• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.60 no.8
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• pp.118-131
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to identify the differences in cosmetics brand selection by product type, and the differences in ambivalent cosmetics consumption attitude by ambivalent clothing consumption attitude. The subjects of the study were females aged 20 plus, living in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province between January and February 2008, and 427 questionnaires were used for analysis. For data analysis SPSS 17.0 statistical program was used, and principal component analysis, paired t-test and t-test were conducted. The results and conclusions of this study are as follows: firstly, the differences in cosmetics brand selection by product type were investigated. The results showed that domestic high-priced brands of skincare products were selected most often, that foreign high-priced brands of base products and color products were selected most frequently, that domestic low-and medium-priced brands of hair products were selected most often, and that foreign low-and medium-priced brands of body products were selected most frequently. In particular, foreign high-priced brands of color products were most favored, followed by domestic low-and medium-priced brands. The subjects selected foreign high-priced brands, which are the most expensive, and domestic low-and medium-priced brands, which are the least expensive, at the same time. They displayed ambivalent consumption patterns. Secondly, the differences in cosmetics consumption attitude by ambivalent clothing consumption attitude were examined. Groups high on ambivalent clothing consumption attitude had a higher cosmetics consumption attitude than groups low on ambivalent clothing consumption attitude.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.137-149
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to identify the factor structure of sociocultural attitude toward Appearance, pursuit of clothing benefits, ambivalent consumption of fashion product and the effects of sociocultural attitude toward appearance and pursuit of clothing benefits on ambivalent consumption of fashion product. Questionnaires were administered to 425 women living in Deagu Metropolitan City and Kyungbook province. The data collected were analyzed by using frequency, factor analysis, multiple regression, ANOVA, and Duncan-test. The findings are as follows. Sociocultural attitude toward appearance was composed of two factors such as internalization, and awareness. Pursuit of clothing benefits was composed of four factors such as individuality oriented, social oriented, fashion leadership oriented, and body oriented. Ambivalent consumption of fashion product was composed of three factors such as style/price ambivalence, place of purchase ambivalence, and brand ambivalence. The effects of sociocultural attitude toward Appearance and pursuit of clothing benefits on each of ambivalent consumption of fashion product variables like style/price ambivalence, place of purchase ambivalence, and brand ambivalence were explained by the factors such as internalization, and awareness, and individuality oriented, social oriented, fashion leadership oriented, and body oriented.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.131-159
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• 2014

Corporate rebranding has been evident in the qualitative corporate rebranding studies as an imposed organizational change that induces mixed reactions and ambivalent attitudes among consumers. Corporate rebranding for the established and familiar corporate brands leads to more ambivalent attitudes as these companies represent larger targets for disparaging information. Consumers are found to hold both positive and negative reactions toward companies and brands that they are familiar with. Nevertheless, the imposed change assumption and ambivalent attitude, in particular corporate rebranding, have never been widely explored in the quantitative corporate rebranding studies. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive empirical examination of the ambivalence towards rebrandingrebranded brand attitude-purchase intention relationships. The author proposes that corporate rebranding for familiar corporate brands is a double-edged sword that not only raises the expectation for better performance, but also induces conflicted and ambivalent attitudes among consumers. These consumers' ambivalent attitudes are influenced by both the parent brands-related and general attitude factors which further affect their rebranded brand attitude and purchase intention. A total of 156 useable questionnaires were collected from Malaysian working adults; and two established Malaysian airfreight operators were utilized as the focal parent brands. The study found a significant impact of prior parent brand attitudes on ambivalence towards rebranding (ATR). The parent brand attitudes served as anchors in influencing how new information was processed (Mazaheri et al., 2011; Sherif & Hovland, 1961) and closely related to behavioral intention (Prislin & Quellete, 1996). The ambivalent attitudes experienced were higher when individuals held both positive and negative reactions toward the parent brands. Consumers also held higher ambivalent attitudes when they preferred one of the parent brands; while disliked the other brand. The study also found significant relationships between the lead brand and the rebranded brand attitude; and between the partner brands and ATR. The familiar but controversial partner brand contributed significantly to the ambivalent attitudes experienced; while the more established lead brand had significant impact on the rebranded brand attitude. The lead and partner brands, though both familiar, represented different meanings to consumers. The author attributed these results to the prior parent brand attitudes, the skepticism and their general ambivalence toward the corporate rebranding. Both general attitude factors (i.e. skepticism and general ambivalence towards rebranding) were found to have significant positive impacts on ATR. Skeptical individuals questioned the possibility of a successful rebranding (Chang, 2011) and were more careful with their evaluations toward 'too god to be true' or 'made in heaven' pair of companies. The embedded general ambivalent attitudes that people held toward rebranding could be triggered from the associative network by the ambiguous situation (Prislin & Quellete, 1996). In addition, the ambivalent rebranded brand attitude was found to lower down purchase intention, supporting Hanze (2001), Lavine (2001) and van Harreveld et al. (2009)'s studies. Ambivalent individuals were found to prefer delay decision making by choosing around the mid-ranged points in 'willingness to buy' scale. The study provides several marketing implications. Ambivalence management is proven to be important to corporate rebranding to minimize the ambivalent attitudes experienced. This could be done by carefully controlling the parent brands-related and general attitude factors. The high ambivalent individuals are less confident with their own conflicted attitudes and are motivated to get rid of the psychological discomfort caused by these conflicted attitudes (Bell & Esses, 2002; Lau-Gesk, 2005; van Harreveld et al., 2009). They tend to process information more deeply (Jonas et al., 1997; Maio et al., 2000; Wood et al., 1985) and pay more attention to message that provides convincible arguments. Providing strong, favorable and convincible message is hence effective in alleviating consumers' ambivalent attitudes. In addition, brand name heuristic could be utilized because the rebranding strategy sends important signal to consumers about the changes that happen or going to happen. The ambivalent individuals will pay attention to both brand name heuristic and rebranding message in their effort to alleviate the psychological discomfort caused by ambivalent attitudes. The findings also provide insights to Malaysian and airline operators for a better planning and implementation of corporate rebranding exercise.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.6
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• pp.77-99
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to show that the reason behind the ambivalent characteristic displayed in Niki de Saint Phalle's works is in her trauma and how such characteristic can be extracted from her works. During her creative years, Saint Phalle worked on various materials from different genres such as assemblages, shooting paintings, a series on Bride and Monster, 'Nana', 'Tarot Garden'and public sculptures. One commonality found among her various works is the ambivalent characteristic that contains contrasting elements simultaneously. Saint Phalle suffered a terrible psychological damage inflicted by her parents during her childhood. Specifically, she was sexually assaulted by her father and emotionally neglected by her mother, the trauma that affected her for the rest of her life. As a result, she came to develop extreme love- hate relationships with her parents and this became the main reason for the ambivalent characteristic displayed in her works. The love-hate relationship Saint Phalle developed can be identified through various researches done on the subject of the affect of sexual assault. It is common for incest victims to develop ambivalent feelings towards the perpetrator and Saint Phalle was no exception. Dissociation disorder and a snake well explain the trauma from her father. It is a generally accepted belief in the field of psychology that dissociation disorder commonly occurs to children who experience incest. And dissociation disorder is similar to the characteristic of ambivalence in the sense that a single entity contains more than two contrasting elements at the same time. In addition, the amputated doll objects used in her assemblages coincide with the expression of body detachment of people with dissociation disorder. These facts clearly indicate that the trauma from her father is showing through in her works. A snake is a subject matter that reflects the ambivalent tendency of Saint Phalle that resulted from her trauma. She remembers her father's rape as an image of a snake which is related to a phallic symbol in mythology or art reflecting her trauma. Moreover, she displays a similar pattern of ambivalent emotion like love and hate or fear towards a snake and her father. This is also confirmed by her portrayal of a snake as a monster or reversely as a creature with fundamental vitality in her works. The lack of affection from her mother can be explained by her mother's maternal deprivation. It appears that Saint Phalle's mother possessed all the causes for maternal deprivation such as maternal separation, personality disorder and inappropriate attitude towards child rearing. Especially, a study that shows mother's negative attitude towards child breeding tends to increase dissociation experience of children is another important evidence that supports Saint Phalle's dissociation tendency. These traces of Saint Phalle's trauma are clearly revealed in her assemblages and shooting paintings. The violent objects in her assemblages such as a hammer, razor, nail represent the rage and defensiveness towards her father. The objects such as fragments of broken plates of feminine patterns, pots and mirrors that her mother used symbolize the affection towards her mother. On the other hand, the destructed objects can be interpreted as her hate and resentment towards her mother. Shooting paintings contain her extreme fury and hate. Things such as acts of shooting and the image associated with blood after shooting are blunt expressions of her bursts of emotions. I have tried to define and classify the ambivalent characteristics shown in her assemblages and shooting paintings as hate, rage, violence, calm, love and pleasure according to the frame of Thanatos and Eros. Out of the six, hate, rage, violence and clam are associated with Thanatos while love and pleasure are associated with Eros and they correspondingly form an ambivalent structure. These ambivalent characteristics can be found in her assemblages and shooting paintings. The objects in her assemblages such as a razor, saw, hammer imply hate, rage, violence and the silence felt throughout her works represent calmness. And, as mentioned, the feminine objects can be seen as symbolizing love. In shooting paintings, hate, rage, violence can be found in the use of force and in the traces of watercolor after shooting, and a sense of pleasure in her feelings of catharsis after her shooting. Moreover, a shielded calmness can be found on the plywood all covered with plaster before the shooting. This study looked into the ambivalent characteristic of Saint Phalle's works by examining her trauma to find its correlation, and a meaning of this study can be found from the fact that it refocused the origin of Saint Phalle who is generally known as a feminist artist. Additionally, a meaning of the study can be found also from the fact that it examined the ambivalent characteristics of her works through a frame of Thanatos and Eros.

• Hwankyungkyoyuk
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• v.18 no.1 s.26
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• pp.120-133
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• 2005

This study investigated the changes of consciousness and ambivalent attitudes about the important environmental issues among the teachers who enrolled the environmental education training. Experimental and control groups were composed with 47 and 30 person, respectively. Environmental issues were constructions of sea-wall, nuclear power plant and dam. Cronbach alpha of the self-developed questionnaire was $0.6909{\sim}0.8992$. Score were made with 5 Likert scales for consciousness, and with semantic differential half scale for ambivalent attitudes. Almost teachers(94.0% and 97.1%) have above 10 years teaching career. Strangers in environmental program were 53.2%. After environmental training, teachers' consciousness was significantly changed to negative about the construction of sea-wall for the farm field and industry complex area(p=0.019), and about the construction of dam for disaster like flood(p=0.026), and for adverse effects of citizen by fog(p=0.042). They were also significantly changed to negative about the construction of nuclear power plant for economical energy(p=0.004)', no-emission of greenhouse gases(p=0.033)', 'alternative energy(p=0.000)', 'destruction of ecology(p=0.052)' and 'social fear(p=0.009)'. The consciousness of teachers who have the experience of environmental training, were significantly changed to negative about the construction of nuclear power plant. Scores of teachers' ambivalent attitudes were made lower in experimental than control group about the construction of sea-wall and nuclear power plant. After education training, they were made lower so much as -10.0% in control, but higher much as +4.4% in experimental, and severely higher much as 86.5% in teachers who had experienced the environmental training about construction of sea-wall. Their scores were made lower so much as -3.3% in control, but much as -6.4% in control.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.653-663
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of ambivalent sexism and focusing manner on self-concept for middle-aged women, and to verify the factors that can help middle-aged women's positive self-concept. The self-concept scale, the focusing manner scale, and the ambivalent sexism scale were used for this study through the online community targeting middle-aged women aged 35 to 55. As a result of the analysis using SPSS 21.0, it was investigated that there was a significant positive correlation between hostile sexism and benevolent sexism. In addition, It was found out that ambivalent sexism had a significant negative effect on self-concept. It was found out that the high hostile sexism of ambialent sexism led to lowering the self esteem, emotional stability, problem solving stability, interpersonal relationship and interpersonal trust of middle-aged women. Focusing manner had a significant positive effect on self concept, but there were differences for each sub-factor. Express, accept, and keeping one's composure had a significant positive effect, while awareness had a negative effect, and reflecting attitude did not have a significant effect. Finally, limitations of this study were discussed.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.539-549
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify attitudes of adolescents toward suicide. Methods: Q-methodology which provides a method of analyzing the subjectivity of each item was used. Thirty middle and high school students classified 37 selected statements into a normal distribution using a 9 point scale. Collected data were analyzed using the Quanl PC Program. Results: Three types of attitudes toward suicide were identified. The first type (opposing suicide-moral minded) showed an attitude of opposing suicide and thinking that suicide is a sin. The second type (understanding-empathizing suicidal person) showed an attitude of understanding the situation of the adolescents who has suicidal ideation and empathizing with them. The third type (ambivalent attitude) showed an attitude of understanding the suicidal person but, at the same time, opposing suicide. Conclusion: Results of the study indicate that different approaches to suicide prevention programs should be developed based on the three types of suicide attitudes among adolescents.

• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.179-196
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• 2001

According to Formalist theory, form is not separate from content. Form does not merely convey or express content but can itself produce meaning. The close correlation of the narrative structure, more specifically the time structure of the narrative, and the narrative style of Kim Seung-Ok′s short story′"Travel in Mujin" provides a good example of this argument. The story opens with the first-person narrator, currently living in the bustling city of Seoul, back in his small provincial home town Mujin, where he brings up memories that had been hitherto suppressed. The revived memories are ordered into the narrator′s present thought structure, in effect bridging the vast psychological rift between the lost past and the present. The narrator′s travel in Mujin thus becomes a psychological journey, and Mujin becomes a psychological space where the narrator can experience the continuity of his own being. The "narrating I" excludes the principles of reality from his narrative, concentrating on the inner thoughts, recollections, psychological experience, and the level of consciousness of the "narrated I." This narrative attitude or style expresses the narrator-protagonist′s acceptance and affirmation of the thoughts and actions occur in Mujin (which he had till now been resistant to). It is also an affirmation of the narrative act itself. Before the travel back to Mujin, the narrator-protagonist′s thoughts about his home town was ambivalent-an attitude originating from nostalgia, together with the narrator-protagonist′s ambivalent attitude toward his youthful past. It is a reflection of the narrator-protagonist′s desire for purity intermingled with a disdain for his enervated existence in Seoul. This ambivalence is resolved by the "I" of the narrative present, and Mujin enables him to come to a renewed affirmation of his life.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.93-113
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• 2020

This study investigates how the users' perceptions on like function in social media affect their attitudes toward the number of likes they receive from others. People conveniently believe that the number of likes is a significant measure of their online content quality and popularity. However, we take an ambivalent view that people do not settle their perceptions on the likes but change their like assessments according to circumstances. Specifically, we propose a model wherein emotional responses to the received likes may affect the value assessment of the likes. Our model shows how people resolve their internal contradiction on the value of the likes by flipping the traditional cognition-to-emotion mechanism to emotion-to-cognition mechanism. We validate the reversed dynamics between judgements and feelings using the data collected from 548 social media users. Results confirm that social media users' attitudes toward likes is largely affected by their emotional responses to their received number of likes. The implications of this study explain social media users' ambivalent attitudes toward likes by showing how they adjust their individual like valuation using their emotional responses.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.609-623
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• 2017

Fur apparel is a representative luxury item that displays wealth and social status; however, it is also recognized as an unethical product criticized for its animal maltreatment in the production process. Understanding consumer responses to an ambivalent object, such as fur apparel, is an important research topic both academically and practically. This study investigates the hierarchical effects of perceived benefits and risks of fur apparel on consumers' emotions and purchase intention by applying the ABC model of attitudes to identify the mediating effects of consumer emotions. An online survey was conducted on 390 female consumers that verified hypotheses through structural equation modeling and bootstrapping analysis using phantom variables. The initial results of the survey showed that the relationship between perceived conspicuous benefits and purchase intention towards fur apparel was partially mediated by positive emotion. Second, the relationship between perceived epistemic benefits and purchase intention was completely mediated by positive emotion. Third, the relationship between perceived ethical risk and purchase intention was completely mediated by positive and negative emotions. Fourth, perceived social risk did not affect the purchase intention of fur apparel significantly. The results support that cognitive beliefs about the subject have a significant positive effect on behavioral intentions through emotions as suggested in the ABC model of the attitude. This study provides an in-depth understanding of consumer responses to ambivalent objects by revealing the individual mediating effects of consumers' positive and negative emotions.