scholarly journals How multicultural is Canada really? An investigation of the inclusion and exclusion of culturally diverse groups in English Canadians‘ representations of Canadian nationhood and identity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Adrienne N. Girling
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Canadian History ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
French Canadians ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Psychological Theories

<p>The current thesis aimed to contribute to a national psychology for Canada by examining majority group (i.e., English Canadians) representations of nationhood and national identity as they relate to the cultural diversity comprising the nation. This dissertation took a macro-level approach to examine the content of English Canadians‘ representations, situating the research within a theoretical framework consisting of two families of existing social psychological theories of social representations (i.e., Social Representations Theory; Moscovici, 1961; and Social Representations of History; Liu & Hilton, 2005) and social identity (i.e., Social Identity Theory; Tajfel & Turner, 1979; and Self-Categorization Theory; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). A multi-method approach using a mix of qualitative and quantitative techniques was employed to examine societal- and individual-level representations of Canadian nationhood and identity. The thesis had three major goals: 1) To determine the content of Canadian nationhood and identity; 2) To investigate if minority groups (i.e., French Canadians, Aboriginal peoples, and newer immigrants and their descendants) are included in and/or excluded from English Canadians‘ representations of Canadian nationhood and identity; and 3) To examine whether individuals‘ representations reflected government and mass media representations. The dissertation begins by reviewing existing literature on the content of Canadian nationhood, identity and diversity, providing an interpretive analysis using the guiding social psychological theories. Three empirical studies follow, which examined different aspects of representations of nationhood and identity. Study 1 used Critical Discourse Analysis (van Dijk, 1993) to investigate English Canadian print media representations of nationhood and identity by analysing the media response to two events concerned with the integration and accommodation of religious and cultural minorities, and immigrants. Study 2 examined ordinary citizens‘ representations of Canadian history through the use of survey methods. Study 3 examined implicit and explicit associations between ethnicity and Canadian nationhood. The findings revealed that governmental, media and individuals‘ representations of nationhood and identity were highly similar to one another, allowing us to advance a model of the content of Canadian identity. It was found that cultural groups are incorporated in English Canadians‘ representations of nationhood and identity in different ways from each other, depending on the context. It was shown that French Canadians represent a non-negligible component of nationhood and identity, but that they are sometimes reluctantly included in representations when they make demands on the majority. Aboriginal peoples are symbolically represented in English Canadians‘ representations of Canadian history, but are almost entirely absent from discussions of present day society and diversity. Newer immigrants and their descendants are sometimes included in present day representations of Canadian nationhood and identity, but are absent from historical representations. The Enlightenment Values of equality, freedom, democracy and reason (Michael, 2000) emerged as a crucial component of Canadian nationhood and identity, and this research suggests that they may represent why French Canadians are included in representations, as well as the key that newer immigrants and their descendants need to use to achieve inclusion (or conversely, warrant exclusion if they violate these values). Over all it was found that multiculturalism is not in itself a Canadian value, as has previously been suggested (Adams, 2007; Kymlicka, 2003), but it is instead a respect for the Enlightenment Values and an accommodation of diversity within these values that English Canadians treasure. Potential limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed. The thesis concludes with a consideration of how the results can be applied to increase the inclusion of minority groups in the majority group‘s conceptions of nationhood and identity. This work should serve as a launching point for discussions between the cultural groups about inclusion and exclusion.</p>

scholarly journals How multicultural is Canada really? An investigation of the inclusion and exclusion of culturally diverse groups in English Canadians‘ representations of Canadian nationhood and identity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Adrienne N. Girling
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Canadian History ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
French Canadians ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Psychological Theories

<p>The current thesis aimed to contribute to a national psychology for Canada by examining majority group (i.e., English Canadians) representations of nationhood and national identity as they relate to the cultural diversity comprising the nation. This dissertation took a macro-level approach to examine the content of English Canadians‘ representations, situating the research within a theoretical framework consisting of two families of existing social psychological theories of social representations (i.e., Social Representations Theory; Moscovici, 1961; and Social Representations of History; Liu & Hilton, 2005) and social identity (i.e., Social Identity Theory; Tajfel & Turner, 1979; and Self-Categorization Theory; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). A multi-method approach using a mix of qualitative and quantitative techniques was employed to examine societal- and individual-level representations of Canadian nationhood and identity. The thesis had three major goals: 1) To determine the content of Canadian nationhood and identity; 2) To investigate if minority groups (i.e., French Canadians, Aboriginal peoples, and newer immigrants and their descendants) are included in and/or excluded from English Canadians‘ representations of Canadian nationhood and identity; and 3) To examine whether individuals‘ representations reflected government and mass media representations. The dissertation begins by reviewing existing literature on the content of Canadian nationhood, identity and diversity, providing an interpretive analysis using the guiding social psychological theories. Three empirical studies follow, which examined different aspects of representations of nationhood and identity. Study 1 used Critical Discourse Analysis (van Dijk, 1993) to investigate English Canadian print media representations of nationhood and identity by analysing the media response to two events concerned with the integration and accommodation of religious and cultural minorities, and immigrants. Study 2 examined ordinary citizens‘ representations of Canadian history through the use of survey methods. Study 3 examined implicit and explicit associations between ethnicity and Canadian nationhood. The findings revealed that governmental, media and individuals‘ representations of nationhood and identity were highly similar to one another, allowing us to advance a model of the content of Canadian identity. It was found that cultural groups are incorporated in English Canadians‘ representations of nationhood and identity in different ways from each other, depending on the context. It was shown that French Canadians represent a non-negligible component of nationhood and identity, but that they are sometimes reluctantly included in representations when they make demands on the majority. Aboriginal peoples are symbolically represented in English Canadians‘ representations of Canadian history, but are almost entirely absent from discussions of present day society and diversity. Newer immigrants and their descendants are sometimes included in present day representations of Canadian nationhood and identity, but are absent from historical representations. The Enlightenment Values of equality, freedom, democracy and reason (Michael, 2000) emerged as a crucial component of Canadian nationhood and identity, and this research suggests that they may represent why French Canadians are included in representations, as well as the key that newer immigrants and their descendants need to use to achieve inclusion (or conversely, warrant exclusion if they violate these values). Over all it was found that multiculturalism is not in itself a Canadian value, as has previously been suggested (Adams, 2007; Kymlicka, 2003), but it is instead a respect for the Enlightenment Values and an accommodation of diversity within these values that English Canadians treasure. Potential limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed. The thesis concludes with a consideration of how the results can be applied to increase the inclusion of minority groups in the majority group‘s conceptions of nationhood and identity. This work should serve as a launching point for discussions between the cultural groups about inclusion and exclusion.</p>

Interculturalism and the Acceptance of Minority Groups

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maykel Verkuyten ◽  
Kumar Yogeeswaran
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Situational Effect

Abstract. Multiculturalism has been criticized and rejected by an increasing number of politicians, and social psychological research has shown that it can lead to outgroup stereotyping, essentialist thinking, and negative attitudes. Interculturalism has been proposed as an alternative diversity ideology, but there is almost no systematic empirical evidence about the impact of interculturalism on the acceptance of migrants and minority groups. Using data from a survey experiment conducted in the Netherlands, we examined the situational effect of promoting interculturalism on acceptance. The results show that for liberals, but not for conservatives, interculturalism leads to more positive attitudes toward immigrant-origin groups and increased willingness to engage in contact, relative to multiculturalism.

Serge Moscovici's "Réflexions sur la popularité des conspiracy mentalities"

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Klein
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The People ◽  
Social Representation Theory ◽  
The Masses

This is a pdf of the original typed manuscript of a lecture made in 2006. An annotated English translation will be published by the International Review of Social Psychology. I this text, Moscovici seeks to update his earlier work on the “conspiracy mentality” (1987) by considering the relationships between social representations and conspiracy mentality. Innovation in this field, Moscovici argues, will require a much thorough description and understanding of what conspiracy theories are, what rhetoric they use and what functions they fulfill. Specifically, Moscovici considers conspiracies as a form of counterfactual history implying a more desirable world (in which the conspiracy did not take place) and suggests that social representation theory should tackle this phenomenon. He explicitly links conspiracy theories to works of fiction and suggests that common principles might explain their popularity. Historically, he argues, conspiracism was born twice: First, in the middle ages, when their primary function was to exclude and destroy what was considered as heresy; and second, after the French revolution, to delegitimize the Enlightenment, which was attributed to a small coterie of reactionaries rather than to the will of the people. Moscovici then considers four aspects (“thematas”) of conspiracy mentality: 1/ the prohibition of knowledge; 2/ the duality between the majority (the masses, prohibited to know) and “enlightened” minorities; 3/ the search for a common origin, a “ur phenomenon” that connects historical events and provides a continuity to History (he notes that such a tendency is also present in social psychological theorizing); and 4/ the valorization of tradition as a bulwark against modernity. Some of Moscovici’s insights in this talk have since been borne out by contemporary research on the psychology of conspiracy theories, but many others still remain fascinating potential avenues for future research.

scholarly journals So Useful as a Good Theory? The Practicality Crisis in (Social) Psychological Theory

2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162096965
Author(s):  
Elliot T. Berkman ◽  
Sylas M. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
National Level ◽  
Laboratory Data ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
Health Domains ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
Social Psychological Theory

Practicality was a valued attribute of academic psychological theory during its initial decades, but usefulness has since faded in importance to the field. Theories are now evaluated mainly on their ability to account for decontextualized laboratory data and not their ability to help solve societal problems. With laudable exceptions in the clinical, intergroup, and health domains, most psychological theories have little relevance to people’s everyday lives, poor accessibility to policymakers, or even applicability to the work of other academics who are better positioned to translate the theories to the practical realm. We refer to the lack of relevance, accessibility, and applicability of psychological theory to the rest of society as the practicality crisis. The practicality crisis harms the field in its ability to attract the next generation of scholars and maintain viability at the national level. We describe practical theory and illustrate its use in the field of self-regulation. Psychological theory is historically and scientifically well positioned to become useful should scholars in the field decide to value practicality. We offer a set of incentives to encourage the return of social psychology to the Lewinian vision of a useful science that speaks to pressing social issues.

scholarly journals Dilemmas of resistance: How concerns for cultural identity shape and constrain resistance among minority groups

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew G Livingstone ◽  
Russell Spears ◽  
Antony Manstead ◽  
Damilola Makanju ◽  
Joseph Sweetman
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Integrative Review ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Psychological Models ◽  
Key Aspects

A major theme in social psychological models of collective action is that a sense of shared social identity is a critical foundation for collective action. In this review, we suggest that for many minority groups, this foundational role of social identity can be double edged. This is because material disadvantage is also often coupled with the historical erosion of key aspects of ingroup culture and other group-defining attributes, constituting a threat to the very sense of who “we” are. This combination presents a set of dilemmas of resistance for minority groups seeking to improve their ingroup’s position. Focusing on the role of ingroup language and history, we present an integrative review of our research on five different dilemmas. We conclude that the central role of social identity in collective action and resistance can itself present challenges for groups whose core sense of who they are has been eroded.

scholarly journals Social representations and ideology: Theories of common sense about COVID-19 among middle-class Brazilians and their ideological implications

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-122
Author(s):  
Luiz Gustavo Silva Souza ◽  
Emma O’Dwyer ◽  
Sabrine Mantuan dos Santos Coutinho ◽  
Sharmistha Chaudhuri ◽  
Laila Lilargem Rocha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Psychological Analysis ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
The Social

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of billions of people worldwide. Individuals and groups were compelled to construct theories of common sense about the disease to communicate and guide practices. The theory of social representations provides powerful concepts to analyse the psychosocial construction of COVID-19. This study aimed to understand the social representations of COVID-19 constructed by middle-class Brazilian adults and their ideological implications, providing a social-psychological analysis of these phenomena while the pandemic is still ongoing. We adopted a qualitative approach based on semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted online in April-May 2020. Participants were 13 middle-class Brazilians living in urban areas. We analysed the interviews with thematic analysis and a phenomenological approach. The social representations were organised around three themes: 1) a virus originated in human actions and with anthropocentric meanings (e.g., a punishment for the human-led destruction of the environment); 2) a dramatic disease that attacks the lungs and kills people perceived to have “low immunity”; and 3) a disturbing pandemic that was also conceived as a correction event with positive consequences. The social representations included beliefs about the individualistic determination of immunity, the attribution of divine causes to the pandemic, and the need for the moral reformation of humankind. The discussion highlights the ideological implications of these theories of common sense. Socially underprivileged groups are at greater COVID-19-related risk, which the investigated social representations may contribute to conceal and naturalise.

scholarly journals “Does Community Make Any Sense?” A Semantic Analysis of the Term “Community” Among Albanian Immigrants and Italian Majority Residents

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terri Mannarini ◽  
Alessia Rochira
Keyword(s):  
Community Psychology ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Diverse Communities ◽  
Albanian Immigrants

Bridging Community Psychology and the Theory of Social Representations, the study was aimed at exploring how the concept of community and sense of belonging to various communities vary across diverse ethno-cultural groups (namely, immigrant and native-born groups) and how the meanings and the experience of community affect or are affected by the relationships that each group establishes with the other group. Participants were 30 native-born Italians and 30 immigrants from Albania lived in an area located in the south-east of Italy. They participated in an open-ended semi-structured interview, which was analysed using T-Lab software. Results indicated that the concept of community and sense of belonging to multiple communities do vary across diverse ethno-cultural groups and that each group is cross-cut by multiple axes of differentiation, one of which is linked to the experience of inter-cultural relations. Furthermore, the findings indicated that the functions served by the diverse communities affect the representations shared by the distinct sub-groups and that the simultaneous orientation of individuals toward multiple communities stimulate the development of a compound and even conflicting sense of attachment towards them. Implications for acculturation processes are discussed.

Naming Gifted Children: An Example of Unintended “Reproduction”

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Sunde Peterson ◽  
Leslie Margolin
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Middle Schools ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Gifted Children ◽  
Classroom Teachers ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Creative Teacher

We asked classroom teachers from two middle schools in a Midwestern community (the teachers were Anglo-American but were teaching a sizable Latino minority) to recommend students for a temporary program for the “gifted.” Although teachers were given no guidelines for selection, they had no trouble discussing “giftedness” as a concept; nor did they have difficulty identifying “gifted” children. Their language revealed that they used the existing ideals and moralities of the dominant culture as their guide in assessing children's giftedness. Latino children, and those from other minority groups, were passed over. Nowhere in the discussion of “giftedness” did the teachers consider that their criteria for “excellence,” “talent,” and “ability” were culturally determined. Instead, teachers treated “giftedness” as if it were absolute, universally agreed upon, transcontextual and transcultural. These results show that vigorous and creative teacher education is needed to ensure proportionate representation of nonmainstream cultural groups in selective programs, and that teachers, who are often vocally opposed to social and educational inequities, unwittingly support the existing social order.

Paul and the Author of 1 Clement as Entrepreneurs of Identity in Corinthian Crises of Leadership

2021 ◽  
pp. 0142064X2110647
Author(s):  
Katja Kujanpää
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
The Past ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Identity Approach

When Paul and the author of 1 Clement write letters to Corinth to address crises of leadership, both discuss Moses’ παρρησία (frankness and openness), yet they evaluate it rather differently. In this article, I view both authors as entrepreneurs of identity and explore the ways in which they try to shape their audience’s social identity and influence their behaviour in the crisis by selectively retelling scriptural narratives related to Moses. The article shows that social psychological theories under the umbrella term of the social identity approach help to illuminate the active role of leaders in identity construction as well as the processes of retelling the past in order to mobilize one’s audience.

Sticks and Stones

2016 ◽  
pp. 101-132
Author(s):  
Robin Maria Valeri ◽  
Kevin Borgeson
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Identity Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Psychological Approach ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Hate Groups ◽  
New Members ◽  
Psychological Theories

The present chapter takes a social psychological approach to understanding hate groups and how hate groups use hate as a promotional tool and as an implement of aggression. As a promotional tool, hate groups use hate to attract new members to their organizations and to promote their beliefs to the mainstream public. Hate also serves as an incendiary, to fuel the emotions of their members, to incite them into action, and to wield against their targets. In this chapter we will attempt to explain why people hate and how they justify their hatred and resulting actions through a number of social psychological theories including realistic group conflict (Bonacich, 1972; Sherif et al., 1961/1988) relative deprivation (Catalono et al., 1993; Hepworth & West, 1988; Hovland & Sears, 1940), social identity theory (Abrams & Hogg, 1990; Festinger, 1954; Tajfel & Turner, 1986; Thoits & Virshup, 1997) and terror management (Pyszczynski, Solomon, & Greenberg, 1997; 2005; Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 1991; 2004).

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