Revision summary
William James held that changing attention and attitude can change a life. For an officer this means choosing service over cynicism in daily work. It does not mean blaming citizens for poverty or withdrawing welfare.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
William James said the great discovery of his age was that a person can change life by changing attitude. He meant the way we attend, judge, and habitually respond. He did not mean a magic wish that ignores real hardship.
Body
- Attitude here means the habit of mind with which we meet work, people, and failure.
- James argued that if we change that habit, our choices and our outcomes can change too.
- Attention matters: what we notice every day slowly shapes what we become.
- A bitter officer who treats every citizen as a cheat will miss honest need and create harsh files.
- An officer who chooses a service attitude looks for a fair path inside the same rules.
- The same desk can be a place of seva or a small throne; attitude decides which one it becomes.
- The quote must not be twisted to say that poverty is only an attitude problem; hunger and injustice are real.
- A State cannot tell a hungry person to think positive and then walk away from welfare.
- For the civil servant, the useful reading is inner freedom at the desk: choose learning over cynicism.
- Small daily habits — listening fully, writing reasons, admitting a mistake — are how attitude becomes character.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD A[Attitude habit] --> C[Choices at the desk] C --> L[Life and public outcomes] A2[Change attitude] --> C2[Fairer choices] C2 --> L2[Better service]
Conclusion
James points to the power of a chosen professional attitude. Use it to improve your conduct and service, never to deny another person's material hardship.
Quick related
Students also ask
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(a) Attitude is an important component that goes as input in the development of human beings. How to build a suitable attitude needed for a public servant? (b) In case of a crisis of conscience does emotional intelligence help to overcome the same without compromising the ethical and moral stand that you are likely to follow? Critically examine.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2021 · Q4). View answer →
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Is James saying the poor should only think positive?
No. That would misuse him. He spoke of the agent's inner change, not of denying injustice.
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What attitude should a civil servant practise?
Treat the desk as service, treat rules as tools for fairness, and treat every person as an end, not a nuisance.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2024 · Q2(b) · GS IV · 10 marks
Global warming and climate change are the outcomes of human greed in the name of development, indicating the direction in which extinction of organisms including human beings is heading towards loss of life on Earth. How do you put an end to this to protect life and bring equilibrium between the society and the environment? (Life). -
2021 · Q6(b) · GS IV · 10 marks
"Integrity is a value that empowers the human being''. Justify with suitable illustration. -
2020 · Q8 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. The Chairman of Bharat Missiles Ltd (BML) was watching a program on TV wherein the Prime Minister was addressing the nation on the necessity of developing a self-reliant India. He subconsciously nodded in agreement and smiled to himself as he mentally reviewed BML's journey in the past two decades. BML had admirably progressed from producing first generation anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMS) to designing and producing state of the art ATGM weapon systems that would be the envy of any army. He sighed in reconciliation with his assumptions that the government would probably not alter the status quo of a ban on export of military weaponry. To his surprise, the very next day he got a telephone call from the Director General, Ministry of Defence, asking him to discuss the modalities of increasing BML production of ATGMS as there is a possibility of exporting the same to a friendly foreign country. The Director General wanted the Chairman to discuss the details with his staff at Delhi next week. Two days later, at a press conference, the Defence Minister stated that he aims to double the current weapons export levels within five years. This would give an impetus to financing the development and manufacture of indigenous weapons in the country. He also stated that all indigenous arms manufacturing nations have a very good record of international arms trade. As Chairman of BML, what are your views on the following points? (a) As an arms exporter of a responsible nation like India, what are the ethical issues involved in arms trade? (b) List five ethical factors that would influence the decision to sell arms to foreign governments. -
2018 · Q10 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. A big corporate house is engaged in manufacturing industrial chemicals on a large scale. It proposes to set up an additional unit. Many states rejected its proposal due to its detrimental effect on the environment. But one state government acceded to the request and permitted the unit close to a city, brushing aside all opposition. The unit was set up 10 years ago and was in full swing till recently. The pollution caused by the industrial effluents was affecting the land, water, and crops in the area. It was also causing serious health problems to human beings and animals. This gave rise to a series of agitations demanding the closure of the plant. In a recent agitation, thousands of people took part, creating a law and order problem necessitating stern police action. Following the public outcry, the State government ordered the closure of the factory. The closure of the factory resulted in the unemployment of not only those workers who were engaged in the factory but also those who were working in the ancillary units. It also very badly affected those industries which depended on the chemicals manufactured by it. As a senior officer entrusted with the responsibility of handling these issues, how are you going to address it? (250 words). -
2015 · Q9 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. One of the scientists working in the R & D laboratory of a major pharmaceutical company discovers that one of the company's best selling veterinary drugs, B has the potential to cure a currently incurable liver disease that is prevalent in tribal areas. However, developing a variant of the drug suitable for human beings entailed a lot of research and development having a huge expenditure to the extent of f 50 crores. It was unlikely that the company would recover the costs as the disease was rampant only in poverty-stricken area having very little market otherwise. If you were the CEO, then- (a) identify the various actions that you could take; (b) evaluate the pros and cons of each of your actions.
More from this topic
Q4 · UPSC Mains 2021 · GS IV · 10 marks · Solution
(a) Attitude is an important component that goes as input in the development of human beings. How to build a suitable attitude needed for a public servant? (b) In case of a crisis of conscience does emotional intelligence help to overcome the same without compromising the ethical and moral stand that you are likely to follow? Critically examine.
Attitude
Attitude is a stable leaning that shapes how an officer sees the public and the rule. Build a citizen-centric, impartial attitude through family, academy, field, role models and 360 feedback. Unlearn contempt, rank-worship and cynicism. Crisis of conscience is a clash of duties or of duty and fear. Emotional intelligence helps if it names and regulates emotion so the moral stand holds; it harms if charm is used to justify a comfortable wrong.
Q4 · UPSC Mains 2020 · GS IV · 10 marks · Solution
(a) Distinguish between laws and rules. Discuss the role of ethics in formulating them (b) A positive attitude is considered to be an essential characteristic of a civil servant who is often required to function under extreme stress. What contributes to a positive attitude in a person?
Attitude
Laws are general norms from the Constitution or legislature; rules are usually subordinate procedure under a parent Act. Rules cannot lawfully eat the Act; ethics forbids hiding policy in fine print that the poor cannot meet. Drafting ethics is equality, consultation, non-retrospectivity of pain, and proportionate means. Positive attitude under stress is realistic, duty-centred energy, not denial. It grows from character, EI, drills, team support and institutions that do not punish honesty.
UPSC Mains 2016 · GS IV · 12 marks · Solution
Our attitudes towards life, work, other people and society are generally shaped unconsciously by the family and the social surroundings in which we grow up. Some of these unconsciously acquired attitudes and values are often undesirable in the citizens of a modern democratic and egalitarian society. (a) Discuss such undesirable values prevalent in Today's educated Indians. (b) How can such undesirable attitudes be changed and socio-ethical values considered necessary in public services be cultivated in the aspiring and serving civil servants?
Attitude
Attitudes are first learned at home and often survive a degree. Undesirable patterns include status contempt, kin and caste preference, gender hierarchy, queue-jumping as cleverness, civic indifference and communal stereotype. Public service needs integrity, impartiality, empathy, objectivity and constitutional morality. Cultivate them through hard selection, case-based academies, upright mentors, mixed living, RTI and e-systems, mid-career ethics, and leadership example. Slogans and cultural excuses do not delete the old software.