Contributions from attitude change theory on the conceptual relation between attitudes and competencies

© Education & Psychology I+D+i. Some brief reflections regarding attitudes and professional competencies are presented for the purpose of clarifying the complementary nature of the two constructs from an educational point of view. Two opposing trends are acknowledged: one identifies attitude (and more specifically, its affective dimension) as a part of competency, the other assumes that attitudes and competencies are concepts that function separately although each involves the other. The article is organized in two parts: the first focuses on the concept, structure, models and development of attitudes and how they are connected with competencies; the second specifies how both concepts are evaluated and presents some practical implications for improving educational intervention.