Social Representations and Health Psychology

2002 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène Joffe
Keyword(s):  
Health Psychology ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Health Field ◽  
Specific Contribution

The author examines the specific contribution that social representations research has made to health psychology. In particular, the approach highlights the symbolic, emotive and social aspects of how lay people make meaning of facets of health and illness, and emphasizes the importance of the evolution of these meanings. Empirical work on health and illness is used to cast light on the specific workings of social representations and on the enrichment of the health field offered by this naturalistic perspective. Distinctions are drawn between the social representations approach and other social constructionist approaches in the health field. In addition, the differentiation between social representations and more mainstream approaches to health issues is examined. Primarily, the social representations approach eschews the notion of human thought as analogous to information processing, with the attendant individualist, cognitivist and rationalist assumptions, and recognizes the importance of non-verbal material in the study of the human psyche.

Control and Responsibility: Moral and Religious Issues in Lay Health Accounts

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Mullen
Keyword(s):  
Medical Sociology ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Health Accounts ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Health Field

In sociological work of an empirical nature the concept of control tends to have a taken-for-granted quality. Similarly in the field of medical sociology when control is mentioned in relation to health and illness it is often presented in a unidimensional manner. This article analyses the relationship between control and responsibility for health in the lay accounts of male Glaswegians. Activist and fatalist dimensions were found in their thinking. However, activist thinking was seen to have three strands: personal activism, social activism, and religious activism. Further, fatalistic thinking was not about passive submission but rather the belief that control lay outwith the person in the realm of the social, natural or supernatural worlds. These findings demonstrate the subtle ways in which people relate to issues of control and responsibility in the health realm – a subtlety which is not fully brought out either in the theoretical or empirical work of social scientists researching in the health field.

The Social Mandate to Deal With Mental Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 234-254
Author(s):  
Alberta Mazzola
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Clinical Experiences ◽  
Mental Health Agencies ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health Agencies ◽  
Public Middle School ◽  
Health Field

The chapter aims to explore the construct of mental health in a psychoanalytic perspective with a psychosocial approach. In particular, the chapter studies mental health by analysing traces to detect social mandate characterizing different mental health agencies. The highlighted hypothesis could be interpreted as that social mandate is a clue of local cultures about mental health, which determine fantasies about mental health issues, grounding on symbolizations shared by professionals, users, and community. The chapter introduces three clinical experiences of interventions, carried out in different contexts: a public mental health service, a public middle school, a psychoanalytic private office. All the presented experiences concern mental health field, even though they are characterized by different features in terms of subjects, methods, professionals, users, and organizations involved. The chapter explores those differences in order to focus on transversal issues.

scholarly journals How Kids Understand Health and Illness: Some Reflections from and for the Theory of Social Representations

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.-A. Aim ◽  
L. Dany ◽  
N.V. Dvoryanchikov ◽  
I.B. Bovina
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Zone Of Proximal Development ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Proximal Development ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Theory Of Social Representations

The purpose of the article is twofold: 1) to argue about utility and advantages of the social representational perspective applied to the field of health and illness in case of children, 2) to discuss the potential and fertility of cultural-historical psychology for the development of the theory of social representations (SRs). The studies concerning the children’s understanding of health and illness are analysed. The limitations of the perspective to study mental representations of health and illness are revealed. The relevance and thepotential of the theory of SRs on the problem of children’s understanding of health and illness are discussed. The article reviews the four main theoretical approaches to SRs analysis. It is highlighted that genesis of the SRs is a zone of proximal development (or better to say zona blizhaishego razvitia) of the theory of SRs. The final part of the article dwells on the main points of the cultural-historical psychology in order to reveal some insights for the development of the theory of SRs.

Connecting Narrative and Social Representation Theory in Health Research

2002 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 653-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Murray
Keyword(s):  
Representation Theory ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Social Representation Theory

According to narrative theory, human beings are natural story-tellers, and investigating the character of the stories people tell can help us better understand not only the particular events described but also the character of the story-teller and of the social context within which the stories are constructed. Much of the research on the character of narratives has focussed on their internal structure and has not sufficiently considered their social nature. There has been limited attempt to connect narrative with social representation theory. This article explores further the theoretical connections between narratives and social representations in health research. It is argued that, through the telling of narratives, a community is engaged in the process of creating a social representation while at the same time drawing upon a broader collective representation. The article begins by reviewing some of the common origins of the two approaches and then moves to consider a number of empirical studies of popular views of health and illness that illustrate the interconnections between the two approaches. It concludes that narratives are intimately involved in the organization of social representations.

scholarly journals Social Representations of Foreign Aid: Exploring Meaning-Making in Aid Practice in Sulu, Southern Philippines

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Social Object ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Informant ◽  
Peace And Development

Conceptualising foreign aid as a controversial social object, this study utilised Social Representations Theory as a social constructionist framework to understand the meanings that arise from people's social interactions in relation to foreign aid practice in a particular historical, political and social context such as the province of Sulu in Southern Philippines. Key informant interviews and group discussions with representatives of various social groups involved in the practice of foreign aid in Sulu were conducted. Research data were examined using thematic analysis. Results showed two interrelated representational systems about foreign aid in the province. First, foreign aid was understood as a valuable resource for peace and development in Sulu. Second, based on narratives of aid practice in the province, the same social object was also represented as a profiteering enterprise that operates at various levels of the aid structure. Results are discussed in terms of meaning-making in aid practice; the possible psychological, social and political consequences of the social meaning of foreign aid as a profiteering enterprise; and the potential of these social representations for reflection, critique and transformation in the practice of foreign aid.

scholarly journals Health representations of children and adolescents

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
I.B. Bovina ◽  
N.V. Dvoryanchikov ◽  
L. Dany ◽  
M.-A. Aim ◽  
A.V. Milekhin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Risk Behaviour ◽  
Structural Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Theory Of Social Representations

The key question in this article is how children and adolescents understand health. This period attracts a particular interest because the social practice towards health and illness as well as attitudes towards risk and risk behaviour are formed at that time. The productivity of the theory of social representations applied to the field of health and illness is discussed. The exploratory study in groups of children and adolescents on the representations of health and illness is presented here. A total of 633 subjects (333 children (aged 8 years old) and 300 adolescents (aged 13 years old) participated in a study. The study is based on the structural approach of the theory of social representations. The opposition «health»—«illness» is important in case of representations of health in children; its importance is decreasing with age. The key elements of the representation of health in adolescents are the actions to maintain health. The representation in case of children is less shared than in case of adolescents.

scholarly journals SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF COLLEGE HAZING: A NECESSARY ETHICAL REFLECTION

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neusa Maria Kuester Vegini ◽  
Flávia Regina Souza Ramos ◽  
Mirelle Finkler
Keyword(s):  
Professional Training ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Field Method ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Social ◽  
Senior Students ◽  
Health Field

ABSTRACT Objective: to understand the social representations of college hazing in the health field. Method: the Social Representations theory of Serge Moscovici was the theoretical-methodological framework used in this qualitative study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with health workers, freshmen, senior students, and professors of a university located in southern Brazil, in August 2015. The interviews were audio recorded and later transcribed. Results: four thematic categories emerged: Social representations of hazing, Experiences, Ethical problems, and Influence on professional training. The results of the first two categories are presented. Hazing is represented from two different perspectives: a cooperative one - jokes and happiness, fraternization and friendship, integration and participation, greeting and reception; and a coercive perspective - violence, aggression, submission, initiation and rite of passage. Conclusion: ambiguity between the social representations of hazing reveals different potencies in the students’ moral development: on one hand, there is the exchange of values with positive contributions and, on the other hand, there is the experience of devaluations that undermine the process. An ethical analysis of college hazing performed by the academic community and the involvement and commitment of professors are essential for changes in paradigms concerning professional training to take place.

The Social Mandate to Deal With Mental Health

2021 ◽  
pp. 573-588
Author(s):  
Alberta Mazzola
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Clinical Experiences ◽  
Mental Health Agencies ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health Agencies ◽  
Public Middle School ◽  
Health Field

The chapter aims to explore the construct of mental health in a psychoanalytic perspective with a psychosocial approach. In particular, the chapter studies mental health by analysing traces to detect social mandate characterizing different mental health agencies. The highlighted hypothesis could be interpreted as that social mandate is a clue of local cultures about mental health, which determine fantasies about mental health issues, grounding on symbolizations shared by professionals, users, and community. The chapter introduces three clinical experiences of interventions, carried out in different contexts: a public mental health service, a public middle school, a psychoanalytic private office. All the presented experiences concern mental health field, even though they are characterized by different features in terms of subjects, methods, professionals, users, and organizations involved. The chapter explores those differences in order to focus on transversal issues.

Entanglements

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Tosoni ◽  
Trevor Pinch
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Social Construction Of Technology ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
Science Wars ◽  
Relevant Social Groups

Based on several rounds of academic interview and conversations with Trevor Pinch, the book introduces the reader to the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), and in particular to the social constructionist approach to science, technology and sound. Through the lenses of Pinch’s lifetime work, STS students, and scholars in fields dealing with technological mediation, are provided with an in-depth overview, and with suggestions for further reading, on the most relevant past and ongoing debates in the field. The book starts presenting the approach launched by the Bath School in the early sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK), and follows the development of the field up to the so called “Science wars” of the ‘90s, and to the popularization of the main acquisitions of the field by Trevor Pinch and Harry Collins’ Golem trilogy. Then, it deals with the sociology of technology, and presents the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) approach, launched by Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker in 1984 and developed in more than 30 years of research, comparing it with alternative approaches like Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network theory. Five issues are addressed in depth: relevant social groups in the social construction of technology; the intertwining of social representations and practices; the importance of tacit knowledge in SCOT’s approach to the nonrepresentational; the controversy over nonhuman agency; and the political implications of SCOT. Finally, it presents the main current debates in STS, in particular in the study of materiality and ontology, and presents Pinch’s more recent work in sound studies.

Common sense, science and social representations

1993 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Farr
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
French Tradition

The theory of social representations is perfectly suited to the empirical investigation of the public's understanding of science. A sharp distinction is drawn between a scientific theory and its social representation corresponding, respectively, to the contrasting worlds of science and of common sense. Representations of science are to be found in the media as well as in people's minds and need to be sampled and studied in both locations. Moscovici initiated this French tradition of research with his study, in the late 1950s, of psychoanalysis. It is a sociological form of social psychology with close affinities to the sociology of knowledge. The applicability to the natural sciences of a theory developed in relation to the social and human sciences is discussed. The views of Moscovici and of Wolpert are compared and contrasted, especially in regard to the relations between science and common sense. It is argued that the study of social representations is a form of social science that natural scientists need to take seriously if their advice to governments is to become more effective. This is discussed in relation to such health issues as the purity of water and the conduct of government-sponsored campaigns to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS as well as in regard to the wider issues of threats to the ecosystem.

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