Arguing about tobacco and its effects on social representations

This study analysed the influence of social debate (group discussion) on previously held antagonistic social representations about tobacco. In the first phase of our study, we contacted 130 subjects in order to know what type of social representations they held. Two representations were found: a ‘psychopathological’ representation and a ‘critical’ one. After obtaining these results, and in a second phase, we randomly divided 100 subjects into 10 discussion groups, whilst another 30 subjects were assigned to the control condition (non-discussion group). The group discussion (social debate) led to a convergence of previously held representations. Debate emerged as a mechanism which could reduce the distance between groups who hold previously opposing representations.     

Is Traditional Gender Ideology Associated with Sex-Typed Mate Preferences? A Test in Nine Nations

Social role theory (Eagly, Wood, & Diekman, 2000) predicts that traditional gender ideology is associated with preferences for qualities in a mate that reflect a conventional homemaker-provider division of labor. This study assessed traditional gender ideology using Glick and Fiske's (1996, 1999) indexes of ambivalent attitudes toward women and men and related these attitudes to the sex-typed mate preferences of men for younger mates with homemaker skills and of women for older mates with breadwinning potential. Results from a nine-nation sample revealed that, to the extent that participants had a traditional gender ideology, they exhibited greater sex-typing of mate preferences. These relations were generally stable across the nine nations.     

Sexism, Vocational Goals, and Motivation as Predictors of Men’s and Women’s Career Choice

In the present study we analyzed the impact of vocational goals, sexist attitudes toward women, and motivation on career choice, in a sample of 448 Spanish college students (65.2% women and 34.1% men). Although we found some similarities between men and women in terms of their motivational orientations (extrinsic vs. intrinsic) and vocational goals, men’s extrinsic motivations appear to differ depending on the college major. We also found differences in sexist attitudes toward women by gender and chosen major: both male and female students enrolled in technical majors reported the most sexist attitudes (both hostile and benevolent). These findings underline the importance of taking sexist attitudes toward women into account in attempts to explain gender differences in career choice, something which has been largely overlooked in the research to date.     

Applying social psychology to the study of environmental concern and environmental worldviews: contributions from the social representations approach

Recently some social psychological approaches have intensified their contributions to research in the environmental domain, helping it to focus more consistently on the shared aspects of all environment related experiences. The goal of this paper is that of joining these efforts, exploring the contributions of the social representations approach to research on environmental concern and environmental thought, as another area for applying social psychological knowledge. The paper first sketches how the environmental concern of the publics emerged in the 70s as a problem for the social sciences and proceeds to summarizing the main characteristics of this research, focusing on three problematic areas: (1) incipient theoretical integration among the frameworks dominating research; (2) insufficient reflection about the assumptions and measurement of the concepts employed; (3) a need for new research questions that push studies beyond the analysis of the socio‐demographical correlates of beliefs. Afterwards a presentation of social representations theory will be undertaken and the usefulness of the approach to deal with some aspects of the problematic areas identified will be explored, with examples from recent research, and highlighting the importance of focusing on contradiction, polyphasia, and the articulation of the local and the global. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationship between productivity and efficiency in research funding for Spanish regions

Quality is a major current needs and requirements for any university system. The funding that universities receive a relevant influence on the scientific productivity of these. Thus the main objective of this study is to classify the Spanish regions in terms of scientific productivity and economic efficiency of their universities. It followed the same procedure used to prepare the 2009 ranking of research productivity in Spanish universities. The results show that there are differences in the classifications made on the basis of productivity and efficiency in the investigation. The more efficient Spanish regions in managing its resources to obtain research results are Catalonia, Asturias, Aragon, and Cantabria. From the results, each region can compare their situation with the rest and analyze strengths and weaknesses in research in terms of resources.     

Local communities responding to ecological challenges—A psycho‐social approach to the Natura 2000 Network

The institutionalization of biodiversity conservation through legal instruments has led to mixed reactions at both the individual and community levels, with conflict and resistance co‐existing with support. The overall purpose of this paper is to describe how rural communities living in areas included in the Natura 2000 Network of protected sites, where local practices of land use are regulated by new legal directives, receive biodiversity conservation goals. Previous studies suggest that this reception is strongly shaped by place identification, but their contradictory results demand further clarification. This study examines the role of psycho‐social variables identified by previous studies as potentially relevant moderators of identification: (a) Vested interest in natural resources, (b) evaluation of the designation process of protected areas and (c) institutional trust. It further extends previous research by analysing the support given to contextually relevant ecological practices. Results reveal a positive link between place identification and attitudes in the high vested interest condition and show that support for conservation practices is better predicted in the high vested interest and low trust conditions. The discussion focuses on the relevance of analysing contextually relevant psycho‐social moderators when attempting to understand how local communities' relation with biodiversity conservation is affected by legislative innovation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gender roles in relation to assertiveness and eysenckian personality dimensions: Replication with a spanish population sample

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the cross-national replicability of the usual pattern of associations observed in Anglo-Saxon samples between masculinity and femininity on the one hand and difficulty and distress in assertiveness and the major Eysenckian dimensions of personality on the other hand. Participants were 925 SpanishSs (54% females; and 95.5% “European or other white”). Both the masculinity theory of psychological well-being and the notion thathigh femininity would not be implicated in self-assessed psychologicaldistress ordysfunction were supported by the data. Higher-order analysis showed that masculinity loaded highly on Positive Affect, whereas femininity had its primary loading on Constraint. Tentative support was found for the femininity-humility hypothesis advanced by P. B. Zeldow, S. R. Clark, and D. C. Daugherty in 1985.