Oct 22nd 2025
Meaning
n. /æmˈbɪvələns/ (uncountable, singular)
the fact of having or showing both positive and negative feelings about somebody/something 矛盾心理，指对同一人、事或物同时存在两种相互对立的情感或态度（如既喜欢又讨厌、既期待又恐惧）
Origin
词根构成：该词由两个希腊语词根组合而成。
前缀 “ambi-”：源自希腊语 “ámbō”，意为 “两者都”（both）或 “在两边”（on both sides）。例如，“ambiguous”（模糊不清的）也使用了此前缀，表示 “有两种或多种可能含义”。
词根 “-valence”：源自希腊语 “valentia”，意为 “力量”（strength）或 “价值”（worth）。
Collocation
feel ambivalence about sth. 对某事感到矛盾
express ambivalence 表达矛盾心理
emotional ambivalence 情感矛盾
Examples
e.g. Many people feel some ambivalence towards social media and its effect on our lives. 许多人对社交媒体及其给生活带来的影响，都或多或少有些矛盾心态。
e.g. She felt ambivalence about leaving her job—she loved the people but hated the workload. 她对辞职感到矛盾 —— 既喜欢那里的同事，又讨厌繁重的工作量。
New York Times
The word ambivalence has appeared in 140 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on July 25 in ‘She Married Her Biggest Book Fan,’ by Kaitlin Menza. The article tells about a couple who met while working at the same restaurant:
“矛盾心理”（ambivalence）一词在过去一年中已见于《纽约时报》网站（NYTimes.com）的 140 篇报道，其中包括 7 月 25 日凯特琳・门扎（Kaitlin Menza）撰写的《她嫁给了自己最忠实的书迷》（’She Married Her Biggest Book Fan’）。该文讲述了一对曾在同一家餐厅共事的情侣的故事：
Ms. Wu wasn’t sure their relationship would last past the convenience of being colleagues. ‘It still felt kind of casual, and so fun,’ she said. ‘Neither of us have ever been super focused on marriage or commitment.’
吴女士当时不确定，这段因同事关系而产生的感情能否长久。“那时候的关系还挺随意的，但也很有意思，” 她表示，“我们俩以前都不太看重婚姻或承诺。”
Moving in together in 2018 forced them to reconcile this ambivalence. ‘I started realizing, ‘I think I’m going to be with this person forever, because we’ve become inseparable,” Mr. De Lange said. ‘It wasn’t any specific moment — at some point, I was like, we are attached at the hip. I can’t imagine life any other way.’
2018 年，两人开始同居，这迫使他们调和这种矛盾心理。“我开始意识到，’我想我会和这个人过一辈子，因为我们已经分不开了，’” 德朗格先生说，“这并不是某个特定瞬间的顿悟 —— 不知从何时起，我就觉得我们形影不离。我无法想象没有他的生活。”
Notes
be attached at the hip 形影不离；如胶似漆
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