Psychological Experience of Attitudinal Ambivalence as a Function of Manipulated Source of Conflict and Individual Difference in Self-Construal

Much research has emerged recently examining attitudinal ambivalence. One recent finding suggests that feelings of attitudinal ambivalence can come about either because of an individual’s own feelings of positivity and negativity or because of interpersonal attitudinal discrepancy. The present research examines the question of whether differences in self-construal moderate the impact of an intrapersonal (vs. interpersonal) source of conflict on attitudinal ambivalence. We have found that individuals who possess interdependent self-construals reveal greater attitudinal ambivalence when the source of conflict is interpersonal than intrapersonal, whereas individuals who possess more independent self-construals are influenced in the opposite manner