ICP2008, July 20-25, Berlin, GermanyIS-008 Tolerance for ambiguity, creativity, and personality

Relation of ambiguity tolerance to cognitive and affective needs: A cross cultural content analysis

Katya Stoycheva Todd Lubart

Franck Zenasni Kalina Popova

Ambiguity tolerance: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

PURPOSE

§ examine the relation of ambiguity tolerance to cognitive and affective individual difference measures

§ carry out a content analysis of these scales’ items

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: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

Ambiguity tolerance: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

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: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

Judges’ ratings of the 188 items :

related - not related to the AT construct

how much related to AT strongly - moderately - weakly

coded as 0 - 1 - 2 - 3

Ambiguity tolerance: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

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: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

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: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

AT relation to cognitive and affective measures

§ content analysis of the items strongly related and unrelated to the AT construct

§ summary results for each of the scales in relation to the AT construct

Ambiguity tolerance: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

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: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

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: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

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: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

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: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

Scales’ relation to AT

ST 92 % 2,66 (0,20) RLS (5S,2M) DS (2S, 2M)

UN 96 % 2,53 (0,43)

CL 90 % 2,45 (0,33) Pr Am Or Cm De(4of7)

PR 95 % 2,26 (0,26) 74 % M

EV 63 % 2,26 (0,27) 70 % M

CG 29 % 1,42 (0,85) 77 % reverse scored

AF 15 % 0,68 (0,69)

Ambiguity tolerance: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

Cross cultural comparisons

§ discrepancies in judges’ consensus on items’ relation to the AT construct

§ differences in judges’ ratings of the items’ relation to the AT construct

Ambiguity tolerance: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

Cross cultural comparisons

§ 3 opposite and 38 differing items out of 188CG(18), AF(12), EV(5), CL(4), PR(1) and UN(1)

French judges - 18 out of 38, 5 YES and 13 NO

Bulgarian judges - 20 out of 38, 15 Yes and 5 NO

§ significant differences on 6 out of 137 items (1, p < 0,001) (5, p < 0,05) e AT construct

Ambiguity tolerance: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

CONCLUSIONS

§ validity of the AT construct

§ cross cultural insights

Ambiguity tolerance: Cross cultural content analysis

Stoycheva, Lubart, Zenasni, Popova (ICP 2008)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Marina Vulova, Maria Trifonova, Carolyn Granier-Deferre, Tzena Mileva

NATO Research Fellowship

Jacobs Foundation - Short-term exchange grant

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

Institute of Psychology, Academy of SciencesSofia, Bulgaria

ICP2008, July 20-25, Berlin, Germany

IS-008 Tolerance for ambiguity, creativity, and personality

Relation of ambiguity tolerance to cognitive and affective needs A cross cultural content analysis

Katya Stoycheva, Todd Lubart, Franck Zenasni, Kalina Popova

THANK YOU

FOR YOUR ATTENTION !