THE SOCIAL REPRESENTATION OF ELDERLY’S FALL FROM THEIR OWN HEIGHT

Qualitative and descriptive study aimed to identify the social representation of the elderly falls and the structure of these representations. The theoretical and methodological framework was chosen Theory of Social Representations of Serge Moscovici. We conducted interviews with 68 elderly at the Open University of the Third Age in the Federal District. For data analysis we used the EVOC and ALCESTE software. It was observed that the social representation of falls in the elderly is structured around cognitions connected "hurt", "fear" and "break", revealing a contradiction between knowledge and the practices reported by participants.