SEERCP 2009, Sofia, BulgariaWS_N: Tolerance for ambiguity, creativity and personality

Part One

Ambiguity Tolerance :

The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Institute of Psychology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Dimitar ShtetinskiKalina PopovaRina Bajdekova

Department of Cognitive Science and Psychology, New Bulgarian University

Krassimira KomnevaElena GlutnikovaValentina Lessenska

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Jacobs Foundation

NATO Research Fellowship

Laboratory of Cognition and Development University Rene Descartes, Paris, France

The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

Purpose

§ explore the notion of ambiguity tolerance

§ describe individual differences in tolerance - intolerance of ambiguity

§ outline its application to the study of human development and behaviour

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

Tolerance

e.g. political tolerance

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

UNESCO Declaration of principles on tolerance - 1995

Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human.

It means accepting the fact that human beings, naturally diverse in their appearance, situation, speech, behaviour and values, have the right to live in peace and to be as they are.

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

Tolerance

e.g. political tolerance

e.g. frustration tolerance

e.g. pain tolerance

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

Ambiguity

new, complex and contradictory situations

vague, incomplete, unclear or fragmented stimuli

unstructured stimuli

probabilities and unpredictability

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

Ambiguity Tolerance

Describes individual behaviour in ambiguous situations where one has to act with lack of information or lack of clarity in the available information

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

Tolerance - Intolerance of Ambiguity

perceptions

feelings

reactions

CL1 - CL42 need for closure

ST43 - ST54 need for structure

CG55 - CG99 need for cognition

EV100 - EV115 need for evaluation

PR116 - PR135 need for precision

UN136 - UN162 intolerance of uncertainty

AF163 - AF188 need for affect

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

JUDGES

10 Bulgarian doctoral students1 men and 9 women aged 24 to 30

10 French doctoral students2 men and 8 women aged 26 to 38

ITEMS

188 items

translated into Bulgarian and into French

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

Categories of items

Items with consensus on relatedness

Items with consensus on non relatedness

Items with opposite consensus in the two groups of judges

Items with no consensus in both groups

Items with a consensus in one of the groups but not in the other

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

CL ST CG EV PR UN AF

Items 42 12 45 16 20 27 26

Related 38 11 13 10 19 26 4

Non related 6 10

Opposite 1 1 1

No consensus 1 8 1

Differing 3 17 5 1 1 11

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

CL ST CG EV PR UN AF

Items 38 11 13 10 19 26 14

Strong 17 7 1 1 2 18 0above 2,50

Moderate 17 4 4 7 14 6 0 2,00 to 2,50

Weak 4 0 9 2 3 2 41,00 to 2,00

Unrelated 0 0 6 0 0 0 10 below 1,00

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

Items with a complete consensus on relatedness

I become uncomfortable when the rules in a situation are not clear (ST54).

I like to know precisely what is meant by information that I learn (PR118).

The ambiguities in life stress me (UN161).

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

42 out of 46 strongly related itemsdiscomfort and frustration

inability to act in ambiguous situation

avoidance of ambiguity in one’s understanding of a situation, event or idea

avoidance of the encounter with ambiguity

4 out of 46 strongly related itemspositive experience in uncertain or ambiguous situations

preference for exploration

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

Items unrelated to AT

an approach orientation towards experiencing of emotions

(7 items AF)

the importance assigned to being intellectual and developing one’s intellectual skills

(6 items CG)

an avoidance approach to emotional experiences (3 items AF)

Ambiguity tolerance: The construct and its application

Katya Stoycheva (SEERCP 2009)

Areas of application

Decision making

Innovation

Paranormal phenomena

Education

Mental health

Medicine

Counseling and therapy, and . . . . . .

SEERCP 2009, Sofia, BulgariaWS_N: Tolerance for ambiguity, creativity and personality

Ambiguity Tolerance: The construct and its application Katya Stoycheva

THANK YOU

FOR YOUR ATTENTION !