Methods for Studying the Structure of Social Representations: A Critical Review and Agenda for Future Research

This article deals with the methodologies commonly used in the framework of the structural approach to social representations. It concerns free and hierarchical evocations, the characterization questionnaire, the similarity analysis, the basic cognitive schemes model, the attribute‐challenge techniq...

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Published inJournal for the theory of social behaviour Vol. 47; no. 3; pp. 306 - 331
Main Authors Lo Monaco, Grégory, Piermattéo, Anthony, Rateau, Patrick, Tavani, Jean Louis
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.09.2017
Wiley
Subjects
central core theory
Cognitive models
Collective representation
core‐periphery analysis
Feasibility
Fieldwork
Hierarchies
Humanities and Social Sciences
identity approaches
Medical diagnosis
Methodological problems
methodology
Methods and statistics
Questionnaires
Reliability
Research methodology
Social identity
Social problems
social representations
Social structure
Sociology
Structuralism
Thresholds
central core theory
core-periphery analysis
identity approaches
methodology
social representations
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Summary:This article deals with the methodologies commonly used in the framework of the structural approach to social representations. It concerns free and hierarchical evocations, the characterization questionnaire, the similarity analysis, the basic cognitive schemes model, the attribute‐challenge technique and the test of context independence. More than a simple review of these methodologies, it offers a critical approach concerning the problems encountered and related to: thresholds or “cutoff points” used to diagnose the structure (core vs. periphery) and the accuracy of the structural diagnosis, grouping methods employed to reduce the corpus of verbal associations, the dilemma between reliability and feasibility, especially in field research, the adequacy and number of modalities of response in the framework of the structural diagnosis. Following this evaluation, this article suggests potential solutions to overcome these methodological limitations. Moreover, as methodological issues are closely related to theoretical questions, the link between social representation theory and identity approaches is discussed.
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ISSN:0021-8308
1468-5914
DOI:10.1111/jtsb.12124