The impact of social representations on modifying individual behaviors

Author

UNIVERISTY OF GABES

Abstract

The exploration of social representations reveals the value of this concept in understanding the complex human reality in its finest details and its crucial role in explaining the directions of individual behaviors and attitudes within the dynamics of daily life. Sociological approaches interested in studying the adjustment of individual behaviors have highlighted significant challenges faced by researchers, prompting them to correct some definitions and overcome the confusion with adjacent concepts such as ideology. This is achieved by studying the components of representation, its operational methods, and its important functions. Although Émile Durkheim was a pioneer in studying the concept of representation since 1898 and was interested in the role of social interactions in building representations, he focused on "collective representations" and valued them over "individual representations," which he considered mere mental activities and purely cognitive processes that some might view as topics specific to psychology. Here lies the depth and richness of Serge Moscovici's approach as a specialist in social psychology, who attempted to revive a concept that had been neglected for a long time and study it from different angles than its counterparts.

Key words: Social representations, dynamics, behaviors, functions of representation, content of representation.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics