Tolerance for ambiguity, creativity, and personality

Abstract

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.