Abstract

WACHELKE, Joao. Correspondence of the subjective proximity of social representations and inter-representation activation. liber. [online]. 2012, vol.18, n.2, pp.167-172. ISSN 1729-4827.

Forced association tasks based on the basic cognitive schemes (SCB) model might be a very useful resource to qualify the relationships between concepts - potential social representation objects - by means of differential activation, whether related or not to a social representations theoretical framework. However, it is important to find some empirical support showing that the activation results provided by such tasks are backed up by alternative activation measures. The present paper aimed at verifying if the activation proportions of the relationships of some concepts with the social representation on aging are compatible with direct perceived proximity evaluations rated by a similar population. A sample of 102 undergraduate students from an Italian university completed forced association SCB tasks that measured the activation of 28 relationships. The effects of a log-linear saturated model indicated partial correspondence of the magnitude of the assessed relationships, pointing out to the validity of employing SCB tasks as an activation measure. Some considerations are made concerning the possibility to refine the empirical measurement of SCB-based relationships.

Keywords : Basic Cognitive Schemes; Social Representation; Activation; Aging.

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