Tolerance of ambiguity as a content specific construct

Despite a lack of definitive evidence, tolerance of ambiguity has most often been treated as a generalized personality trait. In this paper we propose a measure of ambiguity tolerance (Attitudinal Ambiguity Tolerance scale) which can test the assumptions of generality by assessing cross-content variability. The validity and reliability of the Attitudinal Ambiguity Tolerance scale were found to be adequate. The results indicate that tolerance of ambiguity is not a generalized personality trait, but rather, that expressions of ambiguity tolerance are content specific. The findings suggest that, in comparison to the Attitudinal Ambiguity Tolerance scale, personality measures may be inaccurate predictors of ambiguity tolerance in specific content domains. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.