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Background: We aimed to identify profiles of ambivalence among individuals with a history of non‐suicidal self‐injury (NSSI) and tested whether profiles differed across various theoretically informed constructs: NSSI‐related characteristics, cognitive (outcome expectancies, self‐efficacy to resist NSSI), emotional (psychological distress, difficulties in emotion regulation), personality, and incentives to engage/not engage in NSSI. Methods: Individuals with a lifetime history of NSSI (n = 224) reported the extent to which they wanted to and did not want to engage in NSSI and completed well‐validated measures of the constructs of interest. Results: Latent profile analysis indicated four ambivalence profiles (avoid: n = 39; moderately ambivalent: n = 85; highly ambivalent: n = 30; approach: n = 70). The profiles differed across a number of NSSI‐related characteristics, cognitive, emotional, and incentive‐related variables. Differences between the ambivalence profiles and the avoid/approach profiles varied across constructs. For example, the ambivalence and approach profiles were similar for NSSI‐related outcome expectancies, but the ambivalence and avoidance profiles were similar for self‐efficacy to resist NSSI. Conclusion: Findings highlight variation between the desire to engage or not engage in NSSI that are consistent with the notion of ambivalence. Understanding these differences may allow for a more person‐centered approach in treatment for NSSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As information systems (IS) have evolved, more sophisticated meshing of their positive and negative implications has emerged, leaving users with an increasingly ambivalent experience. Given the discomfort of ambivalence, users intrinsically engage in coping responses with different degrees of cognitive flexibility. This paper investigates ambivalence and the coping responses users adopt in the context of post-adoptive IS use via two research questions: (1) what are the consequences of flexible and inflexible coping responses to ambivalence toward post-adoptive IS use? and (2) how does personality influence a user's disposition toward flexible and inflexible coping responses to ambivalence toward post-adoptive IS use? To address them, we propose and test a research model using a multimethod design, comprising two complementary empirical studies. Study 1 adopts a variable-centered approach to test the hypotheses and to empirically validate the proposed research model. Building on the findings of Study 1, Study 2 employs a person-centered approach to identify a typology of IS users. The findings demonstrate the prevalence of ambivalence among IS users, the dual-nature of their coping responses to ambivalence, in part, influenced by their level of neuroticism, and the associated post-adoptive IS use behaviors. This paper provides a novel perspective to users' attitudes toward an IS use and resolves some of the tensions in prior ambivalence research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistani Tablighis, practitioners of the transnational Islamic piety movement, the Tablighi Jamaat, believe that Muslims have abandoned 'religion' (din) for 'the world' (dunya) and this has thrust the world into a state of moral chaos (fitna). The only way to draw Muslims to Islamic practice, they say, is through their own distinct, ritualized form of face-to-face preaching (dawat), which is the sacred means for spreading Islamic virtue because it is modelled on Prophetic example. In this article, I argue that dawat represents what Birgit Meyer has called a 'sensational form', an authorized set of practices and techniques for mediating a relationship to transcendental power and creating divine presence. But dawat is structured by an internal tension. On the one hand, dawat requires performing the Prophetic model in order to create a 'direct' relationship to God, but, on the other, creating a 'connection' between Muslims depends on incorporating new genres and mediums drawn from popular culture and mass media that stretch the boundaries of religion. This moral ambivalence, however, does not just lead to moral failure but instead is addressed through an emphasis on pious companionship (sohbat) and through submission to the authority of pious others. Moral ambivalence, therefore, becomes the generative ground for religious authority. The production and reproduction of religious authority in turn serves as the basis for incorporating novel forms of mediation in order to address diverse and changing social, political and economic contexts while retaining the aura of religious continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how social media are involved in imagining and sensing body ideals among young fitness self-trackers in Denmark (age 15–24). The analysis is based on 20 interviews and contributes to existing research on social media, body image and self-tracking by showing that social media are central for the fitness practices of the participants, but also that gaining access to practical knowledge, motivational material and visual goals seem to be more important motivations for social media use than personal sharing and interaction. Social media are furthermore understood by the participants as unavoidable, but ambivalent terrains in the sense that cognitive and affective benefits, like knowledge or motivation, can only be accessed and felt by handling the risk of also encountering misinformation and demotivating images of idealised or deceptive bodies. The informants legitimise their engagement with social media by positioning themselves as mature media users able to navigate social media through practices of content dis/engagement. The ambivalence of social media is in other words experienced as both 'elemental' and 'curatable' by the informants; an experience that stresses the need to question the traditional conceptualisation of ambivalence as an inhibition of personal agency and will formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores an important aspect of academic precarity: the use of fixed-term contract researchers as factotums within universities. The practice can be defined as the taking-on of tasks that are outside of core research activities, including substantial amounts of time spent teaching, supervising students and preparing research proposals, often at the behest of tenured staff members, reflecting existing power dynamics within the organisation. At a theoretical level, it is argued that this aspect of academic precarity reflects various forms of ambivalence in researchers' lives, creating tensions in addition to expanding their workloads. Using evidence from 54 interviews with researchers of at least five years' experience and based at research units in Portugal, conducted during 2022 and 2023, it is possible to illustrate various aspects of academic precarity and ambivalence, with different responses from researchers including acceptance of and resistance towards the factotum role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has introduced the concept of leader‐member exchange (LMX) ambivalence and has shown that it can be detrimental to employee task performance. Drawing on self‐determination theory and models of LMX development, this research investigates whether LMX ambivalence may also negatively influence employee well‐being. In a two‐wave field study with 278 employees in a large police organisation, we found that LMX ambivalence was significantly associated with two focal measures of work‐related well‐being: work engagement and emotional exhaustion, through its influence on psychological need fulfilment. Perceived positive meaning in work was found to buffer the negative effects of LMX ambivalence on psychological need fulfilment and well‐being. Overall, these results contribute to the occupational health literature by demonstrating that psychological need fulfilment helps explain why LMX ambivalence negatively affects work related well‐being outcomes and underscores the important role of positive meaning in work as a buffer for these relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous research has shown that nostalgia for the pre-addicted self can motivate people living with addiction to engage in behavior change. Objective: Herein, we explored nostalgia for the addictive behavior—labeled addiction-related nostalgia (ARN)—among people in recovery from engaging in addictive behavior. We tested the novel idea that ARN is positively associated with ambivalence about recovery. We also hypothesized that ARN may counteract the positive influence of optimism on individuals' commitment to recovery. Results: In two studies involving individuals in recovery from a gambling (Study 1; N=301) or alcohol use disorder (Study 2; N=604), ARN was linked to increased ambivalence about recovery, while optimism was associated with decreased ambivalence. As expected, the interaction between optimism and ARN revealed that nostalgia either eliminated (Study 1) or reduced (Study 2) the negative relation between optimism and ambivalence. Conclusions: These findings underscore the challenges posed by ARN in the recovery process and emphasize the importance of interventions that address and mitigate its impact while considering the moderating role of optimism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the extensive existing literature, religion has often been ambivalently associated with both conflict and peace. Arguably, such an "ambivalence of the scared" can significantly be studied at the functional, rather than essential, dimension of religion. Drawing mainly on Hardenberg's theories of socio-cosmic field, value, and resources, as well as Ninian Smart's dimensional anatomy of religion, this study aims to interpret cultural dynamics in a systematic correlation between religion and peacebuilding. Based on the description and analysis of data collected from a qualitative research in Paderborn (Germany) and Mashhad (Iran), and with a thematic focus on interreligiosity in the two settings, this article approaches religion as a ResourceCulture for peacebuilding and suggests that the "ambivalence" can be interpreted in light of a discernible contingency in resources, meanings, and values, as well as the role of human agency in their production, interpretation, and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are attitudes toward forgiveness ambivalent? To answer this question and explore whether such ambivalence predicts individuals’ propensity to forgive and tendency to view forgiveness as desirable/virtuous, we asked undergraduates (N = 159) to complete measures of ambivalence toward forgiveness, attitudes toward forgiveness, and tendencies to be forgiving/vengeful. Using a number of metrics, our findings suggest that attitudes toward forgiveness are moderately ambivalent. In addition, and as predicted, ambivalence toward forgiveness was associated with diminished inclination to be forgiving, enhanced pro-vengeance orientation, and less idealistic views of forgiveness. Further, highly ambivalent participants scored the same or lower than anti-forgiveness participants in tendencies to be forgiving/vengeful. These findings suggest the existence of a disconnect between people’s actual attitudes toward forgiveness and popular discourses on forgiveness and underscore the need for investigations of and theorizing on forgiveness that more fully recognize its possible costs and limitations or, at the very least, laypeople’s views on these.

Abstract Existing literature has highlighted solidarity across generations as a crucial mechanism for transfers and maintaining cohesion within families. However, researching solidarity across generations among transnational families is still an underexplored area, especially from the viewpoint of highly skilled female migrants. This study explored the way highly educated Portuguese adult daughters, living transnationally, perceive the existing solidarity ties with their parents, in times of transition, such as during the process of migration. By using a cluster analysis approach to explore the statistical associations between ambivalence and intergenerational solidarity dimensions, this study provides insight into the migrant solidarity types incorporating the role of ambivalence in forging a typology of transnational intergenerational relationships. The sample comprised 248 daughters who volunteered to provide information in an online survey. Participants gave their full consent to partake in this study, and this study was approved by the ethical committee of the authors’ institution. Measures of intergenerational solidarity dimensions, perceived ambivalence, sociocultural adaptation, acculturation, and social well-being in the destination country were included in the survey. Model-based cluster analysis resulted in three clusters: low ambivalence with strong cohesion, autonomous with affection and low ambivalence, and ambivalent functional ties with low affection. These clusters differed significantly in terms of intergenerational solidarity dimensions, perceived ambivalence, and in several other measures addressed. Perceived high parent-daughter ambivalent ties were associated with high levels of functional contacts and financial exchange. That pattern was also associated with lower levels of affection and consensus, being most frequently found in older daughters, mostly when single, economically inactive, or unemployed. Low perceived ambivalent parent-daughter ties were the most frequently found (around 80%), with two different types of intergenerational relationships being revealed, namely the low ambivalence with strong cohesion type and the autonomous with affection and low ambivalence type. Half (50%) of the daughters that perceived low parent-daughter ambivalent ties have associated the highest intergenerational solidarity, being, in general, better adapted to the migration context and slightly younger on average. The other half, less well acculturated, living abroad for longer, in countries with stronger welfare state systems and less reliance on families as providers of care, are more associated with an autonomous relationship type with low solidarity, but high affection. These results suggest that there might be a spillover effect: those who fare well in the country of migration, have better relations with their families at home—either being very interdependent or very independent, but always with good affective quality and low ambivalence.

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) has become a significant mental health concern for adolescents. Previous empirical studies have shown that ambivalence over emotional expression is positively associated with negative emotions and behaviors. However, little is known about the relationship between ambivalence over emotional expression and NSSI among adolescents. Therefore, this study used a longitudinal design to examine the relationship between ambivalence over emotional expression and NSSI among Chinese adolescents, and also to explore the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relationship. A total of 1,672 students (45.8% males; Mage = 16.12 years, SD = 1.56) in a middle school in Guangzhou were tracked. The investigation was conducted twice, with an interval of 6 months. Ambivalence over emotional expression was positively correlated with NSSI. After controlling for gender and baseline NSSI, anxiety symptoms fully mediated the association between ambivalence over emotional expression and NSSI. In addition, the relationship between ambivalence over emotional expression and NSSI was moderated by NSSI refusal self-efficacy. These findings imply that to decrease ambivalence over emotional expression, to reduce anxiety symptoms, and to promote NSSI refusal self-efficacy may be useful for interventions and preventions of NSSI. Tested the relationship between ambivalence over emotional expression and NSSI in adolescents. Examined a moderated-mediation model over six months. Found the mediated effect of anxiety symptoms and moderated effect of NSSI refusal self-efficacy in the relationship between ambivalence over emotional expression and NSSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this qualitative study was to examine experiences and meanings of maternal ambivalence in first-time mothers with young children. Background: In contrast with normative expectations surrounding contemporary motherhood, there is growing recognition that becoming and being a mother involves ambivalent feelings, and that these feelings are normal and have positive psychological consequences. Yet, little attention has been paid to women's subjective experiences of maternal ambivalence, and capacity to acknowledge and manage ambivalent feelings. Methods: Eleven semi-structured online interviews, with first-time mothers, were conducted and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology. Results: Two group experiential themes were identified: Crossing boundaries of acceptable mothering feelings and Mothering from a place of 'enough'. Ambivalent mothering feelings challenged participants' expectations about motherhood and themselves as mothers, producing anxiety, self-doubt and feelings of failure. Distress accompanying maternal ambivalence was especially acute when participants perceived their feelings to be unacceptable. Viewing conflicting feelings with compassion, however, helped participants to cope with their diverse and fluctuating emotional mothering experiences, allowing them to mother with a greater sense of equanimity, agency and competence. Conclusion: The study's findings indicate the potential benefits of providing information about the emotional turbulence of early motherhood as part of routine maternity care, as well as the potential value of offering parenting interventions that promote self-compassion to mothers struggling to manage feelings of ambivalence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to critically analyze the deployment of 'gay man' as an identity category in Sharif D Rangnekar's autobiographical account Straight to Normal: My Life as a Gay Man (2019). The frequent usage of sexual identities in 'coming out' narratives often tends to reiterate and reify sexuality as a well-defined concept. Using Queer Theory's approach to identity and Akshay Khanna's postcolonial critique of categorical identities, it situates the multilayered nuances of 'gayness' and foregrounds how the hegemony of the sexual identity framework in India engenders psychological and moral dilemmas. It explores spaces like family, school, and workplace, which discursively enforce the culturally dominant images of gay men as effeminate, and unnatural, and treat them as social outcasts. And simultaneously, it probes into the problematics of negotiating the subjective experiences within the emergent collective gay community spaces, which are often dynamic and characterized by the specific community codes of socialization and intimate behavior. The paper highlights this dichotomy as it results in the psychological ambivalence of the narrator, which gets manifested in the alternating tone of the autobiographical voice, and argues how it offers a different approach to identity politics in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present findings from a 1-year study of students' plurilingualism across the disciplines in Canadian higher education. We analyze how students exercise their plurilingual competence, focusing on the use of Chinese languages as tools for learning at a university in Metro Vancouver, Canada. The following data are presented: field notes taken during classroom observations, transcripts of recordings of students using Chinese languages while working collaboratively, and semi-structured interviews with students in which they discuss how they use languages for learning. We weigh the creative and instrumental use of Chinese languages as tools for learning against the dominance of academic English. We suggest that the tension between the use of Chinese languages during the process of learning and academic English for assessment underlies the ambivalence around which student participants perceive and practice plurilingualism in higher education.

Ambivalence brings great uncertainty to workers' decision making of intentional unsafe behaviors. It is of great theoretical and practical significance to find the factors that have significant regulating effect on workers' ambivalence. [Research Content] On the basis of constructing the decision-making model of workers' intentional unsafe behaviors under the ambivalence of workers, this paper analyzed the moderating effect of optimism bias on the ambivalence of workers, and employed the structural equation model to empirically verify the proposed hypothesis. [Empirical results] Individual optimism bias has a significant moderating effect on the ambivalence in the decision-making process of workers' behavior. Workers with higher optimism bias are more likely to have intentional unsafe behaviors. At the same time, the generation of optimism bias is related to workers' self-esteem and risk preference. [Enlightenment] Managers should pay more attention to workers' optimism bias psychology, and in particular, psychological counseling should be conducted regularly for workers engaged in high-risk work for a long time to help workers establish a correct view of risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Simone de Beauvoir, the question of female formation is inseparable from a reflection on the literary forms that convey it. In the most properly novelistic component of her work, the construction of the identity of various female characters remains an unfinished process: from L'Invitée (1943) to La Femme rompue (1967), via Les Mandarins (1954), the demand for freedom from family and social constraints is often disrupted by a parallel tension towards bad faith. Female apprenticeship, on the other hand, becomes fundamental to understanding the formal and thematic organisation of the autobiographical project, and in particular of Mémoires d’une jeune fille rangée (1958). Through the narrative of her childhood and adolescence, Beauvoir adopts an explicitly oriented strategy here, aimed at illustrating the formative journey that enabled her to become one of the most important writers of her generation. This has decisive consequences for the form of the text itself, insofar as, in addition to respecting the pact of truth, there is a desire to bear witness and a performative aim.

The characteristics of new technologies can cause significant harm to society. This does not only apply to unintended consequences, but even more so when the technologies are used for malicious purposes. The latter can be observed in the domain of civil security. Here, negative developments such as social polarization, increasing radicalization, and democratic regression alongside a deteriorating security situation are increasingly associated with technological innovation and malevolent creativity. As society becomes more and more aware of such correlations, technology assessment is called upon to provide orientation knowledge. This requires appropriate approaches and knowledge tools to assess the potential role of technology in relation to radicalization and political extremism.