Gerard Duveen

Theory and method of social representations

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.

The use of symbolic resources in developmental transitions

This paper introduces the idea of symbolic resources as the use of cultural elements to mediate the representational work occasioned by ruptures or discontinuities in the smooth experience of ordinary life, moments when the ‘taken-for-granted’ meanings cease to be taken for granted. In particular we are concerned with the use of symbolic resources in moments of developmental transitions, that is, the mobilization of symbolic elements ranging from shared bodies of knowledge or argumentative strategies to movies, magazines or art pieces. The paper begins with a brief theoretical sketch of these ideas, and then presents three case studies, each of which involves the use of a different type of symbolic resource within a particular age group. In the first, children are observed in interaction with a peer about a conservation problem. In the second, adolescents are observed negotiating the meaning of their art productions with their peers, teachers and parents. The third example looks at Western tourists searching for spirituality, adventure and freedom in Ladakh as an alternative to the materialism of modernity. In each case the analysis of the symbolic resources employed indicates the significance of the gaze of the other in the construction of meanings, and of the various constraints operating within specific situations. The analysis also reveals different modes of use of symbolic resources, linked to changing forms of reflectivity.

'I have some faith and at the same time I don't believe' : Cognitive polyphasia and cultural change in India

Issues of community and health are tightly linked to local cultures and to the system of traditional representations about health and illness. These systems, however, are rarely static, but are in constant flux through economic and technological developments — what is often called ‘modernisation’ — that entail new representations becoming part of everyday thinking. In this process the novel often plays the role of an icon of modernity in situations that evoke the idea of progress, while the traditional prevails in more static social structures such as the family. This co-existence of rarely compatible representations is called cognitive polyphasia. The present interview-study investigates the way 39 residents of the North-Indian city of Patna cope with contradictions implied by traditional and Western psychiatric notions of mental illness, their aetiology and treatment. It is shown that each of the two ways of thinking is situated and used in specific social settings. Some implications of cognitive polyphasia for community development are discussed. Copyright

The Modernization of Tradition: Thinking about Madness in Patna, India

Thirty-nine educated middle-class residents of Patna, India, were interviewed about a vignette describing the behaviour of a seemingly mad man or woman. The interview explored their representations of traditional healing methods and of modern psychiatric notions. Besides explanations for mental illness and madness, the interviews also covered the reaction of families and neighbours to such phenomena. Respondents thought of different causes depending on the context, ranging from frustrated desires, shock and heredity to spirit possession. The majority’s spontaneous preference for modern psychiatric treatment often co-exists with a faith in traditional healing. This faith is strengthened by their family’s traditional preference. The results are discussed as an example of a process of modernization of common sense in which popularized scientific notions become anchored in the traditional setting of social structure and family life. The newly acquired knowledge forms a loosely organized social representation confronting a strongly objectified cultural representation of traditional thinking.

Representations of authority and children's moral reasoning

This study examines the relationship between alternative sources of authority which might influence a childs moral reasoning. It returns to Piagets (1932) work to explore features of a childs social relations which may act either to promote or constrain the communication and acceptance of moral knowledge. Children were asked to judge which of two boys was naughtier in one of Piagets moral ‘stories’. Those who had independently given different responses were placed in a pair and asked to agree a response together. An authority of status was introduced into some pairs by varying the gender composition of the dyad and contrasted with epistemic authority derived from the arguments more closely associated with moral autonomy. In the absence of an authority of status (in same-sex pairs) influence through epistemic authority occurred with relative ease. When status and epistemic authority conflicted subjects took far longer to accept the legitimacy of the epistemic authority. Copyright

Conservation and Conversation Types: Forms of Recognition and Cognitive Development.

While the productive role of social interaction between peers in promoting cognitive development has been clearly established, the communicative processes through which this is achieved is less clearly understood. Earlier work has established that different types of conversation become established between children as they work together on a problem, and that these types have different implications for the progress of a non-conserver. The paper focuses on the forms of recognition that emerge within these different conversation types. It reports further analyses of a study in which 226 6.5- to 7.5-year-old children were presented with a Piagetian task of conservation of liquid. Conservers and non-conservers were asked to discuss in pairs their conflicting answers and agree upon a joint response. Cognitive progress was assessed by pre- to post-test gains. Analyses of the conversational moves made by each of the participants to the conversation indicates that both non-conservers and conservers not only make characteristic contributions, but that these contributions vary across the conversation types, and hence also relate differentially to the non-conservers progress. More detailed qualitative analyses of the different conversation types provide insights into the ways in which different forms of recognition emerge through these interactions. These results are discussed in relation to a socio-cognitive account of development.

The Social and the Psychological: Structure and Context in Intellectual Development.

This paper discusses the distinct meanings of internalization and interiorization as ways of rendering intelligible the social constitution of the psychological in a line of research that started with Piaget and extended into a post-Piagetian reformulation of intelligence in successive generations of studies of the relations between social interaction and cognitive development. While the same clarity cannot be found in Vygotsky’s work, the emphasis on the cultural embeddedness of cognitive activity in contemporary cultural psychology has also been a significant influence on the evolution of this work. This paper proposes a further integration of these perspectives by developing the idea of operativity-in-context as a means of retaining the advantages of Piaget’s structural analysis of cognition whilst recognizing the situational and cultural constraints on cognitive functioning.

The Psychosocial Production of Ideas: Social Representations and Psychologic

In responding to Jan Smedslunds (1998) paper, this commentary first of all considers the value of vagueness for research in social psychology. Second, I argue that Smedslunds consideration of social representations underestimates both the representational and social aspects of the theory. This discussion leads to some broader characterizations of social representations, and particularly to the relation between social representations and cultural psychology. Finally, these comments conclude with a discussion of the role of language in social psychological research, and suggests that while both psychologic and social representations are concerned with the analysis of common sense, they approach this analysis from different theoretical positions.

Gender identity, social influence and children's arguments

This paper explores the relationship between gender, processes of argumentation and cognitive change in children’s social interaction. Hundredandtwenty children (average age, 9.5 years) discussed a moral dilemma with a same age peer. The style of children’s conversations differed between same sex (boy-boy and girl-girl) pairs and boy-girl pairs. These stylistic differences suggest that the social organisational factors or status relations that stem from a child’s gender group membership can act to obstruct the effective communication and acceptance of certain arguments (or more epistemic aspects of influence) in conversation. Further analysis of conversations points to the importance of addressing differences in perspectives when reaching agreement. Results are discussed with reference to children’s representations and resolutions of socio-cognitive conflict.

Classroom structuration and the development of social representations of the curriculum

The study drew on Bernsteins theory and Moscovicis theory of Social Representations to investigate how children in classrooms with different types of structuration developed social representation of the curriculum. Comparable case studies were carried out in schools chosen to reflect three types of pedagogy according to Bernsteins typology. Twelve classrooms took part and ethnographic investigations were employed to compile a typology of recognition and realisation rules to map the range and type of curriculum structuration in each. Childrens representations of the curriculum were investigated through specially designed tasks. Findings showed that as children gained experience of schooling they constructed more elaborate social representations of the curriculum regardless of the pedagogic mode and that classroom structuration became a feature of the junior rather than the infant childrens representations. Older children in classrooms with performance pedagogies had two classifications for recognising classroom culture, while those in classrooms with mixed and competence pedagogies did not.