Effect Of Ambivalence Research Articles

Effects of Intergroup Ambivalence on Information Processing: The Role of Physiological Arousal

Previous research has found that people who are ambivalent toward a group process new information about the group more carefully than people who are nonambivalent toward the group. It has been suggested that this effect occurs because people who are ambivalent toward a group (a) experience a high level of physiological arousal when they think about the group and (b) seek to reduce this arousal by carefully processing new information about the group. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a correlational study (Study 1) and an experimental study (Study 2). Unexpectedly, Study 1 found that intergroup ambivalence is negatively correlated with the physiological arousal that is experienced when target outgroups are salient. Study 2 replicated this pattern and demonstrated an effect of intergroup ambivalence on information processing, while also discovering that the effects of ambivalence on arousal and on information processing were independent. Overall, these results indicate that arousal is not a necessary mediator of the relation between intergroup ambivalence and information processing.

Attitudinal Ambivalence Toward Parents and Attachment Style

Two studies tested whether children’s attitudinal ambivalence toward their parents is related to their attachment styles within relationships. Across both studies, children who were ambivalent toward their father were less securely attached in their relationships than were children who were nonambivalent toward their father. Study 1 also showed that the relation between attitudinal ambivalence and secure attachment in relationships was independent of attitude valence, attitudinal embeddedness, attitudinal inconsistency, and attitudinal commitment. Study 2 demonstrated that the relation between attitudinal ambivalence and general attachment style was mediated by children’s secure attachment to their father. There were similar relations between participants’ ambivalence toward their mother and their attachment styles in relationships, but these relations were weaker and less consistent across studies. An explanation for the unique effect of ambivalence toward fathers is discussed.

Experienced Ambivalence as a Moderator of the Consistency Between Attitudes and Behaviors

Summary: Two studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that stronger degrees of ambivalence attenuate the attitude-behavior correspondence. We also tested the hypothesis that the weaker attitude-behavior correspondence at higher levels of ambivalence may be due to the lower temporal stability of highly ambivalent attitudes. To ensure that these hypotheses be adequately tested, both studies had a prospective design. After assessing their attitudes toward certain behaviors and ambivalence, participants recorded how often they performed these behaviors during the subsequent 14-day period. The investigated behaviors included everyday behaviors such as consuming fast food, preparing classes, and watching entertaining programs on TV. To assess attitudinal stability, attitudes were measured again after the 14-day period. As the results show, the expected moderating effect of experienced ambivalence on the attitude-behavior correspondence was obtained, however, only for a minority of the investigated behaviors. As predicted, experienced ambivalence was related to decreased attitudinal stability in each of these cases. A meta-analytic summary of the two studies revealed that, across different behaviors, a weak but reliable moderating effect of ambivalence on attitude stability and the correspondence between attitudes and behaviors exists.

AMBIVALENT ACTIONS

A person who is incarcerated for the first time becomes a “prisoner” but does not automatically acquire a meaningful status within the prison world. If the incarceration is short term, the person is unlikely to ever achieve a significant prison status because participation in the prison world will be inhibited by identification with the outside world. This condition of social marginality results in an ambivalence that directly shapes inmates' strategies for survival within the prison world. This article examines the effect of ambivalence on inmates' adaptation strategies. Data for the study were collected through participant observation and focused interviews with inmates at a maximum security prison for men.

HIV education and the law: a critical review.

So far, the law has been used more to limit than to encourage effective HIV education. In this article, I will discuss how the law has largely failed as a tool for compelling the government to educate effectively, and, indeed, has provided only lukewarm protection against the chilling effect of official ambivalence about explicit education. I will begin with a review of current approaches to HIV education and the education efforts of the first decade of the epidemic. I will conclude with a discussion of the role of courts and legislatures as health educators.