SRT

Question 1

Who developed Social Representations Theory?

Answer 1

Serge Moscovici (1961)

Question 2

What does SRT aim to explain?

Answer 2

How people make sense of unfamiliar or abstract phenomena through culturally shared meanings.

Question 3

What is anchoring in SRT?

Answer 3

Comparing a novel object to something familiar to make it understandable.

Question 4

What is objectification in SRT?

Answer 4

Turning an abstract concept into something concrete or visual.

Question 5

What are the three types of objectification?

Answer 5

Personification, Figuration, Ontologising

Question 6

Give an example of anchoring.

Answer 6

COVID-19 compared to the flu in early public discourse.

Question 7

Give an example of figuration.

Answer 7

Climate change represented through melting ice caps or polar bears.

Question 8

Give an example of ontologising.

Answer 8

Mental illness described as a ‘chemical imbalance’.

Question 9

What study applied SRT to climate change?

Answer 9

Atzori (2018) – found figuration was common but did not influence behaviour.

Question 10

Name a criticism of SRT and a reference.

Answer 10

Vague definitions – Jodelet (1991)

Question 11

Name a second criticism of SRT and a reference.

Answer 11

Underestimates agency – Howarth (2006)

Question 12

Name a third criticism of SRT and a reference.

Answer 12

Lacks critical agenda – Parker (1987)