Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine whether a high level of ambiguity intolerance could be related to different cognitive appraisal and coping in three stress situations. We also expected gender difference in the relationship. One hundred twenty-nine college students (55 men and 74 women, aged 19-25) participated in the study. They were asked to complete Measurement of Ambiguity Tolerance (MAT-50), cognitive appraisal, and coping scales. Path analysis showed that women high on ambiguity intolerance tended to cope actively without cognitive-appraisal mediation, and men high on the same tendency to cope actively, sometimes with the mediation, in such stress situations as being under social evaluation. These results suggested that ambiguity-intolerant women tended to act directly, while intolerant men had differentiation and complication in the coping process, and tended to cope in a variety of forms, especially under social evaluation.
