Grégory Lo Monaco

Test d’Indépendance au Contexte (TIC) et Structure des Représentations Sociales

Deux techniques permettent le reperage systematique du systeme central d’une representation sociale: la technique de la mise en cause (MEC) et le modele des schemes cognitifs de base (SCB). Malgre cet apport, ces techniques presentent des inconvenients: la MEC, de par son principe de double negation, et les SCB, de par la longueur de passation. Une nouvelle technique a ete developpee: le test d’independance au contexte (TIC). Elle vise a rendre compte des caracteres trans-situationnel ou contingent des elements representationnels, tout en presentant un moindre cout cognitif percu. Deux objets de representation ont ete etudies aupres d’une population etudiante. Les resultats revelent que le TIC parait, aux participants, cognitivement moins couteux que la MEC. De plus, le TIC permet un reperage du noyau central identique a celui offert par la MEC.

When Commitment Can Be Overturned Anticipating Recycling Program Dropouts Through Social Representations

Evidence from past pro-environmental programs suggests that the invalidation of individuals’ expectations could lead them to drop out of a given program. The aim of this research is to evaluate the impact of the invalidation of expectations on individuals’ commitment to a waste-sorting program. We focused on the hierarchy that may exist among these expectations by drawing on the dichotomy between central and peripheral cognitions proposed within the framework of the theory of social representations. In this perspective, expectations are the result of a body of socially constructed knowledge and can be characterized either by a central (essential) or peripheral (non-essential) status. Results show that withdrawing from the program is significantly more frequent when the experimenter invalidates a central cognition than when he invalidates a peripheral one. This moderating effect highlights the importance of taking into account representations with a view to explaining or preventing withdrawal from pro-environmental programs.

Social Representations and Commitment

This contribution consists of a critical review of the literature about the articulation of two traditionally separated theoretical fields: social representations and commitment. Besides consulting various works and communications, a bibliographic search was carried out (between February and December, 2016) on various databases using the keywords “commitment” and “social representation,” in the singular and in the plural, in French and in English. Articles published in English or in French, that explicitly made reference to both terms, were included. The relations between commitment and social representations are approached according to two approaches or complementary lines. The first line follows the role of commitment in the representational dynamics: how can commitment transform the representations? This articulation gathers most of the work on the topic. The second line envisages the social representations as determinants of commitment procedures: how can these representations influence the effects of commitment procedures? This literature review will identify unexploited tracks, as well as research perspectives for both areas of research.

Priming Resistance to Persuasion decreases adherence to Conspiracy Theories

Abstract Research in the field of Resistance to Persuasion (RP) has demonstrated that inoculating individuals with counter arguments is effective for lowering their levels of adherence to conspiracist beliefs (CB). Yet, this strategy is limited because it requires specific arguments tailored against targeted conspiracist narratives. Therefore, we investigated whether priming Resistance to Persuasion would reduce individual adherence to CB among undergraduate student samples. A first study (N = 81) demonstrated that participants primed by filling a RP scale had lower CB scores than control participants. This effect was directly replicated twice (N = 205 and N = 265) and confirmed by a mini meta-analysis (N = 519; d = .20). Practical and theoretical implications are then discussed.

Intimate partner violence and help-seeking: A systematic review and social psychological tracks for future research.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global social concern: many women are affected by this phenomenon and by the difficulty of putting an end to it. This review of the literature aims to identify help-seeking facilitating and inhibiting factors in response to IPV. It was carried out on the PsycINFO and Medline databases using the following keywords: “intimate partner violence,” “domestic violence,” “help-seeking,” and “help-seeking barrier.” Ninety out of 771 eligible publications were included on the basis of inclusion criteria. The results highlight that (1) research on this phenomenon is very recent and underdeveloped in Europe, (2) theoretical and conceptual frameworks are poorly developed and extended, (3) there is a significant impact of violence characteristics (e.g., severity, type) on help-seeking, and (4) help-seeking is a complex and multifactorial process influenced by a wide range of factors simultaneously individual and social. To conclude, these findings lead us to propose a psychosocial conceptualization of the help-seeking process by indicating how the levels of explanation approach in social psychology can be applied to this field of research in order to increase our understanding of this phenomenon.

LA TEORÍA DE LAS REPRESENTACIONES SOCIALES: ORIENTACIONES CONCEPTUALES, CAMPOS DE APLICACIONES Y MÉTODOS (la Theorie des Representations Sociales: orientations conceptuelles, champs d’applications et methodes)

Since its early formulation, Social Representations Theory (SRT, Moscovici, 1961) presented a remarkable development in the world. And today, it is an essential and ineluctable theory in the field of social psychology. However, due to the various directions that have been developed within this theory, its diffusion and success have widely exceeded the borders of this discipline. This article aims to draw the outlines of the SRT by proposing an overview of the arisen approaches, its contributions, and finally, the methodologies the theory has implemented and promoted.