Qualitative questionnaire for the identification of cognems (Qualiquic): an exploratory technique to identify social representation contents and relations

While the investigation of social representation contents through the analysis of word associations is convenient, it does not directly inform about the nature of relationships that representation elements maintain with the social object. This paper presents a qualitative technique, Qualiquic, that is easy and simple to administer. Qualiquic has the advantage of gathering representation contents characterized by their relationships with the representation object, based on a simplified list of descriptive, practical, and evaluative connectors of the basic cognitive schemes model. The underlying theoretical principles are explained, and empirical guidelines are provided, as well as an empirical example of use

Critérios de construção e relato da análise prototípica para representações sociais

A análise prototípica é uma convenção de apresentação bastante difundida para caracterizar a estrutura de uma representação social a partir de dados de evocações livres. O presente texto visa a sistematizar e indicar algumas dessas informações que deveriam estar presentes na descrição de resultados da análise prototípica, discutindo brevemente os prós e contras de algumas opções de realização da análise. Para tanto, é feita uma breve introdução da análise e posteriormente passa-se a considerações técnicas, finalizando com um exemplo de relato

Psychometric properties of the Negative Stereotypes Towards Aging Questionnaire (CENVE) among a sample of Portuguese adults

Stereotyped beliefs about old age and the aging process have proven to strongly promote negative behaviors toward the elderly, with unfavorable influences on their mental and physical health. Therefore, it is important to assess negative aging attitudes with brief but reliable and validated measurement instruments. The psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Negative Stereotypes Towards Aging Questionnaire (15 items self-reported) are explored and described in a sample of 302 participants (213 females and 89 males) between the ages of 18 and 59 years old. Confirmatory Factor Analysis shows a one-factor structure, similar to the Spanish version. The internal reliability and mean inter-item correlation showed satisfactory psychometric proprieties. Factorial ANOVA reveals that differences in agism beliefs are mainly related to educational level, with lower negative stereotypes in more educated adults. No differences were found concerning gender. This instrument may be a useful tool to assess negative stereotypes toward old age and the aging process.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Social representations on aging: Structural differences concerning age group and cultural context

Mainly due to the salience of the world population aging phenomenon, aging and old age are consistently gaining relevance in social life and pointing out to the importance of characterizing the social representations about the topic. After identifying the need of systematic structural research at the level of structural status and basic cognitive scheme activation related to the social representations on aging, two controlled survey studies were conducted to assess the roles of age group and cultural context to differentiate representational structures. Gender was also taken into account. Study 1 had a sample of 80 Italian participants balanced by gender and age group (young and mature). Study 2 had a similar design, comparing the results from the young Italian sample to a group of 40 young Brazilians. Instruments were questionnaires with standard basic cognitive schemes tasks and centrality questionnaires. Log-linear analysis and one-way chi-square tests were employed for data analysis. Results indicated that both, in terms of structural status and scheme activation, the age group and cultural context variables are associated to representational differences, while the role of gender was restricted to peripheral modulations. The study sets foundations for further basic and applied research by providing a baseline structural characterization

Peace and War as Social Representation: A structural exploration with Italian adolescents

The present paper illustrates the potentialities offered by the Social Representations approach to the exploration of peace and war concepts. Free associations tasks to the stimuli War and Peace were given to 112 students in order to assess contents and structures. Differences related to gender, age and school grade were investigated. Attention was devoted to the role of peace education activities. Results indicate a dramatic representation of war, based on death and destruction. The representation of peace is based on intimate and positive emotional experiences. It appears weaker and polyphasic, with cues of change. Respondents involved in peace education show greater complexity of contents and more features related to positive approaches to peace, thus underlining the relevance of these activities

Make (?) not War! Are the social representations of Peace and War antonyms?

Social representations (SR) theory provides a useful framework for the study of peace and war as object of social construction. With that purpose, a research program was established with the aim of describing the SR shared by people with different practices and attitudes regarding peacemaking. This contribution first illustrates an exploratory study on the structure of the SR of Peace and War. High school students (N = 482) completed a free association task to the stimuli Peace and War. Data were submitted to prototypical analysis. Results allowed for the formulation of element centrality hypotheses and suggested that the SR of peace and war do not interact in a relationship of strict antinomy. A second study assessing SR structure confirmation and the antinomy configuration, with online data collection, is currently under way. Differences among participants and limits of the employed techniques are discussed

Social Representations and Stakes across Borders. Studying Ageing in Times of Change

After a brief overview of recent approaches to the study of aging between stereotypes and representations, a study is presented in order to explore the social representations of the elderly in three contexts differing for age structure of the population and for main institutional stakes. Brazilian, German and Italian data were collected via a free association task to the stimulus-word \u201cthe elderly\u201d and analysed through content and correspondence analysis. The results bring partial support to the expectations as the three national groups present some differences, both in the content of the representation and in positions taken along the detected underlying dimensions, which appear to reflect and re-launch differences in political and public agendas. Methodological issues concerning cross- and inter-cultural research are also raised and discussed