Laurent Milland Claude Flament University of Poitiers University of Provence
From Similitude Analysis to Guttman effects
in the study of Social Representations
Similitude Analysis
Internal organization of a social representation’s
elements
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 qualificationSR of ideal group : equality, the same centres of interest
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)
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.
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 representationThe researcher will give a signification to the skeleton (a bird or a horse)
Similitude Analysis in the study of social
representations
A basic study of a social representation
1. Searching for the contents
• Free association task• Interview
2. 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
Similitude Analysis in the study of social
representations
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
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
Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)
Stage 3 – Data capture
Chosen propositon = 1
Non chosen proposition = 0
Simple index : co-occurence
or
Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)
Stage 4 – Measurement of the relations
i
1 0
j1 nij nij’ ni
0 ni’j ni’j’ ni’
nj nj’ n
1 ijS n
'1
ijnSn
Example 1 (inspired form Abric, 2003)
Stage 4 – Measurement of the relations
Social integration1 0
Constraints1 2 0 20 3 0 3
5 0 5
1(1,2) 2S
1
1
All the elements are connected
What sort of information could we extract from this matrix ?
Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)
Stage 4 – Measurement of the relations
The similitude matrix (Co-occurrence)
1
What sort of information could we extract from this matrix ?
We have to summarize these informations
1. 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
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 1 2 Social integration
An obligation 3 2 To Finance its leisure activities
Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)
Stage 4 – From similitude matrix to the structure of the relations between elements
of a representation
A graph
We want to summarize these informations and to extract a clear structure of relations
We want to summarize these informations and to extract a clear structure of relations
And when we represent all the relations …
… is it clearer ?
Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)
Stage 4 – From similitude matrix to the structure of the relations between elements
of a representation
finance its leisure activities
the means to earn the keep
personal blooming
self-confidence
the means to have relations
constraints
an obligation
social integration
Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003)… PAUSE …
1.Represent the structure of the relations
2.To provide algorithms which make it
possible to extract the essence of information
The graph theory will allow us to