Ideology, system-justifying worldviews, uncertainty & the tolerance of ambiguity

[Honey]

An ideology is a set of aims and ideas, especially in politics. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things (compare Weltanschauung), as in common sense (see Ideology in everyday society below) and several philosophical tendencies (see Political ideologies), or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society. The main purpose behind an ideology is to offer change in society through a normative thought process. Ideologies are systems of abstract thought (as opposed to mere ideation) applied to public matters and thus make this concept central to politics. Implicitly every political tendency entails an ideology whether or not it is propounded as an explicit system of thought.

... Psychological research[5] increasingly suggests that ideologies reflect motivational processes, as opposed to the view that political convictions always reflect independent and unbiased thinking. Research in 2008[5] proposed that ideologies may function as prepackaged units of interpretation that spread because of basic human motives to understand the world, avoid existential threat, and maintain valued interpersonal relationships. The authors conclude that such motives may lead disproportionately to the adoption of system-justifying worldviews. Psychologists have generally found that personality traits, individual difference variables, needs, and ideological beliefs seem to have a common thread. For instance, a meta-analysis by Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, and Sulloway in 2003 analyzed 88 studies from 12 countries, with over 22,000 subjects, and found that death anxiety, intolerance of ambiguity, lack of openness to experience, uncertainty avoidance, need for cognitive closure, need for personal structure, and threat of loss of position or self-esteem all contribute to the degree of one's overall political conservatism.[6] The researchers suggest that these results show that political conservatives stress resistance to change and are motivated by needs that are aimed at reducing threat and uncertainty. According to Robert Altemeyer and other researchers, individuals that are politically conservative tend to rank high on Right-Wing Authoritarianism, as measured by Altemeyer's RWA scale.[7] Psychologist Felicia Pratto and her colleagues have found evidence to support the idea that a high Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) is strongly correlated with conservative political views.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology

An ideology can be thought of as a way of looking at things?  Hhhmmm fr'instance I enjoy taking photographs.  In order to accomplish what I set out to do, I frame the picture.  Looking thru the lens & immediately making several decisions.  Horizontal or vertical?  Up close or from a distance?  What do I want to include in the frame?  Speed of the action I want to capture?  Just a few things I consider before ... I click the shutter, freeze that moment in time, never able to return except maybe thru memory or imagination.

Also acknowledging there are so many more things one could say about this simple task.  Right from the start tho, there are certain things I take for granted (an ideology of sorts?).  Big one is, try as I may, I can't duplicate what I see mainly because there are things that exist outside the frame.  Easily seen when I look away from the lens (or frame).  Can't capture the (many) things I see beyond the frame tho.  Admittedly accepting this limitation, I move on & take the picture.  Similarly with other types of frameworks.  It becomes necessary to accept there are things not captured within your carefully controlled frame or vision.  In order to play, you accept the limits.  Some of the nicest visions I've ever had or seen, I'm unable to duplicate & remembrance exists within my mind & maybe nowhere else.  Who can understand these things?  Not me that's for sure.

Tolerance of ambiguity?  Sometimes there seems to be a certain OCD quality to experience, like a "control freak" facet?  People may use an inaccurate or inelegant word for another framework, ideology or system of thought.  Or they may develop rituals or even magical thinking to complete or justify the various frameworks.  All these different frames & not a one capturing the whole or using some sort of universal language to even describe (perhaps the same phenomenon).  There are, after all, so many different ways of seeing.  Sometimes people want to be certain or sure (intolerance of ambiguity?) & therefore never have to even think about these things (shades of thoughtcrime?).  Granted, some of these frames may be comforting especially to a certain type of mind.  & who doesn't want to control at least one tiny aspect of their existence?  Sadly, most times even that is an illusion.  A comforting illusion but an illusion all the same.  "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy ..." or, more succinctly, "Hell is other people."  Or whattabout some kind of unified field of experience?  Nice try but no dice.  The more you notice the structure or organization within the frame, the more you realize everything outside the frame is chaos.  & what's wrong with a little (or a lotta) chaos?  "All we are saying ... is give chaos a chance?"  ah ha ha (shades of hippyspeak)  I enjoy taking photographs.  I also find joy in stepping back into the world of a million frames & appreciating the freedom of uncertainty.  Beauty is in both.

Robert Altemeyer has an interesting theory about Authoritarian Followers.   According to this theory, tolerance of ambiguity is one of the variables measured & seems to be correlated to political conservatism.  He developed a scale to measure if anyone is interested in taking a look.  The scale is included in the first few pages:

http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/chapter1.pdf

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Bump.