Representations and social knowledge: An integrative effort through a normative structural perspective

The structural approach on social representations is known for the development of central core theory and its similarity with cognition-oriented sociopsychological perspectives, which has been a target of criticism. The approach has difficulty in dealing with the social dimension of knowledge and adopts a static notion of structure. Acknowledging those shortcomings, we present a revised structural conceptual model of social knowledge and social representations based on the consideration of normative and social identity processes, compatible with contributions of authors external to the classical structural approach, such as Wagner (holomorphy) and Lahlou (propagation model). After redefining the concepts of cognem and structure, we tackle thinking processes and the differences between personal and social representations, conceiving the latter as conventional codes linked to groups. Limitations of the perspective are discussed and research directions are indicated based on an understanding of structure that is broader than the one adopted by the classical approach.     

The influence of question framing on symptom report and perceived health status

Abstract

Self-reports of symptom experience and subjective ratings of health were obtained from 157 undergraduates. The format of the symptom-report question was varied so that half the participants underlined any symptoms (in a list of 30) they had experienced (endorse condition), whereas the remaining participants crossed out any they had not experienced (exclude condition). Within each of these conditions, half were asked to record symptoms over the last month, and half over the last year. Participants in the exclude condition reported, on average, 70% more symptoms than those in the endorse condition. More symptoms were reported over the last year than the last month. Adjusting for the number of symptoms reported and the perceived seriousness of the symptom set as a whole, participants rated their own state of health more negatively in the endorse than exclude condition. This is consistent with research on the “feature-positive” effect, suggesting that active responses have greater influence on self-perceptions. It is argued that self-report measures of health status must be interpreted in relative, rather than absolute terms, and that attention should be paid to the underlying cognitive processes.     

Dissimilarity in mother and adolescent illness representations of type 1 diabetes and negative emotional adjustment

The study explored how two measures of mother–adolescent dissimilarity in illness representations relate to negative emotional adjustment in mothers and adolescents. Eighty-four adolescents with type 1 diabetes (age 11.5–17.5) and their mothers completed the Revised Illness Perceptions Questionnaire and measures of negative emotional adjustment. Adolescents viewed diabetes as less chronic, containing fewer negative emotional representations, and that mother had less control over the illness than did mothers. Mother–adolescent mean differences in representations were not associated with negative adjustment for adolescents; mean differences in coherence were related to negative adjustment for mothers, when controlling the individual's own representations. A measure of dissimilarity based on the sum of squared differences between mother and adolescent was associated with negative adolescent adjustment when controlling adolescent's own representations, but no relations were found for mothers. Dyadic approaches to coping with chronic illness will benefit by understanding how dissimilarity in illness representations between patient and caregiver relate to adjustment.     

Multiple illness perceptions in older adults: Effects on physical functioning and medication adherence

Objective: Previous research on illness perceptions has focused on single illnesses, but most adults over 65 suffer from multiple illnesses (multimorbidity). This study tests three competing operationalisations of multiple illness perceptions in predicting physical functioning and adherence: (1) main effects and interactions model; (2) peak model with effects of the most prominent illness perception; and (3) combined model with averaged illness perceptions over multiple illnesses.

Design: Longitudinal study in N?=?215 individuals (65–86?years) with multimorbidity at two measurement points over six months. Participants filled in two Brief Illness Perception Questionnaires (B-IPQ) on their two most severe illnesses.

Main outcome measures: Physical functioning, medication adherence.

Results: Factor analyses suggest that the B-IPQ contains three dimensions; consequences, control and timeline. Multiple regression models fit the data best for (1) and (3). Timeline (β?=??.18) and control (β?=?.21) predict adherence in (1); consequences (β?=?.16) and control (β?=?.20) in (3). Physical functioning was significantly predicted by interacting control beliefs in (1; β?=?.13), by peak consequences in (2; β?=??.14) and by consequences (β?=??.15) in (3).

Conclusions: Individuals with multimorbidity hold both distinct and combined perceptions about their illnesses. To understand individual responses to multimorbidity, perceptions about all illnesses and multimorbidity as entity should be examined.     

Illness representations in patients with multimorbid long-term conditions: Qualitative study

Most research on illness representations explores how patients view single conditions, but many patients report more than one long-term condition (known as multimorbidity). It is not known how multimorbidity impacts on patient illness representations. This exploratory qualitative study examined patients’ representations of multimorbid long-term conditions and sought to assess how models of illness representation might need modification in the presence of multimorbidity. We explored two major issues: (1) the impact of multimorbidity on patient representations of their individual conditions and (2) the representation of multimorbidity itself. Twenty eight adults with at least two long-term conditions (mean of 4) were interviewed. The presence of multimorbidity impacted on patient illness representations in relation to the dimensions of identity, perceived cause, coherence and consequences. Representations of multimorbidity itself concerned representations of the burden of medication and perceived priorities among conditions and synergies and antagonisms between conditions and their management. The results have implications for the measurement of multimorbidity (through scales such as the Illness Perception Questionnaire) and the use of illness representations in the design and delivery of interventions to improve health behaviour and outcomes of patients with multiple long-term conditions.     

临终关怀与内隐自尊的修复:现象、机制及意义

内隐自尊是自发的、自动的、无意识地自我评价系统.临终关怀系统与临终个体的心理健康、生活幸福感密切相关,人文社会科学已渗透临终关怀研究领域.通过回顾临终关怀与内隐自尊系统的社会表征及研究的现状,并从中揭示出临终关怀与内隐自尊的修复可能的机制及意义.     

Peasants' Social Representation of Politicians in a Clientelist Rural Context

In Latin America, political clientelism is one of the main obstacles to the process of sustaining truly democratic practices. Thus, this article proposes to study peasants from the Province of Formosa, Argentina's social representation of politicians, in hopes of shedding light on the relationship between said representations and clientelist practices, with the objective of making a contribution to the development of alternative means towards democratization in the area. The results of this case study show that, at the center of the peasants' social representation of politicians, there lies a tendency to place their expectations for receiving assistance within a context of a personalized and hierarchical relationship framework. Nevertheless, the majority of these farmers consider the assistance received to be insufficient and inadequate, stating that politicians actually look to satisfy their own interests and not those of the general public. In conclusion, the peasants' social representation of politicians favors clientelist practices, even though these small farmers do not identify, via their culture or their expectations, with these practices. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attending to what matters: Flexibility in adults’ and infants’ action perception

Action perception is selective in that observers attend to and encode certain dimensions of action over others. But how flexible is action perception in its selection of perceptual information? One possibility is that observers consistently attend to particular dimensions of action over others across different contexts. Another possibility, tested here, is that observers flexibly vary their attention to different dimensions of action based on the context in which action occurs. We investigated 9.5-month-old infants’ and adults’ ability to attend to drop height under varying contexts—aiming to drop an object into a narrow container versus a wide container. We predicted differential attention to increases in aiming height for the narrow container versus the wide container because an increase in aiming height has a differential effect on success (i.e., getting the object into the container) depending on the width of the container. Both adults and infants showed an asymmetry in their attention to aiming height as a function of context; in the wide container condition increases and decreases in aiming height were equally detectable, whereas in the narrow container condition observers more readily discriminated increases over decreases in aiming height. These results indicate that action perception is both selective and flexible according to context, aiding in action prediction and infants’ social–cognitive development more broadly.