Measuring the ambiguity tolerance of medical students: a cross-sectional study from the first to sixth academic years

BACKGROUND: Tolerance of ambiguity, or the extent to which ambiguous situations are perceived as desirable, is an important component of the attitudes and behaviors of medical students. However, few studies have compared this trait across the years of medical school. General practitioners are considered to have a higher ambiguity tolerance than specialists. We compared ambiguity tolerance between general practitioners and medical students. METHODS: We designed a cross-sectional study to evaluate the ambiguity tolerance of 622 medical students in the first to sixth academic years. We compared this with the ambiguity tolerance of 30 general practitioners. We used the inventory for measuring ambiguity tolerance (IMA) developed by Reis (1997), which includes three measures of ambiguity tolerance: openness to new experiences, social conflicts, and perception of insoluble problems. RESULTS: We obtained a total of 564 complete data sets (return rate 90.1%) from medical students and 29 questionnaires (return rate 96.7%) from general practitioners. In relation to the reference groups defined by Reis (1997), medical students had poor ambiguity tolerance on all three scales. No differences were found between those in the first and the sixth academic years, although we did observe gender-specific differences in ambiguity tolerance. We found no differences in ambiguity tolerance between general practitioners and medical students. CONCLUSIONS: The ambiguity tolerance of the students that we assessed was below average, and appeared to be stable throughout the course of their studies. In contrast to our expectations, the general practitioners did not have a higher level of ambiguity tolerance than the students did

Effect of Gender on Ambiguity Tolerance of Iranian English language learners

Current study aimed to investigate the pattern of ambiguity tolerance among Iranian English language learners. Further, this study examines whether any statistically significant difference existed between Iranian male and female learners' in their ambiguity tolerance. To this end, to instruments of Second Language Ambiguity Tolerance Scale (SLATS) developed by Ely (1995), and a questionnaire on participants' demographic information were used to collect the data. Results indicated that, the participants' average ambiguity tolerance score were highest in items related to reading skill and the lowest in items pertained to writing skill. On the part of gender effect, no statistically significant difference was revealed between Iranian male and female English language learners in their ambiguity tolerance. Finally, implications were provided for English language teachers and researchers. Keywords: ambiguity tolerance, gender, language learning, Iranian learner

Tolerance for ambiguity, creativity, and personality

Ambiguity tolerance describes individual behaviour in ambiguous situations where one has to act with lack of clarity or lack of information. This workshop will discuss individual differences in tolerance – intolerance of ambiguity, their measurement, and their relation to creativity and personality. Empirical results that were obtained in Bulgaria in 14 concurrent, cross-sectional, cross-cultural, correlational and experimental studies with adolescents and adults will be brought together with findings reported elsewhere in order to outline the role ambiguity tolerance plays in individuals’ behaviour and development (Stoycheva, 1998; 2003; 2005; 2008). Our work will be organised in three parts. The first part will explore the notion of ambiguity tolerance and its application to the study of human development and individual and group behavioural outcomes in different areas of life. The second part will discuss the relation of ambiguity tolerance to other personality traits and processes in a way that differentiates between individual premises for tolerance - intolerance of ambiguity and its consequences for personality and individual behaviour. The third part will examine the place of ambiguity tolerance in creativity research, and empirical data on the relation of ambiguity tolerance to creative motivation and creative performance will be presented and analysed

Ambiguity tolerance in organizations: definitional clarification and perspectives on future research

Ambiguity tolerance is an increasingly popular subject for study in a wide variety of fields. The definition of ambiguity tolerance has changed since its inception, and accompanying that change are changes in measurement and the research questions that interest researchers. There is a wealth of opportunity for research related to ambiguity tolerance and recent advances in neuroscience, measurement, trait research, perception, problem solving, and other fields highlight areas of interest and point to issues that need further attention. The future of ambiguity tolerance research is promising and it is expected that future studies will yield new insights into individual differences in reactions to the complex, unfamiliar, confusing, indeterminate, and incomplete stimuli that fall within the conceptual domain of ambiguity

Investigating the Theory of Ambiguous Loss: The Role of Ambiguity Tolerance in Pre-Death Grief for Caregivers of Individuals with Dementia

This thesis sought to investigate the relationship between ambiguity tolerance and caregiver grief within the framework of ambiguous loss theory. Thirty-one family caregivers completed a quantitative survey comprising two pre-existing scales and several demographic questions designed to assess level of ambiguity tolerance, level of grief, caregiver age and gender, type of relationship to the care recipient, living situation, length of caregiving career, level of Social support and frequency of difficult behaviors. Quantitative data analysis revealed that while no relationship existed between total ambiguity tolerance and total caregiver grief, a modest, inverse relationship exists between tolerance toward general-type ambiguity and burden, which is one identified aspect of caregiver grief

Creativity and Psychological Safety: A proposed model on the links between psychological safety, ambiguity tolerance, playfulness and creativity

Creativity has been of research interest for centuries and its relationship with other constructs has been established; however, these links mostly study creativity with a single other construct. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between psychological safety, tolerance of ambiguity, playfulness and creativity; they have been individually linked together but no complex model encompassing them all is known to the author. The study tested a proposed model that links the four concepts together. Data was collected from 90 participants in two adult education schools in Sweden. The constructs were measured by Swedish translations of the Team Psychological Safety Scale, the Multiple Stimulus Types Ambiguity Tolerance Scale-II (MSTAT-II), the Short Measure of Adult Playfulness Scale (SMAP) and the Work Climate Questionnaire. The link between psychological safety and creativity and between ambiguity tolerance and playfulness were the strongest. Psychological safety significantly contributed to creativity even when playfulness and ambiguity tolerance were controlled for. The discussion includes the role of psychological safety in understanding creativity, possible limitations and suggestions for future research directions. Keywords: organizational creativity, play, adult playfulness, ambiguity tolerance, psychological safety, theoretical mode

Entrepreneurship psychological characteristics of nurses

Nurses are full partners with other health care professionals. Until fairly recently the scope of nurses potential in entrepreneurship has not been widely recognized. The present study tries to evaluate entrepreneurship psychological characteristics among nurses. The survey instrument included scales measuring entrepreneurship psychological characteristics including locus of control, need for achievement, risk taking propensity, ambiguity tolerance, and innovation, among nurses in the Shahid Sadoughi Hospital, Yazd, Iran in 2013. In this study average of entrepreneurship psychological characteristics of nurses which are higher than standard mark. The majority of the nurses have average entrepreneurship (20.4). It means that they have some strong entrepreneurship. The result show that average of the need for achievement is 34.5, the locus of control 33.8, risk taking propensity 33.2, ambiguity tolerance 34.2, and innovation 41.6. The results indicate that the 4 dimensions of the need for achievement, risk taking, Ambiguity Tolerance, and Innovation were significant. However, the locus of control is not significant at a 0.05 significance level. In terms, entrepreneurially nurses are comparatively more innovative, have risk taking attitudes, need for achievement, Ambiguity Tolerance, and Innovation. Results largely support significant positive relationships between psychological traits and entrepreneurial orientations. © 2016 Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Ambiguity Tolerance: Adolescents’ Responses to Uncertainty in Life

Adolescents today have to live with incoherence for longer periods than before, and that makes ambiguity tolerance a socially significant personality dimension. Studies of the development of ambiguity tolerance in adolescents are reported. The pilot study, "Adaptation of MAT-50 for Use with Bulgarian Population," involves translation and adaptation of the test for use in Bulgaria. Analysis of the pilot data is discussed. Study 1, "Cross Sectional Analysis of the Development of Ambiguity Tolerance in the Age Interval 15-25 Years," provides insight into the psychometric characteristics of the MAT-50/BG-2 and reports on differences in ambiguity tolerance related to subjects' sex, age, and education. Study 2, "How Ambiguity Tolerant Adolescents Compare with Those Who Are Intolerant of Ambiguity on Different Cognitive and Personality Characteristics," reports on selection of the group of high and low ambiguity tolerant adolescents. Study 3, "How the Attitudes of Teachers and Parents Influence the Development of Ambiguity Tolerance in Adolescents," addresses the differences in ambiguity tolerance related to subjects' sex, age and settlement; differences in AT-AInT values and parents' self-reported AT-AInT encouragement; and relationships between students' ambiguity tolerance and parents' self-reported AInT encouragement. Results and conclusions are discussed with emphasis on the educational implications of ambiguity tolerance. The Parents-Teacher Ambiguity Tolerance Survey is appended. (Contains 23 references and numerous tables and figures.