Psychological Functions of Semiotic Borders in Sense-Making:Liminality of Narrative Processes

In this paper we discuss the semiotic functions of the psychological borders that structure the flow of narrative processes. Each narration is always a contextual, situated and contingent process of sensemaking, made possible by the creation of borders, such as dynamic semiotic devices that are capable of connecting the past and the future, the inside and the outside, and the me with the non-me. Borders enable us to narratively construct one’s own experiences using three inherent processes: contextualization, intersubjective positioning and setting of pertinence. The narrative process – as a subjective articulation of signs in a contingent social context – involves several functions of semiotic borders: separation, differentiation, distinction-making, connection, articulation and relation-enabling. The relevant psychological aspect highlighted here is that a border is a semiotic device which is required for both maintaining stability and inducing transformation at the same time. The peculiar dynamics and the semiotic structure of borders generate a liminal space, which is characterized by instability, by a blurred space-time distinction and by ambiguities in the semantic and syntactic processes of sensemaking. The psychological processes that occur in liminal space are strongly affectively loaded, yet it is exactly the setting and activation of liminality processes that lead to novelty and creativity and enable the creation of new narrative forms

La funzione dei confini e della liminalità nei processi narrativi. Una discussione semiotico-dinamica

La proposta dell’autore sviluppa le nozioni di confine e di liminalità in riferimento ai processi narrativi in una prospettiva dinamica. Approfondendo e connettendo contributi diversi provenienti dalla semiotica, dalla psicologia culturale, dalla psicoanalisi e dall’antropologia, la discussione si concentra sulla dinamica di stabilizzazione/trasformazione delle narrazioni attraverso i confini. Viene proposta difatti una concettualizzazione della nozione di confine come un dispositivo semiotico che consente simultaneamente processi di differenziazione, distanziamento ma anche connessione e integrazione. I confini quali dispositivi plastici dotati di grande sensibilità contestuale e locale possono accelerare/decelerare le trasformazioni e i cambiamenti, generando condizioni e processi di liminalità spazio-temporale, tipici di ogni processo psicologico in divenire, dove il “vecchio” perde la propria consistenza ed il “nuovo” è ancora a venire, le identità diventano fumose e perdono di definizione generando effetti paradossali, la differenza dentro/fuori perde consistenza. Attraverso l’oscillazione dinamica tra stabilizzazione e riconfigurazione dei confini, nuove storie divengono possibili

La regolazione dinamica dei processi affettivi attraverso la mediazione semiotica

Riassunto: Presentiamo una prospettiva semiotica e dinamica per indagare e discutere dal punto di vista psicologico i fenomeni della regolazione affettiva attraverso la mediazione e l’articolazione dei segni. Al fine di evitare uno sguardo semplicistico, lineare e riduttivo, i fenomeni affettivi sono presentati come campi quasi strutturati (“campi affettivi”), i quali vengono a differenziarsi attraverso mediatori semiotici (segni). La loro funzione è quella di orientare le persone attraverso l’anticipazione dell’immediato futuro. La regolazione semiotica conduce alla costruzione di gerarchie – temporanee – ovvero strutture di segni che incanalano le esperienze. Dalla costituzione di segni operatori di meta-livello segue sia la veloce espansione della costruzione di segni (cd. accrescitori semiotici) sia l’arresto e la demolizione della temporanea gerarchia regolativa di segni (cd. terminatori semiotici). Tali segni permettono tanto l’espansione flessibile quanto la limitazione della profondità e della ridondanza dei processi di auto-regolazione delle esperienze soggettive e delle azioni nei diversi contesti.Parole chiave: Mediazione semiotica; Segni; Gerarchie; Affetti; Regolazione affettiva; Campi affettivi  The Dynamic Regulation of Affective Processes through Semiotic MediationAbstract: We introduce a semiotic and dynamic perspective to investigate and discuss – from a psychological point of view – the process of affective regulation through the mediation and articulation of signs. In order to avoid a simplistic, linear and reductive appraisal, affective phenomena are presented as quasi-structured fields (“affective fields”), which differentiate themselves through semiotic mediators (signs). Their function is to orient people in anticipation of the immediate future. Semiotic regulation leads to the construction of temporary hierarchies, namely structures of signs that guide experiences. From the constitution of meta-level operator signs ensues both the rapid expansion of the construction of signs (semiotic enhancers) and the arrest and the demolition of the temporary regulatory hierarchy of signs (semiotic terminators). These signs allow for flexible expansion but also limit the “depth” and redundancy of self-regulation processes in subjective experiences and actions in different contexts.Keywords: Semiotic Mediation; Signs; Hyerarchies; Affects; Affect Regulation; Affective Field

A Theoretically Informed Critical Review of Research Applying the Concept of Liminality to Understand Experiences with Cancer: Implications for a New Oncological Agenda in Health Psychology

Liminality was described more than 20 years ago as a major category explaining how cancer is experienced. Since then, it has been widely used in the field of oncology research, particularly by those using qualitative methods to study patient experience. This body of work has great potential to illuminate the subjective dimensions of life and death with cancer. However, the review also reveals a tendency for sporadic and opportunistic applications of the concept of liminality. Rather than being developed in a systematic way, liminality theory is being recurrently ‘re-discovered’ in relatively isolated studies, mostly within the realm of qualitative studies of ‘patient experience’. This limits the capacity of this approach to influence oncological theory and practice. In providing a theoretically informed critical review of liminality literature in the field of oncology, this paper proposes ways of systematizing liminality research in line with a processual ontology. In so doing, it argues for a closer engagement with the source theory and data, and with more recent liminality theory, and it sketches the broad epistemological consequences and applications

Patterns of Italian high school and university students’ attitudes towards physics: an analysis based on semiotic-cultural perspective

The purpose of this study was to analyse Italian high school and university students’ attitudes towards physics using the Semiotic Cultural Psychological Theory (SCPT). In the SCPT framework, attitudes represent how individuals interpret their experience through the mediation of generalized meaning with which they are identified. A view-of-physics questionnaire was used as an instrument to collect data with 1603 high school and university students. Data were analysed through multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis. We identified four generalized meanings of physics: (a) interesting and important for society; (b) a quite interesting, but badly taught subject at school and not completely useful for society; (c) difficult to study and irrelevant for society; and (d) a fascinating and protective niche from society. The identified generalized meanings are significantly correlated to the choice to study physics at undergraduate level and to the choice of attending physics-related activities in high school. Implications for research are discussed

What Adolescents Have to Say about Problematic Internet Use: A Qualitative Study Based on Focus Groups

In this paper, the study presented is designed to gain a deeper insight into how adolescents describe, understand, and suggest dealing with Problematic Internet Use (PIU). Eight focus groups were activated with a total of 70 students from the 9th and 11th grades (Mean Age = 15.53 ± 1.202; Female = 44.4%) in four different schools in Southern Italy. A Thematic Analysis was applied to the verbatim transcripts, and seven macro-categories were identified throughout the discourses collected: definition of PIU, symptomatology, impact, determinants, intervention strategy, opportunities and limits of the digital world, and needs that adolescents try to satisfy by surfing the net and which the offline world does not fulfill. Participants converge in seeing PIU in terms of addiction but adopt heterogeneous viewpoints in talking about the reasons for problematic engagement and possible preventive intervention strategies. In the overall picture emerging from the responses, PIU appeared to be the outcome of a psychological dynamic emerging from the interaction of individual, interpersonal, and sociocultural dimensions

The impact of Covid-19 pandemic: Psycho-social perception of the crisis and sense-making processes

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a widespread state of uncertainty and disorientation regarding daily practices and beliefs, creating multiple sense-making processes. The purpose of the study, which is part of a larger international research endeavour, is to explore the psycho-social perception of the risk associated with the spread of Covid-19 during the lockdown in Italy (March 9th to May 4th, 2020). 2125 online questionnaire were collected in Italy and analysed with a Cluster Analysis procedure by a hierarchical classification method. We explored differences and peculiarities of the perception and appreciation of the pandemic crisis, perceived risks and resources in terms of individual attitudes, communitarian bonds, politics, beliefs and trust. Four profiles have been identified that refer to different models for assessing the situation and perception of risk; these models operate as affective-cognitive systems of sense-making and interpretation of the events occurring during the lockdown. Main psycho-social implications are discussed.

Different Cyberbullying Experiences and Sensemaking Processes about the Sociocultural Context

Introduction: Cyberbullying represents one of the main current concerns of parents, educators and clinicians on youth. It consists of aggressive, offensive and injurious behaviors against a person by means of electronic device and sharing abusive content on the web. Previous studies have highlighted that cyberbullying is associated with individual factors, such as personality traits, age, sex and status, often disregarding the value attributed to one's own context of life. According to the Semiotic Dynamic Cultural Psychology Theory (SDPCT), the cultural context can be conceived as a net of interconnected trajectories of meanings, grounding the way of perceiving and experiencing a social environment, and enabling individuals to orient themselves in their material and social world. Aims: The present research aims to explore the relation between directly acted, suffered and indirectly observed behaviors of cyberbullying, the fear to be victim, the awareness of its harmfulness and sensemaking processes of one’s own context. Method: Six hundred twenty-four high school students (Mean AGE = 16.10; SD = 1.60) participated in this study. Participants filled in a questionnaire, consisting of two parts. The former was composed by six scales constructed ad hoc to explore the experience of acted, suffered and observed cyberbullying, the fear of being cyberbullied and the awareness of cyberbullying’s harmfulness. The latter the View of Context (VOC) questionnaire was used to map sensemaking processes through which people interpret their social context. Findings: Results shows significant associations between acted and suffered forms of cyberbullying, between fear of cyberbullying and the awareness of its harmfulness. The acted cyberbullying and suffered cyberbullying are both associated with representation of the context as devaluated (family, schools, social institutions are considered not welcoming, useful or reliable) and deprived of opportunities for the future. Conclusion: On clinical plan, the study suggests the importance of considering the relationships between bullying experienced and acted upon, as well as the role of meaning-making processes in understanding phenomena of social prevarication

The Case of Neuman’s “Computational Cultural Psychology”: An Innovative Theoretical Proposal and Welcomed Toolbox Advancements

No abstract available

An Old Debate but Still Alive, Fruitful and Able to Renew Itself: The Language in Psychology Between the Particular and the Universal

No abstract available