The Structure and Content of Social Representations of Lawyers, Psychologists and Journalists about Mentally Ill People

766

Abstract

the various professional groups of young people. This study involved 60 people aged 20 to 30 years (50% of respondents were girls, 50% were boys), specializing in psychology, law and journalism. We used semi-structured interview, associative method with elements of ranking and emotional attitude, and drawing techniques. We tested the following hypotheses: 1) the social representations of the mentally ill people contain elements with negative valence in all investigated occupational groups of young people; 2) social representations of the mentally ill people are based on such constructs as "otherness"; treatment (hospital, pills, experts); disease (synonyms, names of diseases, symptoms); the attitude of society; 3) social representations of the mentally ill people of lawyers and journalists are simpler and more consistent than those of psychologists. These hypotheses were supported by the empirical results.

General Information

Keywords: social representations, mentally ill people, structure of social representations, professional social representations

Journal rubric: Psychology of Professional Activity

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/psyedu.2015070211

For citation: Yakushenko A.V. The Structure and Content of Social Representations of Lawyers, Psychologists and Journalists about Mentally Ill People [Elektronnyi resurs]. Psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie psyedu.ru [Psychological Science and Education psyedu.ru], 2015. Vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 122–133. DOI: 10.17759/psyedu.2015070211. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

References

  1. Bovina I.B. Sotsial'naya psikhologiya zdorov'ya i bolezni  [Social psychology of health and disease]. 2 publ., ispr. I dop. Moscow: Aspekt Press, 2008, 263 p.   
  2. Bol'shoi meditsinskii slovar' [Elektronnyi resurs] [large medical dictionary] Neadekvatnost', 2000. Available at: http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/medic2/29580/ (Accessed 19.09.2014).   
  3. Bol'shoi Entsiklopedicheskii slovar' [Elektronnyi resurs][Great Encyclopedic dictionary]. Available at: http://www.vedu.ru/bigencdic/ (Accessed 02.09.2014). 
  4. Dontsov A.I., Emel'yanova T.P. Kontseptsiya sotsial'nykh predstavlenii v sovremennoi frantsuzskoi psikhologii [The concept of social representations in contemporary French psychology]. Moscow: MGU, 1987, 127 p.
  5. Emel'yanova T.P. Kollektivnaya pamyat' s pozitsii konstruktsionizma [Collective memory from the perspective of constructionism]. In Zhuravlev A.L. (eds.) Mezhdistsiplinarnye issledovaniya pamyati [Interdisciplinary memory research]. Moscow: Publ. «Institut psikhologii RAN», 2009, pp. 17–32.
  6. Yakushenko A.V. Sotsial'nye predstavleniya o prestupnike i prestuplenii v razlichnykh gruppakh studencheskoi molodezhi [Social representations of the offender and the offence in different groups of students]. Sbornik tezisov uchastnikov Odinadzatoi Mezhvuzovskoi nauchno-prakticheskaoi konferentsii s mezhdunarodnym uchastiem «Molodye uchenye – nashei novoi shkole» (Moskva, 19 apreliya 2012 g.) [Abstracts of the participants of the Eleventh Interuniversity scientific-practical conference with international participation “Young scientists for our new school”]. Moscow, 2012, pp. 319–320.
  7. Yakushenko A.V. Spetsifika sotsial'nykh predstavlenii o sumasshestvii i psikhicheskoi bolezni [Elektronnyi resurs][The specificity of social representations of madness and mental illness]. Sbornik tezisov uchastnikov mezhvuzovskoi nauchno-prakticheskoi internet-konferentsii po yuridicheskoi psikhologii [Abstracts of the participants interuniversity scientific-practical Internet-conference on legal psychology]. Moscow: MGPPU, 2013. Available at: http://jp.mgppu.ru/forum/index.php?Topic=71.msg212#msg212/ (Accessed 02.09.2014).   
  8. Yastrebov V.S., Trushchelev S.A. Sotsial'nye obrazy psikhiatrii  [Social images of psychiatry]. Zhurnal nevrologii i psikhiatrii [Journal of neurology and psychiatry], 2009, no 6, pp. 65–69.
  9. De Rosa A.M. Sur l’usage des associations libres dans l’etude des representations sociales de la maladie mentale [On the use of free associations in the study of the social representations of mental illness]. Connexions, 1988. Vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 27–51.
  10. Galand Ch., Sales-Wuillemin E. Effet des pratiques et de l’environnement social sur la representation des substances psychoactives [Effect of the practices and of the social environment on the representation of psychoactive substances]. Cahiers internacionaux de Psychologie Sociale, 2009, pp. 125–152.

Information About the Authors

Anna V. Yakushenko, postgraduate student, Department of Clinical and Legal Psychology, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: yakushenko-anna@yandex.ru

Metrics

Views

Total: 2227
Previous month: 8
Current month: 1

Downloads

Total: 766
Previous month: 1
Current month: 0