Ambivalent Feelings Research Articles

Internationalisation in action: exploring the voices of IB DP graduates studying in local universities in South Korea

ABSTRACT The IB DP is widely perceived as a globally recognised, outstanding international curriculum by a growing number of education scholars and policymakers in South Korea. Recently, education authorities from certain provinces have taken steps to adopt the IB DP in public high schools, contending that the programme will improve and galvanise teaching practices to be student-centred and inquiry-based. It is important to emphasise, however, that this ambitious belief lacks empirical research evidence. To address such research gaps, this study interviewed 13 Korean graduates who participated in the IB DP from a wide range of international schools and currently attend higher education institutes in Korea. Major findings revealed that, contrary to the dominant perceptions in Korea (and probably elsewhere), the participants had ambivalent feelings about the curriculum and instructions of the IB DP. Findings also demonstrated that the participants’ experiences of the international curriculum were affected by local contextual factors such as school ethos, academic culture and belief systems, not just by the educational philosophy of the IB DP. As findings portrayed gaps between the academic principles of the IB DP and experiences of students, this study contends both Korean policymakers and international scholars to carefully consider the potential implications of enacting the IB DP in local school systems. As curriculum change is nestled within a web of global-local dynamics, more context-specific knowledge is needed to understand how students will participate in the IB DP.

Moral Distress: Its Manifestations in Healthy Donors during Peripheral Blood Hematopoietic Stem Cell Harvesting

Hematopoietic stem cell donors (HSCDs) may have ambivalent feelings about donation. These feelings are related to moral obligation to help a sick relative and/or fear about the donation procedure. This ambivalence can produce moral distress (MD) and anxiety, which are usually unnoticed by the treating physician. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of MD and anxiety in a group of related HSCDs for allogeneic transplantation. In this prospective observational study, to assess MD and anxiety, we applied 3 self-answered questionnaires-a questionnaire developed to assess MD (MDQ), State Trait Anxiety Index (STAI), and Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS)-before, during, and after hematopoietic stem cell donation. A total of 60 consecutive related HSCDs with a mean age of 38.2 years were included. Thirty-six were male. Hematopoietic stem cell collections were done by apheresis, performed as an outpatient process in all cases. The incidence of MD during the donation process was 56%. The proportion of HSCDs with moderate to high state anxiety decreased significantly from before donation (63%) to after donation (30%). Higher scores for MD correlated with higher scores on the STAI questionnaire (r=0.448; P < .005). Thirty-seven donors (62%) had at least 1 physical symptom even before the stem cell mobilization process started, mainly anxiety (33%), difficulty sleeping (33%), and fatigue (30%). The number of symptomatic donors increased during donation (100%) and decreased after the procedure (80%). We conclude that MD and anxiety symptoms experienced by HSCDs are very common and can be explained by mixed feelings about the donation process. Providing comprehensive psychological support before starting the donation process and guaranteeing respect for the donor's autonomy are needed to decrease the negative impact of the donation experience.

Does Goal Conflict Necessarily Undermine Wellbeing? A Moderated Mediating Effect of Mixed Emotion and Construal Level.

Development occurs through the process of setting and working toward goals, in which individuals are often working toward multiple goals that are likely to conflict with one another. Although motivation theories hold that goal conflict is a kind of potential stress that may damage individuals’ mental health and wellbeing, the empirical research results on the relationship between goal conflict and wellbeing are quite different. There may be unknown factors affecting the relationship between the two. Against this background, we conducted the exploration of the relationship between goal conflict and life satisfaction, mainly by analyzing the moderated mediating effect of mixed emotions and construal level. The results showed that the goal conflict did not directly affect life satisfaction (β = −0.01, p > 0.5) but indirectly influenced life satisfaction through mixed emotions (β = −0.17, p < 0.001). The construal level moderated the relationship between mixed emotions and life satisfaction (β = −0.08, p < 0.01), and the higher construal level will predict higher life satisfaction especially when mixed emotions were low (M − SD) or medium (M). Therefore, the hypothesis of moderated mediating effect is verified, and we can draw the following conclusions: (1) Goal conflict does not necessarily impair life satisfaction. (2) Goal conflict impairs life satisfaction conditional on the fact that it triggers mixed emotions. Since mixed emotions are often accompanied by feelings of ambivalence and discomfort, they reduce the individual’s evaluation of life satisfaction. (3) In the path of goal conflict reducing life satisfaction through mixed emotions, the higher construal level mitigates the adverse effects of mixed emotions to some extent.

The work of class: Cash transfers and community development in Tanzania

This article uses the concept of convenience as an analytical prompt to investigate how ideas about work organize a cash‐based social assistance program financed through foreign aid. Productive Social Safety Nets (PSSN) is a nationwide program providing small regular payments to very poor households in Tanzania. Cash transfers as components of social assistance not predicated on working confront assumptions many Tanzanians share about the importance of work as foundational to self‐reliance as the bedrock of personal and national development. The program uses existing architectures of community development to creatively combine Tanzanian values around poor people's responsibility for their own development with World Bank conceptualizations of social assistance as a productive investment. Ethnographic research at the interface between program implementors and beneficiaries provides insights into the attitudes many Tanzanians hold about development and their place in it and sheds light on the ambivalent feelings of insecure middle classes about changing forms of state‐managed social assistance. Implementation involves an intricate orchestration of prescriptive ideals about labor, entitlement, and value organized around labor‐intensive bureaucratic procedures, public works, and community sensitization sessions. Labor making and making visible different kinds of work characterize program implementation. Prevailing attitudes toward social assistance, and the class relations through which they are realized, are perpetuated through ostensibly novel programs.

The Unthought Sown: The Ghost of Disavowed Racial Identity and the Failure of Imagination

This paper explores the imprint of slavery and its ensuing intergenerational transmission of trauma. It further explores a biracial man’s shame over the disavowed paternity of his white father. His ambivalence about his identity transmitted a traumatic world to his daughter, in which an imaginative and creative experience was foreclosed. The man’s hidden aspects of self left him with dissociated, deeply ambivalent feelings about racial identity which, transmitted to his daughter, brought into sharp focus the liminality of the Black experience in a White world. His daughter, the author’s patient, was deprived of an imagined realm in which she could see herself as knowable and loveable. Her identity was damaged, not only by her attachment experience, but by generational cycles of racial hatred that came before her. The analytic work generated a search for the father’s love, which had been eclipsed by his hidden shame.

Helpless Mothers Dropping Out of the Workplace: The Italian Case of Voluntary Resignation

In the Italian social context difficulties in remaining in the labor market characterizes working mothers, leading them sometimes to resign from their jobs. The aim of this research is to explore narratives of those women dropping out of the workforce during pregnancy and soon after childbirth and their experiences in these circumstances. The study analysed 30 interviews with working mothers with an average age of 35.4 years, living in Naples, Italy, who “spontaneously” left their jobs. Grounded Theory Methodology allowed a deeper understanding of these women’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences. The content of the interviews was categorized into 4 macro-areas: (1) The role of the family and of the working contexts, (2) Mothering and caregiving (3) Identity conflicts, and (4) The consequences of resignation. A sense of helplessness towards fulfilling maternal expectations, role assignments, and employers’ requests ultimately led to the individuals’ response to the requirements of motherhood. The narratives highlighted how respondents feel powerless and oppressed by the burden of guilt and feelings of ambivalence towards both work and motherhood and how all these subjective feelings were supported and had been induced by external social factors (discriminatory business strategies, organizational time management, lack of support services, familial cultural models idealizing maternity).

Reopening the doors of Dutch nursing homes during the COVID-19 crisis: results of an in-depth monitoring.

On May 11, the Dutch Government allowed 26 nursing homes to welcome 1 visitor per resident, after 2 months of lockdown. The study aimed to monitor in-depth the feasibility of the regulations and their impact on the well-being of residents, their visitors, and healthcare staff. Mixed-methods study in 5 of the 26 facilities; the facilities were affiliated to an academic network of nursing homes. Visitors and healthcare professionals. Allowing visitors using local regulations based on national guidelines. Digital questionnaire, analyzing documentation such as infection prevention control protocols, attending meetings of COVID-19 crisis teams, in-depth telephone or in-person interviews with visitors and healthcare professionals, and on-site observations. National guidelines were translated with great variety into local care practice. Healthcare professionals agreed that reopening would increase the well-being of the residents and their loved ones. However, there were also great worries for increasing workload, increasing the risk of emotional exhaustion, and the risk of COVID-19 infections. Compliance with local regulations was generally satisfactory, but maintaining social distance and correctly wearing face masks appeared to be difficult. Care staff remained ambivalent for fear of infections. In general, allowing visitors was experienced as having a positive impact on the well-being of all stakeholders. Nevertheless, some residents with dementia showed negative effects. The complete lockdown of Dutch nursing homes had a substantial impact on the well-being of the residents. The reopening was welcomed by all stakeholders, but provided a high organizational workload as well as feelings of ambivalence among care staff. In the second wave, a more tailored approach is being implemented. However, facilities are sometimes still struggling to find the right balance between infection control and well-being.

Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative: Reducing ambivalence through instructed emotion regulation.

Ambivalence, the simultaneous experience of positivity and negativity, is a conflicting, uncomfortable, arousing state but is a necessary catalyst for behavior change. We sought to examine whether feelings of ambivalence can be reduced using instructed emotion regulation of positive and negative affect, the components of subjective ambivalence. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were collected while participants played 3 blocks of mixed gambles, in which each trial involved losing or winning the lesser or greater of 2 amounts. In the 1st block participants responded naturally, and in the 2nd and 3rd blocks they were instructed to focus on either the positive or negative aspects of the outcome. Disappointing wins (e.g., winning $5 instead of winning $12) and relieving losses (losing $5 instead of losing $12) reliably elicited ambivalence; focusing on either the negative or positive aspects of the outcome reduced ambivalence as well as the magnitude of the late positive potential (LPP), indicating successful regulation. Both self-reported affect and ERPs indicated that emotional responses to losses were more difficult to regulate than responses to wins, consistent with a negativity bias in affective processing. Results are interpreted in the framework of theories of affect, and implications for changing behavioral motivation to support healthy behaviors are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Finland: Identities on the periphery

The troubled histories of nations are built from the bones of a million damaged children. But what about the nations and children who are stuck in the periphery between troubled and happy, between damaged and healthy? These are the settings that anthropology can thrive in: nations that have both suffered and benefited from colonialism, oppressed groups discriminating against others, and other ambiguous cultural dynamics. In this paper, I want to focus on Finland as a specific nation that serves as a good example of how collective trauma and ambiguous histories can be contested. These contestations are most commonly expressed through minute inequalities between the two main cultural groups in Finland: Finnish and Swedish-speaking Finns. Modern inequalities between different cultural and linguistic groups in and around Finland are expressed through stereotypes and expressions of identity. These stereotypes and identities are often mixed with ambivalent feelings, especially in regard to Finns' relationship with Sweden: the state and people, both historically and in the present. These relationships are based on the hegemonic and non-hegemonic views that Finnish speakers, Fennoswedes, and Swedes hold of each other. Hegemonically, quiet admiration and casual disapproval are common, hence the ambiguity. Non-hegemonically, extreme emotions and fixations are commonly perceived as strange and distasteful; everything must be just right, or lagom in Swedish. In this paper, I focus the discussion on Finnish issues of cultural and linguistic identity while keeping their relationship with the Swedish state and people in mind. Hence, my goal is to answer these questions: How has discrimination shaped Finnish identities? Has it shaped Finnish-speaking versus Swedish-speaking Finnish identities differently? How does a collective memory of oppression affect Finnish peoples' perceptions of others? However, what I ultimately want to answer is what is the source of Finland’s ambiguous historical identity: were Finns victims of ethnic discrimination or is this a narrative produced by historical revisionism?

Julian Tuwim: Misfortunes of a Polish-Jewish Poet in Exile

Abstract This article examines the lesser-known chapter in the life of the Polish poet and writer of Jewish origin Julian Tuwim during World War II. With the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, and after suffering in prewar ethnocentric and anti-Semitic Poland, Tuwim fled to Romania, where he tried, in vain, to obtain a visa for the British Mandatory Palestine, without having any Zionist affinity. This attempt was based on friendly relations with Leib Jaffe, the director of the Zionist National Fund in Poland. Tuwim’s attitude towards Zionism is analyzed in the context of similar attitudes of Joseph Roth and Stefan Zweig. Shortly thereafter, Tuwim came to Paris where he manifested, for the first time, anguish of exile, a feeling that didn’t leave him until the end of the war. After the German invasion of France, Tuwim fled to Portugal where he experienced a deep anguish over the refusal of an American visa, lack of money and prospects. In Lisbon, with the help of a Brazilian writer and diplomat, Tuwim obtained a visa to enter Brazil, where, with ambivalent feelings, he began his famous poem “Kwiaty polskie” [Polish flowers]. After nine months, Tuwim and his wife finally arrived in the USA where, in addition to being a writer, Tuwim became a political engagé. “We Polish Jews …” is the poem written in the shadow of the Jewish tragedy which reflects the complexity of Tuwim’s Polish-Jewish identity before and during World War II.

The Resurgence of Religious and Ethnic Identities among Eritrean Refugees: A Response to the Government’s Nationalist Ideology

This article explores processes of identity formation in Eritrean diaspora communities that have reverted to subnational patterns of identification grounded in the historical-political crises of their homeland. Refugees from Eritrea’s open-ended national service have ambivalent feelings towards their national identity: on the surface, they stress the cohesiveness of the Eritrean people, but in their daily lives they embrace ethnic or religious communities. I elaborate the dilemmas of identity formation in the transnational space between religious and ethnic affiliations and Eritrean nationalism. I analyse the expansion of ethnolinguistic and regional associations among diaspora communities and discuss their impact on identity formation. I link cleavages along ethnic and religious lines to collective memories and the government’s attempts to eradicate subnational identities. The study is based on long-term participant observation and semi-structured interviews with Eritreans in exile, and engages with relevant bodies of literature discussing identity formation in African and diaspora contexts.

The suicidal survivor: Considerations for treatment in psychodynamic psychotherapy

IntroductionSuicide is a phenomenon that is increasing in prevalence. Exposure to suicide by a loved one can be experienced as a traumatic event, capable of precipitating or aggravating preexisting psychiatric conditions. As much as we are clinically aware of gravity situation experienced by suicide survivors, there is a marked lack of studies on psychotherapeutic interventions in this population group.ObjectivesThe present work aims to review the literature on the psychodynamic treatment of suicide survivors, considering their theoretical and technical aspects.MethodsNarrative review of psychiatric and psychoanalytic literature.ResultsThe initial reaction described on becoming aware of the suicide of someone close to you is of disbelief, shock and helplessness. This is followed by ambivalent feelings of hate and guilt, shame and hopelessness. Sometimes, a chronic depressive state expressed by the survivor’s guilt can emerge. The mourning work will initially encounter resistance to face the loss of the object, through mechanisms such as denial, repression and psychotic fantasies. The lost suicide has a traumatic impact, modifying relational patterns and it is commonly associated with important isolation. The survivor will be able to transfer via fear the death of the therapist and even fantasize that he will also kill himself.ConclusionsPsychodynamic psychotherapy with suicide survivors finds theoretical and practical foundations in the literature, mainly through discussions of reports clinical and theoretical reviews on the topic. Through transfer and therapeutic alliance, new patterns of object relation can be sketched, in a context of mourning so often complicated by shutdown pressures and loneliness.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Grief and Fantasy in Children Aged 7 to 9 Years: A Case Study

Grieving situations are inevitable and are part of human development, as well as being necessary for the constitution and formation of the subject. The death of a loved one can be felt intensely and painfully and, when it occurs in childhood, it can generate strong reactions, anguish, and sadness during the grieving process. This article aims to investigate children's grief and fantasies related to death. The study was developed at a Clinical School of Psychology, in the south of the state of Tocantins, with nine (9) children aged between 7 and 9 years as participants. The information from the interviews with the parents was interpreted, in playful interviews and application of the HTP and BDS - IJ tests with the children. The results suggest that the type of death, how it was communicated and the child's bond with the deceased person are aspects that must be considered, when it comes to the loss and its consequences in child development since they can operate as generators of conflicts involving ambivalent feelings and fantasies, such as guilt, omnipotence, and rejection, in addition to the perception of helplessness. The conflicts and feelings expressed by the children demonstrated the child's understanding of death, with the crossing of feelings such as fear and insecurity about changes in the family structure and dynamics. Such facts reinforce the need for support measures, both for children and for the weakened family Keywords: Death, grief, child, conflict, fantasy. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/11-8-01 Publication date: April 30 th 2021

A Second Chance: Reenactment and Recovery Narratives in a Peruvian Drug Rehabilitation Center.

The following article discusses a collaborative, reenactment film made with the residents of a drug rehabilitation center in Iquitos, Peru. In so doing, it raises questions about narratives of recovery from addiction, and the tensions that emerge between these narratives and the often-ambivalent feelings of the people who tell them. Practices of filmmaking and reenactment generate a collaborative theorization of lived experience-in this case, the multifaceted natures of both addiction and recovery. At the same time, these practices are also attentive to the embodied memories and complex feelings of the film's actors. Further engagement with the filmic materials demonstrates how the film became an active exploration of the ongoing nature of recovery, complicating the therapeutic trajectories of a group of actors struggling to reconcile ambivalent feelings as they attempt to craft new narratives of self.

Identity Negotiation of Chinese American’s Twoness in Lisa Ko’s The Leavers: Postcolonial Approach

As second-generation Chinese Americans living in the multiracial American society, negotiating their twoness or multicultural identities have been a crucial issue, both in day-to-day life and in postcolonial discourse. This study aims to examine the Chinese American’s twoness identity negotiation as portrayed in The Leavers written by Lisa Ko. To investigate the main character Deming Guo’s process in negotiating his twoness as Chinese American, Bhabha’s postcolonialism theory, Said’s orientalism and Dubois’ concept of twoness are deployed. The findings show that Deming’s identity negotiation was influenced by several important factors, which are family and the society he lived in i.e., the different cultures of parenting and the American community’s prejudices towards Chinese American. It is also revealed that the second-generation Chinese immigrants often mimic and imitate the dominant culture in order to be assimilated with the community. This act of imitation typically generated the feeling of ambivalence when the American culture they adopted clashes with their native Chinese values. They also suffered from racial bias and discrimination from the American community. Nevertheless, Deming ultimately succeeds in negotiating his multicultural identities and settle his twoness by hybridizes his clashing Chinese and American identities. This hybridity creates a balanced identity within him, thus solving his identity ambivalence caused by his twoness

The effect of ad appeals and message framing on consumer responses to plant-based menu items

While the recent surge of meat-like items on restaurant menus has received considerable attention, little is known how to encourage consumers to choose such novel dishes. To address this gap, we investigate the role of various communication strategies in making plant-based menu items more attractive. The results from Study 1 suggest that using a social appeal in the ad increases consumers’ preference for plant-based menu items via anticipated pleasure, but a health appeal does not. The results from Study 2 demonstrate that information on social costs induces feelings of ambivalence toward meat eating, thus making plant-based menu items more desirable. However, information on health risks of meat consumption does not have such an effect. Practical implications for promoting plant-based menu items are discussed.

The emotional experience of caregiving in dementia: Feelings of guilt and ambivalence underlying narratives of family caregivers

Objective The aim of this study was to explore narrative domains of family caregivers’ emotional experiences, beyond intentional and explicitly reported contents, and to examine their associations with subjects defining characteristics, such as gender, kinship, duration of caregiving, and burden levels. Methods The study participants were 17 Italian family caregivers (88.23% women) with a mean age of 59.14 years ( SD = 7.76), who provided their loved ones affected by dementia with in-home care. Structured interviews and Caregiver Burden Inventory were administered according to a mixed method design. A computer-aided text analysis was used which allowed the detection of shared narrative domains (cluster analysis) and latent factors organizing the contraposition between them (multiple correspondence analysis). Findings Five narrative domains emerged which were respectively referred to as perceived formal support (14.38% of the overall textual corpus), devotion (33.56%), anger (13.70%), sense of loss (18.49%), and feeling of uncertainty (19.86%). Kinship, duration of caregiving, and burden levels were differently associated with such domains. Two latent factors dealing with feelings of guilt and ambivalence explained 62.92% of overall data variance. Conclusion Guilt feelings should be carefully taken into account in support intervention with caregivers, with specific regard to stress and anger management. As well, a greater focus on caregivers’ emotion regulation and on the promotion of their problem-solving skills is needed when faced with contrasting beliefs about care decisions or role conflicts.

Cain: Figure of Rebellion and Resilience in D. H. Lawrence’s “tragic age”

Throughout his works, Lawrence quarrels with what he terms in Lady Chatterley’s Lover his “tragic age” (5). He surveys the tragedy of social mutations brought about by economic and industrial changes, a tragedy he believes to have reached a climax with the outbreak of the war. He also considers his personal tragedy, which proceeds from his no longer being able to relate to a country he cared for and his decision to turn to exile. Lawrence’s ambivalent feelings for his homeland further stem fr...

Managing Difference: White Parenting Practices in Socioeconomically Diverse Neighborhoods

Drawing on 40 interviews with white parents in two mixed-income neighborhoods—one that is majority-white and the other that is multiracial—this article examines how residence in socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods conditions the parenting practices of middle-class whites, specifically concerning parents’ management of their children’s contact with the poor. The data reveal that white parents in both neighborhoods work to ensure symbolic and spatial distance between their children and their poor neighbors resulting in distinctive patterns of micro-segregation in each neighborhood. However, how parents engage in this work depends on the race of their neighbors and the block-level geography of their community. I find that parents deploy more contact-avoidant practices toward their poor white rather than their poor black neighbors. Among participants, poor whites conjure feelings of disgust and are actively avoided, whereas poor black residents provoke feelings of ambivalence, as contact with them is judged to be both valuable and threatening.

Addressing pre-service teachers as digital writers: Conflicts and inconsistencies in practice

ABSTRACT This article explores challenges faced when curriculum designers address pre-service English teachers as digital writers, in a “teacher as writer” program. The article considers the resilience of print dominance in writing, including in tertiary digital education spaces and how the rhetoric of digital expansion is accompanied by practices of proscription and constraint. While curriculum theory encourages pre-service teachers to think of themselves as agentive digital communicators, designers, and producers, their capacity to actually perform as digital writers during their formal studies may be limited. Teachers, meanwhile, may have ambivalent feelings about broadening definitions of writing. It seems that the entrenched nature of traditional literacies in education, despite rapid social change in broader communication media, results from a complex assemblage of generational and sexual politics, conservative or neoliberal agendas, and teacher workloads, capabilities and identities. The article invites others to consider contradictions in their own contexts.