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