Premium
Theory and Method of Social Representations
Author(s) -
Wagner Wolfgang,
Duveen Gerard,
Farr Robert,
Jovchelovitch Sandra,
LorenziCioldi Fabio,
Marková Ivana,
Rose Diana
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
asian journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.5
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-839X
pISSN - 1367-2223
DOI - 10.1111/1467-839x.00028
Subject(s) - psychology , social representation , social psychology , representation (politics) , focus (optics) , identity (music) , social identity theory , interpretation (philosophy) , social cognition , cognition , epistemology , social group , politics , linguistics , aesthetics , philosophy , physics , optics , neuroscience , political science , law
This paper gives an overview of social representation theory, definitions of the key terms and of the social processes leading to a representation and to social identity. Six empirical studies are presented and details of their methods and findings are given to illustrate this social psychological approach. These studies are about the ontogenesis of gender, the public sphere in Brazil, madness on British television, images of androgyny in Switzerland, individualism and democracy in post‐communist Europe and metaphorical thinking about conception. The methods are ethnography, interviews, focus‐groups, content analysis of media, statistical analysis of word associations, questionnaires and experiments. Finally, social representation theory is compared to theories of attitudes, schemata and social cognition.