In the research literature, the concept of attitude has been used and presented widely. However, attitude has been inconsistently defined and measured in various terms. This paper presents a concept analysis, using the Wilsonian methods modified by Walker and Avant (2004), to define and clarify the concept of attitude in order to provide an operationalized definition for a research study on attitudes toward a behavior: getting vaccinated against HPV. While the finding is not conclusive, three attributes of attitude: belief, affection, and evaluation are described. A theoretical definition and sample cases are constructed to illustrate the concept further. Antecedents, consequences, and empirical referents are discussed. Recommendations regarding the use of the concept of attitude in research, nursing practice, and nursing education are also made. 1. Introduction The concept of “attitude” has been used widely in daily living communication and in science. As of the end of 2012, when entering the term “attitude” as a keyword in the “title search” on the Medline and PubMed databases for biomedical and life science publications, over 6,400 articles have been identified on each database. On Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Care Literature (CINAHL), there are 2,041 articles with the word attitude as a part of the title. In the nursing discipline, nurse scholars have used the attitude concept in conducting research studies in various populations including nursing staff, nursing students, and patients or clients (EBSCO Publishing, 2012). Nurses may use / refer to the term “attitude” as a part of patient assessment or explaining a patient’s character. Although the concept of attitude (toward an object, person, thing, issue, event, and behavior) has been commonly used in the nursing literature, the abstract concept of attitude has not been clearly defined [1, 2]. In the beginning steps of developing a research study, it is important that the concepts of the study are reviewed, defined, and provided operational definitions. “Concept” is a major component of theory and conveys the abstract ideas within theory [3]. Concept provides us with a concise summary of thoughts related to a phenomenon or a group of phenomena [4]. The nursing discipline has traditionally valued the concept analysis process to help identify appropriate terms to use in subsequent research and as a means to determine the suitable methodology for investigating the concept of interest [5]. Walker and Avant (2004) describe concept analysis as a process of examining the basic elements of
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