Social Representations and the Development of Knowledge

Description

This book raises for the first time developmental issues in relation to the theory of social representations, which Moscovici introduced to account for the influence of social life on psychological processes. He describes a society's values, ideas, beliefs and practices as social representations which function both as rule systems structuring social life and as codes facilitating communication. The editors' introduction identifies the need to expand the theory of social representations to consider developmental changes in social beliefs, in individual understanding, and in the process of communication. Individual chapters examine aspects of such processes in the domains of nursery-school life, of gender, of social divisions in society, of images of childhood, of emotion, of intelligence and of psychology. In the final chapter Moscovici considers the contribution which these developmental perspectives make to the theory. The book will interest specialists and students in the human and social sciences, including developmental and social psychology, sociology, and communication studies.

"...a useful introduction to social representations theory as well as to its abuses, possible limitations, and promise." Contemporary Sociology "...deserves serious reading by all psychologists interested in culture and cognition, in social cognition, or in the blending of developmental with social psychology." Jacqueline J. Goodnow, Contemporary Psychology "...I found this book most rewarding. I would now hope for more. This major beginning, however, is marked by a range and a degree of novelty that are unusual, and the book deserves serious reading by all psychologists interested in the course of development and in its social bases." Jacqueline J. Goodnow, Human Development