From Similitude Analysis to Guttman effects in the study of Social Representations

1. From Similitude Analysis to Guttman effectsin the study of Social Representations Laurent Milland Claude Flament University of PoitiersUniversity of Provence

2. Similitude Analysis Internal organization of a social representation’s elements

3. Similitude Analysis in the study of social representations Social representation : « Organized set of information » (Abric, 2003) set of information • Contents = • « cognèmes » (Codol, 1969; Flament, 1986), • « nodules de sens » (Lahlou, 2001) • Elements of Knowledge of the representation • Examples : • SR of employment : payment, well-being, etc. • SR of higher education : diploma, acquire a qualification • SR of ideal group : equality, the same centres of interest

4. Similitude Analysis in the study of social representations Social representation : « Organized set of information » (Abric, 2003) Organized set of information • Structure = • Central core and peripherical system (Abric, 1976) • A global organization of these elements • Each element has relations with the others • These relations (implication, resemblance, antagonistic, etc.) can be translated by the vague idea : • « Matching more or less » (Flament, 1986)

5. Similitude Analysis in the study of social representations • A social object is complex • The elements which compose its representation maintain numerous relations • The organization of all these relations is difficult to identify • The identification of a structure of these relations should allow us to extract the main part of these relations.

6. Similitude Analysis in the study of social representations The identification of a structure of these relations should allow us to extract the main part of these relations A picture as an example The similitude analysis = extracting the skeleton of the representation The researcher will give a signification to the skeleton (a bird or a horse)

7. Similitude Analysis in the study of social representations A basic study of a social representation • Searching for the contents • Free association task • Interview • Searching for the organization of the contents • Identification of the strongest relations between the elements : structure of association (similitude analysis) • Identification of the structure : MEC, SCB

8. Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)Stage 1 – Research of the contents • Contents of the employment representation • Constraints • Social integration • An obligation • To Finance its leisure activities • The means to have relations • The means to earn the keep • Personal blooming • Self-confidence

9. Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)Stage 2 – A simple questionnaire Think about employment. Put a tick against the proposals which, according to you, are the most characteristic of what is employment • Constraints • social integration • An obligation • To Finance its leisure activities • The means to have relations • The means to earn the keep • Personal blooming • Self-confidence

10. Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)Stage 3 – Data capture Chosen propositon = 1 Non chosen proposition = 0

11. Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)Stage 4 – Measurement of the relations Simple index : co-occurence or

12. 1 1 Example 1 (inspired form Abric, 2003)Stage 4 – Measurement of the relations

13. 1 Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)Stage 4 – Measurement of the relationsThe similitude matrix (Co-occurrence) All the elements are connected What sort of information could we extract from this matrix ?

14. Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)Stage 4 – From similitude matrix to the structure of the relations between elements of a representation What sort of information could we extract from this matrix ? We have to summarize these informations • We can associate a number to each element Constraints 1 Social integration 2 An obligation 3 To Finance its leisure activities 4 The means to have relations 5 The means to earn the keep 6 Personal blooming 7 Self-confidence 8

15. Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)Stage 4 – From similitude matrix to the structure of the relations between elements of a representation We ‘re going to try to represent the relations between each element. • We can decide to represent a relation between two elements by a segment • Example : Constraints 12 Social integration An obligation 32 To Finance its leisure activities We want to summarize these informations and to extract a clear structure of relations A graph

16. constraints the means to have relations social integration an obligation self-confidence finance its leisure activities personal blooming the means to earn the keep Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)Stage 4 – From similitude matrix to the structure of the relations between elements of a representation We want to summarize these informations and to extract a clear structure of relations And when we represent all the relations … … is it clearer ?

17. Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)… PAUSE … The graph theory will allow us to • Represent the structure of the relations • To provide algorithms which make it possible to extract the essence of information