Gilda Sensales

Need for cognitive closure and politics: Voting, political attitudes and attributional style

T his paper examines the impact of dispositional Need for Cognitive Closure (NFC) on different political attitudes and on the “person blame” and the “system blame” dimensions. Two hundred and thirty-four psychology students completed a questionnaire containing the Italian version of the Need for Closure scale, a measure of political and ideological attitudes, a measure of the person-system blame dimensions, and a measure of past voting. Results showed that high NFC individuals (vs. low NFCs) reported having voted for a right-wing party and holding more conservative attitudes. High NFCs (vs. low NFCs) turned out to have stronger anti-immigrant attitudes, to be more nationalistic, to prefer an autocratic leadership and a centralized form of political power. High NFCs also value religiosity more highly than low NFCs. High NFCs (vs. low NFCs) scored lower on pluralism and multiculturalism. Furthermore, high NFCs (vs. low NFCs) revealed a tendency to blame individuals for social problems, but no significant di...

Attitudes toward Computers, Science, and Technology A Cross-Cultural Comparison between Students in Rome and Los Angeles

A comparative study of the structure of attitudes toward computers, science, and technology was carried out with 320 university students equally distributed by country (Italy and the United States), by field of study (humanities, psychology, science, and engineering), and by gender. The instrument used was a Likert-type scale of 56 statements. First, individual items were analyzed for cross-national differences. Then items showing a range of values within both national groups were analyzed by factor analysis to reveal the latent dimensions underlying the set of items. We extracted three factors that, together, accounted for 39% of the variance: attribution to the computer of negative effects, both at an individual psychological level (Factor 1) and at a social psychological level (Factor 2); and the attribution to science, to technology, and to the computer of positive effects at an instrumental and organizational level (Factor 3). Attitudes toward computers, science, and technology were generally more positive than negative in both countries. Nevertheless, against this background of cross-national similarity, sociocultural factors produced attitudinal differences. In particular, the nationality of the subjects made the greatest difference, whereas gender showed a less important influence than did field of study.

Perceived impact of terrorism and the role of the media: representations by Italian citizens differing in political orientation and need for closure

Terrorism has been increasingly viewed as a complex phenomenon imbued with political objectives and media interests. From this perspective, it is crucial to understand how terrorism is socially represented and the role the media plays in creating and molding its image. Using four scales, this study explores the following issues as they relate to normal populations who have no link to terrorism: (1) Terrorist Definitions; (2) Attitudes, Beliefs and Experiences of Terrorism; (3) Immediate Impact of Terrorism; and (4) perceived positive or negative role of the media. Moreover, the study analyzes the role of political orientation and the need for cognitive closure (NFC) in shaping ones representations of terrorism. The sample consists of 409 Italian respondents. Four analyses of main components were conducted. Subsequently, a second-order factor analysis of all four scales generated a three-factor solution that accounts for 51% of the variance. Finally, a correlational analysis of political orientation, NFC, and representations of terrorists and terrorism was performed. Results suggest that more conservative participants, who exhibited a higher NFC, view terrorists as psychologically deviant and criminal. By contrast, left-wing participants, with a lower NFC, view terrorism as a complex phenomenon linked to politics of fear and discrimination. These participants view the media as having a negative role relating to the perpetuation of terrorism.

Linguistic Sexism in the News Coverage of Women Ministers From Four Italian Governments An Analysis From a Social-Psychological Perspective

The study, a descriptive type, is focused on the role of language in confirming or changing stereotypical feminine representations through a linguistic analysis of Italian newspaper communication concerning women politicians. It explored sexism/nonsexism in political communication on 20 female ministers from four different Italian governments (2006, 2008, 2011, and 2013). It was conducted by textual analysis of 1,244 press headlines with the Spad-t statistical package. Results showed an overutilization of sexist language and variations in the degree of linguistic sexism with respect to different periods (less sexism in the headlines of the last two governments). In this way, findings underlined the conservative role of newspapers that eclipses women’s active contribution, maintains their secondary role, and preserves politics as essentially alien to the female universe. This trend appears sensitive to the cultural and political context showing an increase of linguistic nonsexism in the time paralleled to an increase in the number of women parliamentarians.

Linguaggio sessista e rappresentazioni femminili nella comunicazione giornalistica sulle ministre dei governi Prodi (2006) e Berlusconi (2008). Un’analisi psicologico-sociale sui titoli Della stampa italiana di diverso orientamento Ideologico-culturale

Lo studio e centrato sulle rappresentazioni di dieci ministre italiane in due diversi governi - sei ministre del governo di centro-sinistra guidato da Prodi nel 2006 (Bindi, Bonino, Lanzillotta, Melandri, Pollastrini, Turco) e quattro ministre del governo di centro-destra guidato da Berlusconi nel 2008 (Carfagna, Gelmini, Meloni, Prestigiacomo) -. Tali rappresentazioni, monitorate attraverso 514 titoli di cinque quotidiani italiani (L’Unita, La Repubblica, Il Corriere della Sera, Il Tempo, Il Giornale), sono state analizzate secondo una duplice prospettiva comparativa centrata sul ruolo dell’appartenenza politica delle ministre e sul ruolo dell’orientamento ideologico-culturale della fonte. Inoltre e stato dedicato un focus particolare all’uso di un linguaggio sessista, attraverso la rilevazione del maschile generico e del femminile specifico utilizzati per le ministre. I dati testuali sono stati elaborati con tappe differenziate del pacchetto statistico SPAD-T per l’analisi del vocabolario e della caratterizzazione lessicografica dei titoli relativi alle dieci ministre e ai cinque quotidiani nei due anni. Nell’analisi del linguaggio sessista abbiamo trovato una sovrautilizzazione del maschile generico in tutti i quotidiani e pochi casi di femminile specifico, nella maggioranza dei casi da parte dei quotidiani di sinistra e centro-sinistra. Il linguaggio sotto osservazione e stato interpretato come luogo di produzione, riproduzione e diffusione di rappresentazioni fortemente condizionate dagli stereotipi di genere. Attraverso il suo studio si e evidenziato come questi stereotipi, operando in una realta politica in cui il ruolo delle donne appare ancora molto marginale, contribuiscano a cristallizzare tale situazione di marginalita, piuttosto che fornire stimoli ad un suo superamento e aprire la strada ad una maggiore partecipazione delle donne all’attivita politica.

Communicating Politics. A Study on the Representations of the 2008 Electoral Campaign in the Italian Daily Press

This study draws on the tradition of Social Representations theory SRs, and is attentive to the interplay of media communication and cultural systems. Under the hypothesis of a return to videocracy and unidirectional communication marginalizing citizens, we explored representations of the 2008 election campaign in the Italian press. We selected three newspapers diversified by ideological orientations and analysed news headlines and content. The grid of content analysis focused on variables like: the extent of news mediatization, leaderization processes, politics vs. policies, and use of political polls, among others, with all variables referred to left, centre and right parties. Data were processed using SPAD-T for both descriptive and differential analysis, with the latter identifying elements characterizing each newspaper VOSPEC. Results confirm the primacy of television and a shift of attention to leaders of all opposing forces, with the left associated with politics and the right with policies. Moreover, we found a coverage bias favouring centre-right exposition and sidelining citizens.