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The Secret of Ambivalence: Do You Know What Emotional Ambivalence is?
Affective ambivalence, or ambivalence, is a state of having conflicting reactions, beliefs, and emotions at the same time. This complex psychological phenomenon can be seen everywhere in life, from interpersonal relationships to attitudes towards certain values, it may reflect emotional contradictions. When our attitude towards someone or something contains both positive and negative emotions, it is a concrete manifestation of emotional ambivalence.
Emotional ambivalence may cause individuals to act less decisively because their attitudes are no longer clear.
In human psychological structure, this contradiction often leads to difficulties in decision-making. Research shows that when emotional conflict arises about a particular issue, an individual's decision-making process is often affected and they become more uncertain and hesitant. This is partly because conflicting emotional states make future behavior more difficult to predict.
Types of emotional ambivalence
Perceived contradiction
In psychology, there is a form called "perceptual contradiction" or "subjective contradiction", which reflects an individual's inner conflict when evaluating an object. This contradiction often manifests itself as mixed emotions or reactions, and may even lead to behavioral uncertainty on the part of the individual. When a person realizes that they have conflicting feelings, they experience anxiety and insecurity stemming from these conflicting beliefs.
The survey found that individuals faced with emotional conflicts often choose to avoid making decisions or delay actions.
Potential contradiction
In addition to perceived contradictions, there is also something called "potential contradiction". This state represents an individual's acknowledgment of both positive and negative reactions when evaluating something. This also means that during the evaluation process, individuals are aware of their conflicting feelings about the subject, but may not fully face these feelings.
Hypothetical theory of emotional ambivalence
Consistency theory
The main point of this theory is that individuals tend to pursue cognitive coherence, so any inconsistency in emotions or beliefs will create psychological tension. Such tension drives people to seek balance to reduce the discomfort caused by contradictions.
Psychological discomfort comes from the discrepancy between beliefs and behaviors, and emotional ambivalence is a common result of this process.
The consequences of emotional conflict
Emotional conflict is not just a simple psychological state, it may also trigger a series of behavioral and emotional reactions. Research has found that individuals in a state of emotional ambivalence often take longer to integrate his various viewpoints when dealing with related matters. In addition, the thinking process in this situation will correspondingly become less efficient, affecting the quality of their decision-making.
End
Emotional conflict is a complex and important psychological mechanism that deserves our in-depth exploration. For yourself, have you ever experienced emotional ambivalence? How does this contradiction affect your life choices?
