123 research outputs found
Tomasetto et al. 2019 Ecology Letters - Global NAR meta-analysis
No full textData from: Tomasetto, F., Duncan, R.P., Hulme P.E. (2019). Resolving the invasion paradox: pervasive scale and study dependence in the native-alien species richness relationship. Ecology Letters.All explanations for the data are provided in the MS and associated SI.</div
School Reform and its Public: Diffusion, Propagation or Propaganda?
No full textSince 2003 the Italian school system has been the target of the reform for all the curricula from preschool to high school level. The Ministry of Education has promoted an intensive activity of diffusion both of official documents (laws, etc.) and reports produced by various committees of experts, requested of producing scientific and educational argumentations about the major issues of reform. Intensive debates both between and within Trade Unions, teachers' Trade Unions and parents' associations as well have accompanied the long journey of Parliament discussions of reform with a huge amount of published documents. From the social psychological point of view, this kind of written documents could be seen as cultural tools for diffusion, propagation or propaganda of ideas, ideological and educational values (Moscovici 1961/1976 ). Following this theoretical framework, our contribution will be focused on the analysis of written documents chosen from different sources (Ministry, associations) in order to find out the different discourses and the style of argumentation in favour or against the reform according to different sources.
Methodology: Given the huge amount of documents, the study will be focused on the pre-school (kindergarten) to junior high school (3-14 years). Documents will be submitted to an appropriated content analysis and discourse analysis through software Alceste (Reinert, 1986; Matteucci, Tomasetto, 2002; Tomasetto, Selleri, 2004). Interpretation of results (in terms of segmentation of classes of content) will be made following the classification of discourse suggested by Moscovici: diffusion propagation and propaganda. Classes of content and specific examples of argumentations are the outcome of the analysis as well as the specific sources associated with classes and argumentations.
Conclusions: Different representations of children and pupils and different representations of what education and teaching -learning processes really is, are expected according to different sources. Ideological belongingness of sources (different Trade Unions, religious vs. non religious characteristics of parents' and teachers' associations) will be introduced as variables to interpret in details different styles of argumentation. As a complementary finding we expect to describe whether the official position of the Ministry is more akin to some Trade Unions and to parents' and teachers' associations
Hypothèse de la correspondance: représentations des cibles et choix du style d’influence dans un contexte de prévention
No full textDes travaux récents dans le domaine de l’influence sociale ont amené un intérêt nouveau aux thèmes du style d’influence dans les situations de communication persuasive. Mugny et collègues (2002) ont formulé une hypothèse de la correspondance : on suggère qu’une source d’influence peut atteindre à ses buts persuasifs seulement dans la mesure où elle se sert d’un style de communication approprié au contexte relationnel dans lequel les cibles et la source sont engagés. La pertinence du style d’influence, voir sa correspondance avec la relation en cours, dépend de l’activation de contrats de communication différents, selon la position sociale occupée par les acteurs impliqués. Les contrats activés par des relations plutôt asymétriques requièrent, selon cette hypothèse, le recours à des styles d’influence assez directifs, contraignants, de façon à suggérer aux cibles la voie la plus directe de se conformer à une source qui connaît et transmet un savoir légitime; au contraire, les contrats en vigueur dans des relations plutôt paritaires demanderaient une communication respectueuse et flexible, telle à confier aux cibles, légitimés eux-mêmes à se former et maintenir une position autonome, la possibilité de préserver leur propre liberté de choix (Quiamzade et al., soumis).
Les résultats confirment dans une bonne mesure ces prévisions, lors que des étudiants universitaires sont les cibles des efforts persuasifs produits par des experts (notamment, des professeurs) à l’égard de leur cursus d’études (Buchs et al., 2002 ; Tomasetto, Carugati, soumis). Ici, par contre, on a demandé à des étudiants de psychologie de s’assumer le rôle d’agents éducatifs/informationnels, c’est-à-dire de sources d’influence, la tâche consistant dans le choix d’un message de prévention, adressé à des adolescents, concernant l’abus des drogues de synthèse (MDMA, voir Ecstasy).
Bien que les convictions idéologiques influencent fortement les stratégies rhétoriques de l’argumentation (Billig, 1991), tout en amenant le participants à choisir un type de message cohérent avec leur positions à l’égard de la prévention de l’abus de substances, notre hypothèse prévoit tout de même que des facteurs relationnels interviennent à modérer le choix du style du message. Plus en détail, l’induction des différentes caractéristiques des cibles devrait favoriser la préférence pour une communication orientée à l’évitement de la conduite tout court, ou bien à la réduction du risque; s’il est vrai, comme l’hypothèse de correspondance suggère, que la communication nécessite d’une adaptation au contexte relationnel, la stratégie de réduction du risque devrait s’avérer plus adapte à confier aux cibles leur liberté décisionnelle, ce qui correspondrait davantage aux enjeux d’un contrat de communication flexible et respectueux visant à des cibles de haut statut ; par contre, la choix d’une stratégie de communication directement ciblée à la suppression de la conduite d’abus devrait s’avérer plus cohérente avec l’activation d’un contrat de communication plutôt directif et contraignant, ce qui est plus probable face à des cibles de bas statut. les résultats supportent en partie l'hypothèse
Girls' Math Performance Under Stereotype Threat: The moderating role of mothers' gender stereotypes
No full textPrevious research on stereotype threat in children suggests that making gender identity salient disrupts
girls’ math performance at as early as 5 to 7 years of age. The present study (n 124) tested the
hypothesis that parents’ endorsement of gender stereotypes about math moderates girls’ susceptibility to
stereotype threat. Results confirmed that stereotype threat impaired girls’ performance on math tasks
among students from kindergarten through 2nd grade. Moreover, mothers’ but not fathers’ endorsement
of gender stereotypes about math moderated girls’ vulnerability to stereotype threat: Performance of girls
whose mothers strongly rejected the gender stereotype about math did not decrease under stereotype
threat. These findings are important because they point to the role of mothers’ beliefs in the development
of girls’ vulnerability to the negative effects of gender stereotypes about math
Influence minoritaire et effet de décentration dans l'argumentation: une approche expérimentale
No full textSocial Influence and Diffusion of Innovations in Education
No full textWhen a new idea, a new behavior or a new technology appears in our social system, each of us should carefully consider its merits and defects, and after a brief period decide to adopt those innovations that will bring us an advantage, and reject those that are useless or harmful. Nevertheless, it is clear that in daily life we usually behave quite differently.
First of all, we can almost never know exactly which innovations will actually turn out to be more useful than the technologies and behavioral patterns that we are used to: some of them could turn out to be more disadvantageous, after all. Moreover, even if the innovation’s promoters have produced scientific data which could help to evaluate their proposals, not all of us are adequately qualified to evaluate such information. (Lissoni, 2000).
What we can more realistically do is start to look around us, observing what happens to the first adopters in our circle of neighbours, friends, and work colleagues; it is likely that we will try to exchange information with them about the innovation, paying attention to their opinions and impressions. Our final decision will probably follow this intense work of constructing shared knowledge trough social interaction, rather than being based on pure logical rationality.
In this chapter we will highlight some points of contact between research on innovation diffusion and processes of social influence, and we will propose that a theoretical model of influence can help to understand the impact of social interactions on innovative behaviors. Then we will illustrate an empirical study carried out in Italian compulsory schools, in which we aimed at examining whether the evaluation of a new didactical tool by its supposed adopters (teachers, in this case) is affected by the interaction between these latter and those who promote the innovation. For instance, we will examine whether this evaluation is affected by the status of the innovators in the school system, that can be equal (i.e., the innovators are teachers as well) but also higher (i.e., the innovators are principals) than the status of the supposed adopters. Namely, according to the social influence model we will refer to, under certain condition this status imbalance should produce a remarkable effect upon the adopters’ response
Differential Effects of Majority and Minority Influence on Argumentation Strategies
No full textConfirmatory bias in argumentation—i.e., the tendency to generate arguments that support one’s own claims, rather than rebuttals that challenge alternative standpoints—is a widespread tendency that can be harmful to the quality of argumentation. In the present study we hypothesized that, depending on issue relevance to the targets, majority and minority sources of influence may differentially reduce this bias. Results provided partial support to the contention, showing that when the issue was of low relevance, participants exposed to the minority developed more rebuttals than participants exposed to the majority, whereas no difference between the impacts of the two sources emerged when the issue was of high relevance. Findings suggest that, in low relevance circumstances, minority influence may exert beneficial effects on argumentation
Women and #MeToo in Italy: Internalized sexualization is associated with tolerance of sexual harassment and negative views of the #MeToo movement
No full textAs a consequence of exposure to sexualized messages, girls and women may internalize the belief that sexual attractiveness to men is an important aspect of their identity. Whereas research on internalized sexualization has mainly focused on its consequences for girls’ well-being and academic outcomes, the present study (N = 222, women, aged 20 to 29) examined whether internalized sexualization is related to sexist attitudes and tolerance of sexual harassment among young women. It also analyzed internalized sexualization’ links to women’s views of notorious sexual abuse allegations in the so-called Weinstein scandal and attitudes towards the #MeToo movement, a campaign aimed at combatting sexual harassment and sexual assault. The study was conducted in Italy, a context characterized by pervasive sexualized messages and diffuse criticism against the #MeToo movement. The findings showed that internalized sexualization was associated with stronger endorsement of sexist attitudes and higher acceptance of sexual harassment myths, which worked as sequential mediators of skepticism towards sexual abuse allegations in the Weinstein scandals. Endorsement of sexist attitudes mediated the relation between internalized sexualization and negative attitudes towards the #MeToo movement. This study extends the knowledge on the correlates of sexualization, suggesting that women’s internalization of the belief that they should be sexually attractive to men might contribute to reinforce ideologies and attitudes that perpetrate women’s mistreatment while diminishing support for social activism on women’s behalf
Teachers' judgment from a European psychosocial perspective
No full textThe role that school evaluation, diplomas, degrees, educational and career counseling, and the selection and promotion of individuals play in our societies is of such importance that it would be unwise to ignore the mechanisms that form the basis of different types of judgment. The starting point of judgment production is the production of inferences based on information, which implies several steps. The European approach emphasizes that school judgment should be conceived as a psychology of everyday life, where dynamics are rather similar both at school and in everyday activities (Monteil, 1989). The main approaches that could be integrated, in order to obtain a better understanding of the construction process of teachers’ school judgment are three: social representations (Moscovici, 1976; Mugny & Carugati, 1985/1989), the socio-cognitive approach to judgment production (Dubois, 2003), and the theoretical grid of levels of analysis (Doise, 1982/1986). According to the latter approach, context could be analyzed at the interindividual, situational, cultural and ideological level. The most important contribution of this analytical distinction refers to the possibility of articulating these levels as sources of possible influence of a variable at a given level on other variables at another level. The approach formulated by Doise provides the framework for presenting a research review on different levels of contextual effects on teachers’ judgments. In particular, this chapter will explore research contributions which show that: 1) culturally shared social representations of intelligence in terms of innate gift might influence teachers’ judgments of their pupils (Carugati & Selleri, 2004); 2) teachers' evaluations are affected by social norms and causal explanations of pupils' failure vs. success. (Matteucci, 2007); 3) pupils’ academic performance normally takes place in complex social contexts (typically classrooms) whose features affect individuals' cognitive functioning (e.g., presence of others, visibility, social comparison, self-categorization processes: Monteil & Huguet, 1999), and may either improve or disrupt such performance, depending on students' past history of success vs. failure in similar evaluative tasks. Finally, the “key theme” of evaluation in virtual contexts (ICT) will be investigated by exploring the role of technical artifacts as a special kind of contextual determinants of learners' web actions. The “state of the art” of evaluation and new technologies will then be discussed, with a particular focus on which activities can be tracked and evaluated, in relation to the current development of web–tools. (Mazzoni, 2006). While exploring the several contextual factors that are likely to influence education and the production of teachers’ judgment, this chapter will deal with some implications, which refer to practical aspects of teachers’ activity
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