1. Laurent Milland Claude Flament University of Poitiers University of Provence From Similitude Analysis to Guttman effects in the study of Social Representations

2. Similitude Analysis Internal organization of a social representation’s elements

3. 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 qualification SR of ideal group : equality, the same centres of interest

4. 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)

5. 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.

6. 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 representation The researcher will give a signification to the skeleton (a bird or a horse) Similitude Analysis in the study of social representations

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003) Stage 3 – Data capture Chosen propositon = 1 Non chosen proposition = 0

11. Simple index : co-occurence or Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003) Stage 4 – Measurement of the relations i 10 j 1n ij n ij’ nini 0n i’j n i’j’ n i’ njnj n j’ n

12. Example 1 (inspired form Abric, 2003) Stage 4 – Measurement of the relations Social integration 10 Constraints 1202 0303 505 1 1

13. 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

14. 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 Constraints1 Social integration2 An obligation3 To Finance its leisure activities4 The means to have relations5 The means to earn the keep6 Personal blooming7 Self-confidence8 Example 1 (inspired from Abric, 2003) Stage 4 – From similitude matrix to the structure of the relations between elements of a representation

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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