Attitude and Ego are generally two aspects related to our mind and are often confused based on a person’s behaviour and reactions.
An attitude of a person usually refers to a predefined way of thinking or feeling about someone or something. At the same time, the ego is more related to a person’s mind and refers to his self-esteem or self-importance.
Attitude often is formed by observing and analyzing our behavioural actions and not by exposure or contact with others. At the same time, ego is a kind of our identity, talents, and abilities that we create, which could most possibly be false.
Attitude vs Ego
The difference between Attitude and Ego is that attitude is a mindset or a nature of a person that shows how he is and how he deals with a situation. In contrast, ego is a kind of superior feeling or taking pride in your abilities over others.
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Comparison Table
| Parameter of Comparison | Attitude | Ego |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Attitude usually means a feeling or opinion about someone or something and could also include reactions arising from that feeling. | Ego is often referred to as the opinion or ideas of one’s self, mainly including one’s feelings about their abilities or importance. |
| Relates to | Attitude is always about the way you feel or think about others or other things. | Ego is always about how you think of yourself with a sense of superiority. |
| Reflection | A person’s attitude is formed out of his behaviour and is consistent, and reflects his inner self. | A person’s ego is formed out of pride and superior feeling in his mind and needs to reflect who that person is essential. |
| Consequence | A good attitude makes a person stand out and makes him different. | Ego usually makes a person alone from others and brings loneliness as many would not want to be with that person. |
| Examples | An example showing a person’s good attitude is when he says: | An example showing a person’s ego would be: |
| I’m the King. | All are my slaves, and no one above me. |
What is Attitude?
Attitude refers to a feeling or opinion considering a person, thing, or any substance created in our minds. They could be positive, negative, neutral, sick, or destructive.
An attitude forms the basis or determines our actions or perceptions towards others or other things in our social environment. It consists of a mixed set of feelings, emotions, and reactions that follow.
Our attitude towards something determines how much we like or dislike that particular thing. Attitudes could be implicit as well as explicit.
They are implicit when we are unaware of them in our conscious mind, but they still affect our actions and emotions, while it is explicit when we are aware of what feeling affects our particular action.
A good attitude leads to a better personality, beliefs, and actions. Every person has a particular attitude that helps him create his identity and guides his actions.
Attitudes are usually formed in the light of earlier happenings or experiences and help predict future actions quickly. The three major components of a person’s attitude are:
- Cognitive Component: This arises due to a general basic idea or set of emotions we carry about a particular thing or person. E.g., All babies are cute.
- Affective Component: The basis of this kind of attitude is our feelings of fear, hate, love, or any other type of emotion towards certain things. E.g., We may hate smoking as it harms the body.
- Behavioural Component: This attitude becomes the base for a person to act or behave in a particular manner and reflects that person’s intention.
Many factors help form a particular attitude, like Social factors, family, Prejudices, personal experiences, social media, educational or religious institutions, or even economic and occupational statuses.
What is Ego?
Ego usually refers to the words ‘me’ and ‘I’. It is a person’s sense of self-respect, self-importance or self-esteem.
It is a feeling or thought embedded between a person’s conscious and unconscious mind and is responsible for creating an identity or superiority feeling in a person’s mind. Many people have different egos, and it’s hard to be seen and hidden behind a false veil.
A person’s ego can be noticed by analyzing his emotional reactions to a particular happening or someone. One of the negative aspects of the ego is that even though it is not easily identifiable, it incites strong reactions.
The ego keeps a person in a false world and does not allow the real world of good to be seen. It makes the person have prejudiced or biased thoughts and become judgemental.
The ego never gets satisfied and always wants a person to do more.
Ego creates a false sense of pride and superiority in a person’s mind, resulting in over-emphasising and overconfidence in his abilities and talents, which might not yield good results.
Sometimes this ego could make a person go far away from others and create a sense of disliking or disapproval in the minds of others. Ego is often related to having negative impacts, but there are also chances that ego could provide positive self-esteem to a person and help him be confident in his ability, without it getting into his head.
Main Differences Between Attitude and Ego
- Attitude refers to a person’s opinions, emotions, and thinking about someone or something that drives his actions, while ego refers to a person’s superior thinking about himself.
- The main difference between Attitude and ego is that while attitude is a person’s opinion about other things or persons, the ego is a person’s thoughts about himself.
- Attitude makes a person think and act differently from others in a reasonable manner, while the ego makes a person lonely or aloof.
- A good attitude drives a person’s actions in the right direction, shapes his personality, and makes him feel contended, while ego is never satisfied and will make the person crave more.
- A person’s attitude clearly shows his thoughts and feelings, while his real intentions and thoughts are hidden behind his ego.
- https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/254899
- https://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=IRP.004.0409A
- https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JIMA-11-2014-0074/full/html
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Emma Smith holds an MA degree in English from Irvine Valley College. She has been a Journalist since 2002, writing articles on the English language, Sports, and Law. Read more about me on her bio page.
