Ambivalent Theory Research Articles

Impact and implications for practice

Impact and implications for practice

AMBIVALENCE IN MOHAMMED KAMICI EL-HASSANI’S LE MOUCHOIR

The present study discusses the ambivalent behavior found in the character(s) in a francophone novel written by a third world writer. This ambivalence is represented by the attitude of the East that is against the colonialists on the one hand, but admires them and imitates their identities and attitudes on the other. This ambivalent discourse is widely represented in a francophone work entitled Le Mouchoir (1987) by Mohamed Kacimi El-Hassani. This novel satirically tells about Algeria in the post-colonial period and the narrator’s efforts to oppose colonialism. Textual citations and pieces of evidence from the novel that are used to support the analysis are those that are related to postcolonial and ambivalence issues. The analysis is also supported by historical evidence of French colonialists’ behavior towards indigenous Maghreb. The interpretation of the findings is supported by Homi Bhabha's ambivalence theory. Moreover, this study was conducted using Fairclough's critical discourse analysis methodology with which the textual analysis of the novel follows three levels of discourse, namely micro, meso, and macro levels. This study found that the hypocritical nature of the characters such as that demonstrated by the narrator and Mahfoud reflects the postcolonial nature of "ambivalence". This characteristic places Algerians in a "liminal space" of contestation between the narrator and Mahfoud and between Algeria and France.

In defense of Filipino values and norms: Debunking the ambivalence theory

No nation has been so scorned for her values and norms by her own people, including the most educated of them, as the Philippines. This study critically peruses the ambivalence theory of Filipino values and norms to debunk its central claim that Filipino values and norms are ambivalent due to their inherent potential to be good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, strength and weakness. Using as frameworks of analysis the sociological and psychological postulates of ambivalence as well as the Aristotelian notion of virtue, the perusal yields five paramount findings that sum up the errors of this theory. First, the problematic and dichotomic approach to Filipino values and norms as good and bad, right and wrong, weakness and strength, virtue and vice to warrant the forgone conclusion of ambivalence. Second, the epic confusion in which the transgressive attitudes, traits, and behaviors are deemed part of the defining features of Filipino values and norms. Third, Filipino values are blamed for or used to justify the negative attitudes, weak character traits, and misdeeds of Filipinos. Fourth, the proponents' negative and inconsistent interpretations of Filipino values and norms. Fifth, the sociological and psychological postulates of ambivalence and the Aristotelean concept of virtue do not support the claim of ambivalence. On the strengths of the findings, the ambivalence theory is effectively debunked. With the putative post-ambivalence period, comes the challenge to disabuse the minds of those who have credulously professed the ambivalence creed.

Perceptions and desires of Chinese senior outbound tourists receiving travel support from adult children: a qualitative study

PurposeThis qualitative study explores how Chinese senior outbound tourists perceive support from their adult children and what kinds of support they desire.Design/methodology/approachQualitative data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 26 participants. Transcribed interviews were analysed via thematic analysis.FindingsThis study captured the contradictory feelings of different types of Chinese senior outbound tourists (i.e. independent, neutral, and dependent) according to the degree of desire for support from their adult children. The results further identified the real desires among Chinese senior outbound tourists for children's attitudinal support, caring support, appropriate financial support, companionship, and timing support.Research limitations/implicationsSince this qualitative research is based on small samples with typical social and cultural characteristics, our research results only describe an existence. Our findings provide insight into the existence of the phenomenon, rather than allowing the results to be generalized to the wider population (Gram et al., 2019).Practical implicationsThe tourism industry could develop products to alleviate such feelings. Integrating the concept of filial piety into adult children's support for their parents' overseas travel can not only meet parents' expectations but also relieve parents' ambivalence. Destination operators and travel agencies could thus design mixed products targeting Chinese elderly parents and their adult children by providing activities for both generations. Purchasing behaviour represents a type of emotional and instrumental support for the elderly. Destination operators and travel agencies can also launch products suitable for in-depth outbound travel that cater to adult children's leisure travel while meeting the elderly's travel needs.Originality/valueThis study also extends both intergenerational support theory and intergenerational ambivalence theory regarding Chinese senior outbound tourists.

Conflicting social influences regarding controversial information systems: the case of online dating

PurposeControversial information systems (IS) represent a unique context in which certain members of a user's social circle may endorse the use of a system while others object to it. The purpose of this paper is to explore the simultaneous and often conflicting roles of such positive and negative social influences through social learning and ambivalence theories in shaping user adoption intention of a representative case of controversial IS, namely online dating services (ODS).Design/methodology/approachThe model was tested with two empirical studies using structural equation modeling techniques. The data of these studies were collected from 451 (Study 1) and 510 (Study 2) single individuals (i.e. not in a relationship).Findings(1) Positive social influence has a stronger impact on perceived benefits and adoption intention, while negative social influence exerts a greater impact on perceived risks; (2) positive and negative social influences affect adoption intention toward ODS differently, through benefit and risk assessments; and (3) ambivalence significantly negatively moderates the effects of social influences on adoption.Originality/valueThis study enriches and extends the IS use, ambivalence theory, prospect theory, and social learning theory research streams. Furthermore, this study suggests that it is necessary to focus on not only the oft-considered positive but also negative social influences in IS research.

Grandchild Caring and Late-Life Depression: A Comparative Longitudinal Study in China and Europe

The impact of grandparenting on the grandparents’ health has been relatively under-studied. This study examined country differences in the effects of grandchild care provision on the grandparents’ depression in Italy, Spain, China, Denmark and Sweden using the longitudinal Harmonised CHARLS and SHARE data collected between 2010–2015. Controlling for the grandparents’ depression in 2011, grandmothers providing non-intensive grandparental care in Sweden in 2013 reported lower depression score in 2015 compared to those who did not provide any care in 2013. Chinese grandfathers, Italian and Swedish grandmothers who provided intensive grandchild care reported lower depression score compared to their counterparts who did not provide any grandchild care. This study indicates that the Structural Ambivalence Theory can only partially explain the findings, suggesting further theoretical development in this area. Future research can focus on identifying the causal pathways between grandparenting and wellbeing, and the implications of such pathways for older persons’ wellbeing worldwide.

Hope for Our Technological Inheritance? From Substantive Critiques of Technology to Marcuse’s Post-Technological Rationality

This paper explores the promise that Herbert Marcuse found in late modernity’s technological inheritance—his “other side” to his critique of technological rationality. With the goal of beginning to recover Marcuse’s desire for technological reform and a more hopeful project for a contemporary critical philosophy of technology, the paper first situates and contrasts Marcuse’s double-sided critique of technological rationality with the mostly negative critiques of modern technology exemplified by Heidegger, Adorno, and Horkheimer. Rather than offer concrete possibilities for socio-technical transformation, Heidegger, Adorno, and Horkheimer’s pessimistic views of technology tend to lead towards resignation in our late-modern fate. The paper then meditates on Marcuse’s “ambivalence theory of technology”—the notion that technologies are neither neutral nor inherently deterministic but, rather, politically and socially inscribed and entangled within webs of social struggles where their designed intentions are worked out and often reappropriated in actual use by users. The paper then looks at how Marcuse’s ambivalence theory can help in understanding the possibilities for re-valuing the technological base of advanced capitalist society within re-materialized values of love, joy, refusal, and sensuousness. Illustrating the continued relevance of Marcuse’s analysis for today’s radical left, the final section of the paper presents six key historical-conjunctural moments in Marcuse’s writings on technology that could be seen as prefiguring contemporary examples of technological reform and liberation from exploitative and alienating modes of life. Some of the newest social movements against neoliberal global capital, this final section argues, touch on elements of Marcusean-like re-rationalized and re-sensualized technological and organizational transformations.

Protecting Against Threats to Information Security: An Attitudinal Ambivalence Perspective

ABSTRACT A popular information security-related motivation theory is the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) that has been studied extensively in many information security contexts with promising results. However, prior studies have found inconsistent findings regarding the relationships within PMT. To shed light on these inconsistent findings, we introduce the attitudinal ambivalence theory to open the black box within PMT. We tested our model on data collect ed from 1,383 individuals facing potential cyberattacks of their emails in a field experiment. The results of polynomial regression with response surface analysis showed that attitudinal ambivalence is generated from the opposition between an individual’s evaluations of maladaptive rewards and social norms (i.e., descriptive norm and subjective norm). This attitudinal ambivalence, in turn, affects individuals’ evaluations of their coping appraisal process and protection motivation, and ultimately protection behavior. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of identifying the determinants and outcomes of attitudinal ambivalence in the information security context. From a theoretical standpoint, our work contributes to the information security literature by incorporating attitudinal ambivalence, which arises from the intrapersonal and interpersonal appraisal processes, into PMT. From a practical standpoint, our work provides insights into designing effective fear appeals to avoid triggering attitudinal ambivalence and thus encouraging adoption of security protection behavior.

The female body on the dance floor

Using dance perspective and Homi Bhabha’s postcolonial ambivalence theory, this study re-reads the events that occurred during the banquet at Herod’s house. Unlike previous perspectives that focuses on the gruesome murder of John by Herod, the study focuses on the banquet that resulted in the young girl to dance to the point whereby, having been intoxicated and greatly amused, Herod asks the girl what she can have as a reward. By intersecting the female body that culturally signifies gender inferiority to its ambivalence as a subject of attraction and pleasure, I develop the hypothesis that the body through its dance regained its power by becoming a somewhat equal patron; negotiating its rights and being the source of an alternative and yet subversive power. Instead of the female body being a source merely of the male’s gaze and pleasure, it attained agency and power.

Opposing Native Interest in Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Tagore’s Tasher Desh and Achalayatan: A Comparative Study

In the field of literature, the study of colonization and its aftermath is a significant phenomenon. Shakespeare’s The Tempest presents the story of colonial exploitation, and the tragic and inevitable disintegration of native culture as the result of European invasion and colonization. Instead of justifying the idea of colonization, The Tempest presents a criticism of it. On the other hand, in Tagore’s Tasher Desh (The Country of Cards) and Achalayatan (The Land of Immobility), we see the different attitudes towards European invasion and colonization. Instead of presenting the negative aspects of colonization, as expected from a writer who spent whole of his life under the British colonial rule, Tagore rather shows ambivalent attitudes towards colonization. In this paper we discuss different attitudes towards colonization as expressed in Shakespeare’s The Tempest in the one hand, and Tagore’s Tasher Desh and Achalayatan on the other hand. This paper draws on a close analysis of the texts using some postcolonial insights, theory of hybridity, and theory of ambivalence. Hybridity theory is credited to Homi K Bhabha. It claims that in creating a shared culture the colonizer and the colonized are mutually interdependent. Again, ambivalence theory, adopted by Bhabha into colonial discourse, examines the ambivalent feeling of repulsion and attraction that typifies the relationship between the colonized and the colonizer. The insights developed from the research will contribute to academic understanding of the shared culture constructed by the interactions between the colonized and the colonizer.

Discourse on Creole Identity: from Ambivalence to Madness Post-Colonial Reading on Rhys� Wide Sargasso Sea

The portrayal of creole identity is presented in several literary works, one of them is in the portrayal of Antoinette Cosway in Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea. Antoinette Cosway firstly is the minor character in Charlotte Bronts Jane Eyre. The research traces the link between Antoinette Cosways creole identity with her madness. According to Bhabhas ambivalence theory, creole identity possibly creates a new identity as the result of interrelation between colonizer and colonized. Based on the research, Antoinette Cosway failed to create a new identity and became a madwoman instead. The cause is the complex situation faced by her and the lack of supporting aspects for constructing a new identity.Keywords: creole identity, ambivalence, Antoinette Cosway, Homi Bhabha

ICLE Comments, The Current Landscape of Competition and Consumer Protection Law and Policy

These comments were submitted to the FTC as part of its hearings on “Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century.” As part of our comments, we note the timeliness of the hearings, given that, despite the vast social benefits generated by companies operating in the digital economy, the ongoing economic transformation has stoked fears amongst members of the general public, the press, and policymakers. This transformation has led to calls for interventionist policies such as heightened antitrust enforcement, sector-specific regulation, and direct intervention against industry concentration. We further note that there is insufficient evidence and, at best, ambivalent theory to support any of these proposed policies—and in the absence of a strong basis for adopting them, the proposed policies would do more harm than good. Among other things, economies of scale, economies of scope, net- work effects, and the like may bring about larger firms and more concentrated markets along with considerable consumer benefits. And new markets necessarily imply the consolidation of some firms and the exit of others, as competitors vie to come up with the winning paradigm. Against the backdrop of this evolutionary process, it is critical that authorities avoid knee-jerk reactions that may impair the long-term welfare of consumers and firms alike. Our comment reviews some of the important findings which law and economics scholarship can bring to bear on competition and consumer protection enforcement in this space.

Volunteer Retention in Prosocial Venturing: The Role of Emotional Connectivity

This study develops an understanding of the role of emotional connectivity for volunteer retention in prosocial business venturing. By embedding it in organizational ambivalence theory, our analysis of four volunteer-dependent community ventures reveals two mechanisms through which entrepreneurs strengthen volunteers’ emotional connectivity. We first identify emotion-focused practices that form volunteers’ emotional attachment to the venture, and then demonstrate how duality-focused practices, in the form of managing inherent organizational duality, complement emotion-focused practices to foster volunteers’ emotional loyalty to the venture. Theorizing from our findings, we introduce a model of managing volunteers’ emotional connectivity, and conclude by discussing its implications for prosocial venture research on volunteerism and affective commitment.

Grandparenting, education and subjective well-being of older Europeans.

We study whether grandparenthood is associated with older people's subjective well-being (SWB), considering the association with life satisfaction of having grandchildren per se, their number, and of the provision of grandchild care. Older people's education may not only be an important confounder to control for, but also a moderator in the relation between grandparenthood-related variables and SWB. We investigate these issues by adopting a cross-country comparative perspective and using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe covering 20 countries. Our results show that grandparenthood has a stronger positive association with SWB in countries where intensive grandparental childcare is not common and less socially expected. Yet, this result is driven by a negative association between grandparenthood without grandparental childcare and SWB that we only found in countries where intensive grandparental childcare is widespread. Therefore, in accordance with the structural ambivalence theory, we argue that in countries where it is socially expected for grandparents to have a role as providers of childcare, not taking on such a role may negatively influence SWB. However, our results show that grandparental childcare (either intensive or not) is generally associated with higher SWB. Overall, we do not find support for a moderating effect of education. We also do not find striking differences by gender in the association between grandparenthood and SWB. The only noteworthy discrepancy refers to grandmothers being often more satisfied when they provide grandchild care.

The Ghost in the Machine

This article examines the role of image culture in producing collective memory and opportunities for transnational solidarity in Alex Rivera’s science fiction film about the US-Mexico borderlands, Sleep Dealer (US/Mexico, 2008). The article shows that the film offers two contrasting spaces and aesthetics for producing collective memory that differently configure spectatorial interaction and social intervention. Counterposing the hyperindustrialized military vision of the fictional reality TV show Drones with the social media–styled memory market TruNode, the film’s caricature of neoliberalism demonstrates that embodiment in digital image networks emerges as a mode of intervention into the biopolitics of memory. Embodiment becomes the ghost in the machine of the film’s vision of neoliberal labor and memory markets. By focusing on the particular aesthetic means by which the film thinks through the different terrains of collective memory, the article shows that the militarized vision and real-time temporality of Drones produce control effects of visibility like those that currently characterize the borderlands. In contrast, the haptic and entangled aesthetics of TruNode produce a visibility of what Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri term “the flesh of the multitude” that offers opportunities for new forms of recognition and political alliance. Sleep Dealer provides an ambivalent theory of visibility and the production of collective memory within a neoliberal frame that sheds light on the biopolitical effects of image culture.

Valence asymmetries in attitude ambivalence.

Existing models of ambivalence suggest that as the number of conflicting reactions (e.g., attitude components) increases, so too does the experience of ambivalence. Interestingly, though, these models overwhelmingly assume that this relationship is independent of valence. Across 3 studies we observe that this effect is in fact heavily influenced by 2 established valence asymmetries: positivity offset (baseline positive reactions even in the absence of positive information) and negativity bias (greater impact of negative reactions than positive reactions). Consistent with positivity offset, we observe that subjective ambivalence is greater when people have univalent negative rather than univalent positive attitudes. However, as conflicting information is acquired, subjective ambivalence rises more quickly when that information is negative rather than positive. The latter effect is consistent with negativity bias and suggests that although people feel more conflicted when they have only negative (vs. only positive) reactions, they also feel more conflicted when they have mostly positive (vs. mostly negative) reactions. Our investigation also uncovers an interesting consequence of these asymmetries: When people have mixed reactions, they do not experience maximum ambivalence at equal levels of positivity and negativity, as suggested by canonical ambivalence theory. Rather, subjective ambivalence peaks when positive reactions outnumber negative reactions. These effects are found to have downstream consequences for other dimensions of attitude strength. (PsycINFO Database Record

Evaluating app bundling strategy for selling mobile apps: an ambivalent perspective

PurposeMobile appstores have fast sprung up during the last few years. The large number of apps in these appstores results in increased search effort for the customer as well as fierce competition leading to poorer revenues for both appstores as well as developers. Therefore, appstores allow developers to resort to bundling apps so as to increase the revenues and improve customer loyalty. Since an app-bundle is a mix of two or more apps, it may induce both positive and negative emotions simultaneously in the consumer. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of app-bundling strategy from consumers’ perspective, and help developers design app-bundles.Design/methodology/approachBased on ambivalence theories, this research investigate different antecedents and influence of positive attitude and negative attitude on purchase behavior, and derives seven key app-bundles attributes through an exploratory study. The data were collected from 930 consumers of app-bundles in China and analyzed using SEM approach.FindingsThe findings indicate that positive attitude and negative attitude are two separate concepts and the identified seven app-bundling attributes have distinct effect on shaping consumers’ positive and negative attitude.Originality/valueThis study makes three key contributions to theory and practice. First, this study identifies the specific attributes of app-bundles using exploratory study. Second, this study addresses the challenges involved in examining bundles using ambivalence theory. In doing so, it characterizes attitude as positive and negative and treats them as separate constructs. Third, as called forth by previous studies, this study establishes the co-existence of positive attitude and negative attitude.

Ambivalent Attitude of Young People in China Toward Rich Kids: Evidence from Behavioral Indices

A social phenomenon of great interest in China is that of young people who have rich parents, commonly referred to as “rich kids.” These rich kids are both liked and disliked by other young people, leading to contradictions in the behavior of their peers toward the rich kids. We conducted 2 studies to examine the attitude that young people hold toward rich kids from an ambivalent theory perspective. In Study 1, we used a free-thinking task and found that participants were ambivalent, associating both good and bad things with the target phrase “rich kids.” In Study 2, we presented participants with a scenario. Participants showed a more negative evaluation of, and more ambivalent emotions toward, the target they were supposed to meet when they were told that the target was a rich kid. These results showed that the participants' attitudinal ambivalence manifested in their emotion but not in their cognitive evaluation.

Ambivalent attitude of young people in China toward rich kids: Evidence from behavioral indices

A social phenomenon of great interest in China is that of young people who have parents, commonly referred to as rich These kids are both liked and disliked by other young people, leading to contradictions in the behavior of their peers toward the kids. We conducted 2 studies to examine the attitude that young people hold toward kids from an ambivalent theory perspective. In Study 1, we used a free-thinking task and found that participants were ambivalent, associating both good and bad things with the target phrase rich In Study 2, we presented participants with a scenario. Participants showed a more negative evaluation of, and more ambivalent emotions toward, the target they were supposed to meet when they were told that the target was a kid. These results showed that the participants' attitudinal ambivalence manifested in their emotion but not in their cognitive evaluation.

Long-Term Influences of Intergenerational Ambivalence on Midlife Parents' Psychological Well-being

We investigated changes in midlife parents' intergenerational ambivalence toward a focal child and its influence on their psychological well-being over 14 years, as the focal child moved from adolescence into young adulthood. We estimated growth curve models using three waves of data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 1,510 parents aged 35–54 years at Time 1). Parental ambivalence declined over time, equally among mothers and fathers. The prediction from ambivalence theory that children's attainment of adult statuses reduces parental ambivalence received only modest support. Only the focal child's marriage reduced parental ambivalence. The focal child's lifestyle–behavioral problems during adolescence still elevated ambivalence 14 years later, albeit less so. For its part, intergenerational ambivalence counteracted trends toward declining depressive symptoms and greater happiness for mothers and fathers alike, and its effects remained constant over time.