Willem Doise

Organizing principles of involvement in human rights and their social anchoring in value priorities

Two questionnaire studies were conducted ({N} = 80 and {N} = 175) ti examine the structure and the social anchoring of the organizing principles of personal and governmental involvement concerning human rights. The results indicated that these organizing principles had, as hypothesized one abstract and one applied dimension. The second study evaluated the correlations between these dimensions and values. Results were consistent with Schwartzs (1992) model predicting both the internal structure of values and their relations with other variables. Amongst other results, self-transcendence values were positively correlated with the abstract involvements and the applied personal involvement, and negatively with the applied governmental involvement. The results concerning the links between different levels of social anchorings, particularly between the value types and variables such as religious affiliation and practice political preferences, and social and political activism were also presented and discussed.

Da psicologia social à psicologia societal

The main factor that diferenciates social psychologists beyond the different scientific paradigms is their position in relation to the legitimacy and the necessity of a societal psychology. Its objective was and continuess to be articulate explanationss at the individual level and explanationss of social order, showing howw individuals dispose process that allow them to function in society, and complementarily how social dinamics, particularly interacionists, positionaals or of values general belief systems, guide the working of these processes.

Representation of human rights across different national contexts : the role of democratic and non-democratic populations and governments

This research studied judgements and inferences on human rights across democratic and non-democratic national contexts. It is argued that when judging diAerent countries, lay perceivers make use of representations of the country’s inhabitants. Stereotypically democratic and non-democratic characteristics of national populations are employed as a basis of political judgements, especially in democratic contexts. In three studies the bases of representations of human rights’ respect and violations are investigated. In the first study 76 subjects drew inferences on the human rights situation from formal descriptions of countries. These are either described with a type of government (democratic or authoritarian) or with national characteristics associated to the population (orderly and discussing or disorderly and clashing). In Study 2 (117 subjects), political and population information are crossed. In Study 3, 126 subjects evaluated the responsibility of the government and of the inhabitants in explaining the general situation in two positively and two negatively described national contexts. The results show the pervasive impact of population information on political judgements. Moreover members of non-democratic countries are viewed as accepting more human rights violations than members of democratic countries. This attitude inference is used by people to account for violations of human rights. Results are discussed in terms of common sense transformation of classical political theories which are grounded on universalism and essentialism. It is suggested that philosophical knowledge, much like

Conflict and Social Marking in the Acquisition of Operational Thinking.

Abstract From its very beginnings social psychology of individual development had recourse to a twofold mechanism for explaining cognitive development. This duality is presently reflected in the studies on sociocognitive conflict and social marking. An experiment is reported ( N : 160 children from about six years and a half) which shows that combining social marking and sociocognitive conflict is a very efficient way of generating cognitive progress.

Direitos humanos: significado comum e diferenças na tomada de posição

Human rights are defined as normative social representations embedded in institutional juridical definitions. Research findings show that human rights can be studied as normative social representations implying a degree of common understanding across cultures together with organized differences within and between cultures. Important factors in modulating individual positioning in the realm of human rights are experiences of social conflict and injustice, beliefs about the efficiency of various social actors to have rights enforced and attitudes of liberalism or collectivism. On the other hand, an ethnocentric use of human rights is well documented and has been experimentally studied. Generally, concerns about these rights expressed by citizens of Western countries become much stronger when non-Western countries are involved, whereas violations of these rights in their own country are often not severely condemned.

Social representations of human rights violations: Further evidence

Social representations of human rights violations were investigated in a questionnaire study conducted in five countries (Costa Rica, France, Italy, Romania, and Switzerland) (N = 1239 young people). We were able to show that respondents organize their understanding of human rights violations in similar ways across nations. At the same time, systematic variations characterized opinions about human rights violations, and the structure of these variations was similar across national contexts. Differences in definitions of human rights violations were identified by a cluster analysis. A broader definition was related to critical attitudes toward governmental and institutional abuses of power, whereas a more restricted definition was rooted in a fatalistic conception of social reality, approval of social regulations, and greater tolerance for institutional infringements of privacy. An atypical definition was anchored either in a strong rejection of social regulations or in a strong condemnation of immoral ind...

Effects on anticipated delegate status on level of risk taking in small decision-making groups

Abstract The oft-replicated risky-shift phenomenon in decision-making groups was examined under conditions where one or all of the group members expected to serve as a delegate representing and defending their groups decisions in meetings with delegates from other groups. Three separate delegate conditions and a control were employed. In two of the conditions a single delegate was selected — designated by the group in one case and chosen at random in the other. In a third condition, all members expected to serve as delegates. The control condition consisted of the standard group discussion-to-concensus without any delegate manipulation. No mean differences in magnitude of risky shift between conditions were obtained. An examination of the two single-delegate conditions revealed other kinds of differences. Whereas the behavior of the delegate selected randomly appeared to have little effect on the size of the risky shift, this was not the case for the group-designated delegate. Correlational analyses indicated that the latters influencee and communication input and output were related to risky- shift magnitude.

Human Rights and Politics: A Social Representational Analysis of Political Positioning during the 1995 Quebec Sovereignty Campaign

This questionnaire study was conducted among 202 French-speaking students one month before the 1995 referendum on sovereignty in Quebec. Principal questions concerned: intervention of human rights (HR) attitudes; value priorities; expectations about enforcement and violation of rights (individual/collective) in political choices; and sovereignty representations (for/against). It was found that HR attitudes did not intervene in political choices, but that concerns about well-being and traditional values were linked to Non-Sovereigntist attitudes, whereas social value choices accompanied Pro-Sovereigntist ones. Furthermore, respondents generally thought that, in the outcome of their choice, socioeconomic and collective rights would be better respected; whereas, when confronted with an outcome contrary to their choice, Pro-Sovereigntists expected more political and linguistic discrimination.

Niveaux d'analyse dans l'étude expérimentale des processus d'influence sociale

ce que spontanément les theories explicatives des ph~nom~nes d’influence sociale situeraient leur analyse au niveau de cette articulation. Or, comme nous le verrons, les explications rel~vent souvent d’un seul niveau d’analyse, interindividuel (niveau II) voire intraindividuel (niveau I), et n’abordent que rarement des interpr~tations en termes des positions sociales des protagonistes ou de rapports entre groupes (niveau III), ni en termes de representations ideologiques (niveau IV).

Similar or Different? Young Immigrants in the Genevan Educational Context

The principal aim of this study, which was carried out in Geneva with 625 pupils aged 15–16, was to compare the social representations of the indigenous population and those of pupils of foreign origin in the areas of school, the future, national and language group membership, and different aspects of social identity. Although on the whole the immigrants approach these various areas in the same way as pupils of Swiss origins, they nonetheless display a more specific approach in the area of attitudes concerned with language.