Revision summary
Objectivity decides on evidence and criteria; dedication supplies stamina for the public task. Zeal without objectivity cooks numbers; objectivity without dedication stays in the almirah. Attitude structure is affect, cognition, and behavioural intention, plus strength and ambivalence. Katz’s functions are knowledge, utilitarian, ego-defensive, and value-expressive. Reform must change both the inner build and the payoff of a prejudice.
Model answer
Introduction
Objectivity and dedication are both praised in a civil servant, yet they pull on different strings. Attitude, in psychology, has a build and a job: structure is how it is put together; function is what it does for the person and the office.
Body
(i) Objectivity and dedication
- Objectivity is the discipline of deciding on evidence, criteria, and inspectable reasons, without the officer’s caste, party, gift, or mood rewriting the fact.
- Dedication is the sustained energy of service: long hours, ownership of a scheme, loyalty to the public purpose when the file is dull.
- Objectivity answers ‘is this true and fair?’ Dedication answers ‘will I still carry this when it is thankless?’
- They can clash: a dedicated officer may over-identify with a target and hide a failure; an objective officer may be coldly correct and still abandon the last mile.
- Ethical service needs both: dedication without objectivity becomes zeal that cooks numbers; objectivity without dedication becomes a perfect noting that never leaves the almirah.
- Case-ready: flood relief lists demand objective criteria and dedicated night camps. One without the other is either a biased list or an empty circular.
(ii) Structure and functions of attitudes
- Structure is the inner architecture: affect (like or dislike), cognition (beliefs and stereotypes), and behavioural intention (what one is ready to do). Consistency among the three is often incomplete.
- Structure also includes strength, accessibility, and ambivalence — how quickly the attitude comes to mind, and whether feelings and beliefs fight.
- Functions, in Katz’s classic map, are what the attitude does for the holder: knowledge (simplifying the world), utilitarian (gaining reward, avoiding pain), ego-defensive (protecting self-worth), and value-expressive (showing who one is).
- In office, a hostile attitude toward a community may be structurally a mix of fear (affect) and a false belief (cognition), and functionally ego-defensive or utilitarian if it pleases a patron.
- Reform therefore attacks structure (new facts, contact, dissonant experience) and function (change the reward so prejudice no longer pays).
The pairing
- Objectivity is a structural demand on the officer’s attitude toward evidence. Dedication is a functional, value-expressive commitment to the public.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD O[Objectivity] --> F[Fair file] D[Dedication] --> F ST[Affect belief intention] --> AT[Attitude] FN[Knowledge utilitarian ego value] --> AT
Conclusion
Objectivity is fairness to the fact; dedication is stamina for the public end. Attitude structure is affect, belief, and intention; attitude functions are the jobs those orientations do for the self. Civil-service ethics needs an objective structure and a dedicated, public function.
Quick related
Students also ask
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What are the traditional values in Indian society? How does it differ from modern values? Explain.
Next question in the 2021 paper (Q11). View answer →
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Is dedication the same as loyalty to the minister?
No. Dedication is to the public purpose and the Constitution. Personal loyalty that bends the fact is the opposite of objectivity.
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If affect and belief conflict, which is the attitude?
That is ambivalence — part of structure. The officer must still write a reason on evidence, not on the louder feeling.
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