Ambiguity tolerance
Tolerance of ambiguity ( from Lat ambiguitas " ambiguity ", " double meaning " ), sometimes also referred to as uncertainty or uncertainty tolerance is the ability to ambiguities, ie contradictions, cultural differences or ambiguous information that appears difficult to understand or even unacceptable to perceive and not negative, or - often with cultural differences - to assess unreservedly positive. The concept plays in various psychological and educational theories play an important role, especially in the personality development (see also: identity development ) and social learning. Tolerance of ambiguity is also a prerequisite for the intercultural competence of a person. According to studies, it does not correlate with his formal education.
Depending on the author, the ambiguity is seen as a personality trait or as cognitive and perceptual process.
When situations or people appear unpredictable and uncontrollable, find people with little tolerance for ambiguity existing stress and discomfort and tend to restore with simple and unreflective ideas or systems of rules and a more linear way of thinking order and structure in their environment.
Psychology and role theory
The psychoanalyst and psychologist Else Frenkel - Brunswik defined the tolerance of ambiguity as an ability of an individual, the coexistence of positive and negative qualities in one and be able to recognize the same object, and introduced the concept of ambiguity as " basic variables in the emotional and cognitive orientation of an individual over the life of a ". In their research on the authoritarian personality, she noticed an ethnocentric bias in children and also noted " that some individuals are more able to see positive and negative characteristics of their parents and feelings of love and hate the same person over without too much anxiety or to accept conflicts, while others the image of parents as either entirely good or bad dramatized ". According to her, is the ability to recognize this co-existence, an important emotional- cognitive personality variable. The " black and white thinking " by Frenkel - Brunswik is an extreme of Ambiguitätsintoleranz. Maintaining this thinking requires closure of the individual to reality aspects that pose a threat to this "solution " of contradictions. However, the ambiguity should not be confused with the wider field of emotional ambivalence which they defined as the simultaneous presence of related to one and the same object, loving and hateful impulses in the individual.
Tolerance of ambiguity as a hypothetical construct of a personality trait is present when a person has found a balance between role expectation and role design and thus can tolerate role conflicts. For the person, it is the ability to " be able to take note of ambiguity and uncertainty and endure ." However, this does not require that all contradictions are resolved ( then no more tolerance of ambiguity would be required). Tolerance of ambiguity is thus a personality construct to perceive contradictions, inconsistencies or ambiguous information documents in its complexity and positive. After Stanley Budner a ambiguitive situation is defined by the absence of sufficient evidence, and characterized by novelty, complexity and intractability.
From the viewpoint of a homogeneous, global dimension, the ambiguity in the role concept refers to the relationship of mutual role expectations and mutual gratification.
According to Budner and MacDonald react ambiguitätsintolerante people on ambiguitive stimuli with psychological discomfort. Ambiguitätstolerante people, however, tolerate these stimuli not only passive, but even have a need for it.
The inventory for the measurement of tolerance of ambiguity (IMA -40) differs by factor analysis, five dimensions of ambiguity tolerance or intolerance towards inextricably appearing problems, social conflicts and Rollenstereotypien as well as the parent image and openness to new experiences ( experiential knowledge ). If, in a people's tolerance of ambiguity significantly weakened to non-existent, one speaks of the so-called ambiguity - deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ATDS ). This concerns, for example, people who, if stimuli ( senses and sensations) can not be correctly interpreted and answered by adequate responses, unreflective implement ideas without prudence and orderly planning rashly into action.
In cognitive psychology, the construct of ambiguity is seen not as a general personality trait, but rather as a substantive or domain-specific construct. It is here more a controlling regulative of recording, processing and storage of information processes in contradictory situations in order to use logical addressing forms of contradictions appropriate to the situation. From the tolerance of ambivalence can not be generally concluded that there is tolerance of all opposites. This means that it is also it must not be inferred from a tolerance of ambivalent feelings towards people that an individual is also tolerant of ambivalent logic of organizational principles. This concerns, for example, the staff leadership development. However, it is believed that a transfer of the tolerances of various Ambivalenzebenen is learnable.
Transcultural Context
In cross-cultural context is understood to be ambiguity enduring contradictions and conflicting expectations, which may occur by cultural differences and ambiguous information. People with a high tolerance for ambiguity are also in new, unstructured and difficult to control situations able to " accept deviations from the usual normality or unexpected reactions and actions, rather than as a threat " and thus remain capable of action.
When adjusting processes to a foreign cultural situation, a Ambiguitätsintoleranz lead to confusion.