deal with a situation. It is an important variable in emotion appeal messages because it dictates a persons ability to deal with both the emotion and the situation. For example, if a person is not self-efficacious about their ability to impact the global environment, they are not likely to change their attitude or behavior about global warming.

Dillard (1994) suggests that message features such as source non-verbal communication, message content, and receiver differences can impact the emotion impact of fear appeals. The characteristics of a message are important because one message can elicit different levels of emotion for different people. Thus, in terms of emotion appeals messages, one size does not fit all.

Attitude accessibility refers to the activation of an attitude from memory in other words, how readily available is an attitude about an object, issue, or situation. Issue involvement is the relevance and salience of an issue or situation to an individual. Issue involvement has been correlated with both attitude access and attitude strength. Past studies conclude accessible attitudes are more resistant to change.

The effects of attitudes on behaviors is a growing research enterprise within psychology. Icek Ajzen has lead research and helped develop two prominent theoretical approaches within this field: the theory of reasoned action[41] and, its theoretical descendant, the theory of planned behavior.[42] Both theories help explain the link between attitude and behavior as a controlled and deliberative process.

The theory of reasoned action (TRA), is a model for the prediction of behavioral intention, spanning predictions of attitude and predictions of behavior. The subsequent separation of behavioral intention from behavior allows for explanation of limiting factors on attitudinal influence (Ajzen, 1980). The Theory of Reasoned Action was developed by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen (1975, 1980), derived from previous research that started out as the theory of attitude, which led to the study of attitude and behavior. The theory was "born largely out of frustration with traditional attitudebehavior research, much of which found weak correlations between attitude measures and performance of volitional behaviors" (Hale, Householder & Greene, 2003, p.259).

The theory of planned behavior was proposed by Icek Ajzen in 1985 through his article "From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior." The theory was developed from the theory of reasoned action, which was proposed by Martin Fishbein together with Icek Ajzen in 1975. The theory of reasoned action was in turn grounded in various theories of attitude such as learning theories, expectancy-value theories, consistency theories,[2] and attribution theory.[3] According to the theory of reasoned action, if people evaluate the suggested behavior as positive (attitude), and if they think their significant others want them to perform the behavior (subjective norm), this results in a higher intention (motivation) and they are more likely to do so. A high correlation of attitudes and subjective norms to behavioral intention, and subsequently to behavior, has been confirmed in many studies.[4] The theory of planned behavior contains the same component as the theory of reasoned action, but adds the component of perceived behavioral control to account for barriers outside one's own control.[43]

Russell H. Fazio proposed an alternative theory called "Motivation and Opportunity as Determinants" or MODE. Fazio believes that because there is deliberative process happening, individuals must be motivated to reflect on their attitudes and subsequent behaviors.[44] Simply put, when an attitude is automatically activated, the individual must be motivated to avoid making an invalid judgement as well as have the opportunity to reflect on their attitude and behavior.

A counter-argument against the high relationship between behavioral intention and actual behavior has also been proposed, as the results of some studies show that, because of circumstantial limitations, behavioral intention does not always lead to actual behavior. Namely, since behavioral intention cannot be the exclusive determinant of behavior where an individual's control over the behavior is incomplete, Ajzen introduced the theory of planned behavior by adding a new component, "perceived behavioral control." By this, he extended the theory of reasoned action to cover non-volitional behaviors for predicting behavioral intention and actual behavior.

Follow this link:
Attitude (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at institutes of technology (also known as technical colleges or polytechnics). In addition to the basic training required for a trade, occupation or profession, observers of the labor-market recognize as of 2008[update] the need to continue training beyond initial qualifications: to maintain, upgrade and update skills throughout working life. People within many professions and occupations may refer to this sort of training as professional development.

Physical training concentrates on mechanistic goals: training-programs in this area develop specific skills or muscles, often with a view of peaking at a particular time. Some physical training programs focus on raising overall physical fitness.

In military use, training means gaining the physical ability to perform and survive in combat, and learning the many skills needed in a time of war. These include how to use a variety of weapons, outdoor survival skills, and how to survive being captured by the enemy, among many others. See military education and training.

For psychological or physiological reasons, people who believe it may be beneficial to them can choose to practice relaxation training, or autogenic training, in an attempt to increase their ability to relax or deal with stress.[1] While some studies have indicated relaxation training is useful for some medical conditions, autogenic training has limited results or has been the result of few studies.

Some commentators use a similar term for workplace learning to improve performance: "training and development". There are also additional services available online for those who wish to receive training above and beyond that which is offered by their employers. Some examples of these services include career counseling, skill assessment, and supportive services.[2] One can generally categorize such training as on-the-job or off-the-job.

The on-the-job training method takes place in a normal working situation, using the actual tools, equipment, documents or materials that trainees will use when fully trained. On-the-job training has a general reputation as most effective for vocational work[citation needed].It involves employee training at the place of work while he or she is doing the actual job. Usually a professional trainer (or sometimes an experienced employee) serves as the course instructor using hands-on training often supported by formal classroom training. Sometimes training can occur by using web based technology or video conferencing tools.

Off-the-job training method takes place away from normal work situations implying that the employee does not count as a directly productive worker while such training takes place. Off-the-job training method also involves employee training at a site away from the actual work environment. It often utilizes lectures, case studies, role playing and simulation, having the advantage of allowing people to get away from work and concentrate more thoroughly on the training itself. This type of training has proven more effective in inculcating concepts and ideas[citation needed]. Many personnel selection companies offer a service which would help to improve employee competences and change the attitude towards job. The internal personnel training topics can vary from effective problem solving skills to leadership training.

In religious and spiritual use, training may refer to the purification of the mind, heart, understanding and actions to obtain a variety of spiritual goals such as (for example) closeness to God or freedom from suffering. Note for example the institutionalized spiritual training of Threefold Training in Buddhism, Meditation in Hinduism or discipleship in Christianity. These aspects of training can be short term or last a lifetime, depending on the context of the training and which religious group it is a part of.

Compare religious ritual.

Parochial schools are a fairly widespread institution in the United States. A parochial school is a primary or secondary school supervised by a religious organization, especially a Roman Catholic day school affiliated with a parish or a holy order. As of 2004, out of the approximately 50 million children who were enrolled in American grade schools, 4.2 million children attend a church-affiliated school, which is approximately 1 in 12 students.[4] Within the Christian religion, for example, one can attend a church-affiliated college with the intent of getting a degree in a field associated with religious studies. Some people may also attend church-affiliated colleges in pursuit of a non-religious degree, and typically do it just to deepen their understanding of the specific religion that the school is associated with.[citation needed] The largest non-public school system in the United States, the Catholic school system, operates 5,744 elementary schools and 1,206 secondary schools.

Researchers have developed training-methods for artificial-intelligence devices as well. Evolutionary algorithms, including genetic programming and other methods of machine learning, use a system of feedback based on "fitness functions" to allow computer programs to determine how well an entity performs a task. The methods construct a series of programs, known as a population of programs, and then automatically test them for "fitness", observing how well they perform the intended task. The system automatically generates new programs based on members of the population that perform the best. These new members replace programs that perform the worst. The procedure repeats until the achievement of optimum performance.[5] In robotics, such a system can continue to run in real-time after initial training, allowing robots to adapt to new situations and to changes in themselves, for example, due to wear or damage. Researchers have also developed robots that can appear to mimic simple human behavior as a starting point for training.[6]

Read the original:
Training - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia