Social Representation of Homosexuality
Practicum on
Social Representation of Homosexuality
Social Psychology
By-
Nayana Goswami
UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
2nd Semester INTRODUCTION
SOCIAL REPRESENTATION - The field of social representations is concerned with the explanations which people give for phenomena which they encounter in the social world. The objective of the approach is the systematic study of common sense thinking. The originator of the theory, the French social psychologist Serge Moscovici states its purpose:
"These are the questions then to which we hope to find answers: What goes on in people's minds when they are faced with life's great enigmas such as illness ...? How do the systems of social representations ... come into being and then evolve?"
A concern with how individuals arrive at common representations of phenomena, such as illnesses, lies at the heart of the theory. People's commentary on the world, the spontaneous philosophies they concoct in cafes, offices, hospitals and laboratories is presumed to build up their sense of reality. The chatter that surrounds people - in newspapers and on the television, in the snippets of conversation overheard on the bus - acts like a material force. It is just as "real" an environment to people, and as influential on the course of their actions, as more physical entities: "where reality is concerned, these representations are all we have, that to which our perceptual, as well as our cognitive, systems are adjusted."
Social representations are about different types of collective cognitions, common sense or thought systems of societies or groups of people. They are always related to social, cultural and/or symbolic objects, they are representations of something. There is no clear-cut definition used by the advocates, and Moscovici himself gives a number of definitions:
Social representations concern the contents of everyday thinking and the stock of ideas that give coherence to our religious beliefs, political
Social Representation of Homosexuality
Social Psychology
By-
Nayana Goswami
UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
2nd Semester INTRODUCTION
SOCIAL REPRESENTATION - The field of social representations is concerned with the explanations which people give for phenomena which they encounter in the social world. The objective of the approach is the systematic study of common sense thinking. The originator of the theory, the French social psychologist Serge Moscovici states its purpose:
"These are the questions then to which we hope to find answers: What goes on in people's minds when they are faced with life's great enigmas such as illness ...? How do the systems of social representations ... come into being and then evolve?"
A concern with how individuals arrive at common representations of phenomena, such as illnesses, lies at the heart of the theory. People's commentary on the world, the spontaneous philosophies they concoct in cafes, offices, hospitals and laboratories is presumed to build up their sense of reality. The chatter that surrounds people - in newspapers and on the television, in the snippets of conversation overheard on the bus - acts like a material force. It is just as "real" an environment to people, and as influential on the course of their actions, as more physical entities: "where reality is concerned, these representations are all we have, that to which our perceptual, as well as our cognitive, systems are adjusted."
Social representations are about different types of collective cognitions, common sense or thought systems of societies or groups of people. They are always related to social, cultural and/or symbolic objects, they are representations of something. There is no clear-cut definition used by the advocates, and Moscovici himself gives a number of definitions:
Social representations concern the contents of everyday thinking and the stock of ideas that give coherence to our religious beliefs, political