DOCSLIB.ORG

A SOCIOSEMANTIC ANALYSIS of Adolescents' Self-Perception Patterns in Four Secondary Schools in Spain

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A SOCIOSEMANTIC ANALYSIS of Adolescents' Self-Perception Patterns in Four Secondary Schools in Spain A SOCIOSEMANTIC ANALYSIS of adolescents' self-perception patterns in four secondary schools in Spain. Capitolina Diaz Martinez Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of London Institute of Education 1994 For my parents I Contents Abstract 1 Acknowlegments 2 List of Tables. VI List of Figures. VI Introduction 3 Chapter 1. Socio-Educational Motivation as an Alternative between Compensatory Philosophy and Cultural Determinism. 9 1.1. Universal education 10 1.2. The 'cultural deprivation' approach 12 1.3. The relativistic and 'reproduction' approaches. 16 1.4. The risk of cultural fatalism 19 1.5. Culture and the individual. 21 1.6. The cultural self-development approach. 23 1.7. The concept of socio-educational motivation 74 Notes to Chapter 1. 16 Chapter 2. Theoretical Background of the Research. 29 2.0. Introduction 2.1. The concept of system 30 2.1.1. The concept of system in social sciences ... 31 2.1.2. Advantages and disadvantages of the use of systemic concepts in social sciences. 32 2.1.3. New departures in systemic social thinking. 33 2.1.4. Natural and artificial systems 35 2.1.5. A revised, provisional definition of system, adequate to the study of social entities 36 2.2. Classical and non classical systems. 37 2.3. Organizationally closed systems 43 II 2.4 Action systems as organizationally closed systems. 48 2.5. Meaning in organizationally closed systems. 52 2.6. Informationally open systems. 54 2.7. Reflectivity 61 2.8. Communication. 63 2.9. Complexity. 66 2.10. Parts and totalities. 69 Notes to Chapter 2. 73 Capter 3. The Concept of Self-Perception Systems 85 3.0. Introduction 85 3.1. Some Concepts Related to the Idea of Self-Perception System. 86 3.2. The notion of self-perception system 93 3.3. Self-perception systems as non-trivial machines. 100 3.4. Human consciousness. 104 3.5. Social Individuals as Social Systems. 105 3.6. Social Individuals as Autonomous Social Systems 110 3.7. Self-Perception Systems and Norms. 113 3.8. Social Individuals as Producers of Social Novelty and Change.116 3.9. Self-Perception Patterns. 118 3.10. Self-Expression as a Way of Access to Self-Perception. 120 Notes to Chapter 3. 122 Chapter 4. Description of the Empirical Part of the Research. 126 4.1. The subjects of the research: Adolescents in a decisive period. 126 4.2. The research stages. 129 4.3. The subjects and the data of the research 129 4.4. The use of essays as an instrument of research. 130 4.4.1. The use of essays to elicit information. 130 4.4.2. Essays/Discussion groups/Questionnaires: A Comparative view. 132 III 4.5. Conceptual and Attitudinal Content Analysis. 136 4.6. Epistemological problems posed by the essays technique. 138 4.6.1 Content Analysis and Intuitive Analysis. 138 4.6.2. The Problem of Homogeneity. 139 4.6.3 The Problem of Relevance. 141 4.6.4. The Problem of Reliability. 142 4.6.5. Open and Synergetic, versus closed and analytic meaning. 143 4.7. Methodological problems of the Essays Technique. 143 4.7.1. Linguistic and Conceptual Approaches. 144 4.7.2. The Reading of the Texts. 146 4.7.3. From Expressions to Concepts. 147 4.7.3.1. Identification of Conceptual Expressions. 148 4.7.3.2. Identification of significant words. 149 4.7.3.3 Identification of significant clauses . 151 4.7.3.4. The relationship between Concepts and Attitudes 151 4.7.3.5. Constructing a list of concepts from a list of clauses 152 4.7.4. From concepts to categories. 153 4.8. Examples of conceptual homologation. 157 4.9. Reduction and Assimilation 174 Notes to Chapter 4. 179 Chapter S. Sociosemantic Analysis of the Data. 182 5.1. The Concept of Sociosemantic Analysis 182 5.2. Mathematical processing of the data 192 5.3. Interpretation of the sociosemantic plots. 197 5.3.1 Interpretation of the configurations generated through ALSCAL 198 5.3.1.1 The patterning of the configuration 200 5.3.1.2. Interpretation of the main axes. 202 5.3.1.2.1. The horizontal axis 204 5.3.1.2.2. The vertical axis. 207 IV 5.3.1.3. Sociosemantic distances in the plot 209 5.3.1.4. Self-perception patterns in the category plot 212 5.3.2. Interpretation of the plot of individuals. 217 5.3.2.1 The patterning of the configuration of the individuals' plot 219 5.3.2.2. Interpretation of the configuration according to the individuals' list of concepts. 220 5.3.2.3 Interpretation of the configuration according to backgrounds of the students. 227 5.3.2.4. Gender in the plot. 232 5.3.2.5. Distribution of self-perception patterns in the plot 234 5.4. Social-class in the category plot. 237 5.4.1. Self-perception Patterns and Social Backgrounds. 238 5.4.2. Students' social background. 243 5.4.3. Parental occupations 244 Notes to Chapter 5. 249 Chapter 6. Interpretive Analysis. 251 6.1. A General view of the three Self-perception Patterns. 252 6.2. A Comparative Analysis of Several Related Studies. 258 6.3. The hermeneutic circle: concrete and abstract levels of interpretation. 259 6.4. The Professional Pattern 264 6.4.1 Towards profession through academic achievement. 265 6.4.2. The invisibility of the family. 266 6.4.3. Yuppie Subpattern. 267 6.4.4. Progressive Subpattern. 268 6.4.5. Friends, marriage and divorce. 270 6.4.6. Money and consumerism. 272 6.4.7. Free time and hobbies. 272 6.4.8. Positive and active old age. 274 6.4.9 Control of action by goals. 275 6.5. The Family Pattern 277 V 6.5.1. Belonging to a Family. 277 6.5.2. Being a housewife 279 6.5.3. Marriage is boring but I'll marry 280 6.5.4. School, leaving or staying? 281 6.5.5. Money by gambling and making own's will 282 6.5.6. Free Time. 283 6.5.7. Negative and passive old age 284 6.5.8. Control of action by maxims. 285 6.6. The Dual or Conflictive Pattern 287 6.6.1. Solution of the conflict by compromise. 289 6.6.2. Solution of the conflict by postponement. 290 6.6.3. The inconsistent solution 291 6.6.4. No boys in a dual position 292 6.6.5. The dual pattern as a pattern between two extremes. 293 Notes to Chapter 6. 295 Conclusions. 297 0. Introduction 297 1. The Problem 298 2. The conceptual framework. 300 3. The heuristic model 301 4. The methodology. 302 5. Patterns of self-perception 304 5.1 The profession oriented pattern. 305 5.2. The family oriented pattern. 306 5.3. The dual pattern. 307 5.4. The two basic sociosemantic dimensions. 308 6. Gender and self-perception patterns. 308 7. Self-perception patterns and social class 309 8. Final reflections and suggestions for further research. 310 Bibliography 313 VI LIST OF TABLES Table I. 244 Table II. 245 Table III. 246 Table IV. 247 Table V 248 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. 199 Figure 2. 201 Figure 3. 203 Figure 4. 210 Figure 5. 213 Figure 6. 215 Figure 7. 218 Figure 8. 221 Figure 9. 228 Figure 10 231 Figure 11 233 1 The research focuses on the analysis of the self-perception patterns present among Spanish adolescents. The investigation of this topic is carried out by means of the development of a methodology adequate to deal with the shortcomings of existing approaches. The theoretic approach consists in the consideration of those adolescents —thirteen and fourteen years old students— as autonomous social agents who define their own personal strategies in a dynamic of interactions with their environment. This view of students as autonomous social agents is refined through the concept of a self-perception system which draws on some basic notions of systems thinking and cybernetics. Some self-perception systems show similarities which indicate the presence of distinct self-perception patterns. The detection and characterization of those patterns is the main aim of this research. The empirical basis of the research is provided by essays written by 116 students belonging to four state schools in Madrid. Those schools are located in four different socio-economic areas of that city. The common topic of the essays was "How do you see your life as a youngster, as a middle age person and as an elderly person?". The analysis of the conceptual content of those essays produces the specific concepts used by each individual. These data are then processed by means of a methodology called socio-semantic analysis, which combines Q-analysis and Multidimensional Scaling. The outcome of this methodology is a set of socio-semantic maps in which concepts and individuals appear located according to their socio-semantic distances. The interpretation of those maps allows for abstract different patterns of self-perception in the sample: profession centred pattern, a family centred pattern and a dual or conflictive pattern, which is characteristic of some girls. The sociological significance of the notion of self-perception patterns stems from the fact that the considerations of the specific patterns that are at work in a given social environment —in this case an educational environment— may be instrumental in explaining the behaviour of the agents acting within those environments. 2 I am much indebted to my supervisor Charles Posner for his continuous support, intellectual advise, and his patience with my English.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Reading the World, Writing the Mind: Ideology, Morphogenesis, Revolution
    READING THE WORLD, WRITING THE MIND: IDEOLOGY, MORPHOGENESIS, REVOLUTION by Philip Edmond Olsen A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Wilkes Honors College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences with a Concentration in Philosophy Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University Jupiter, Florida May 2014 READING THE WORLD, WRITING THE MIND: IDEOLOGY, MORPHOGENESIS, REVOLUTION by Philip Edmond Olsen This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate’s thesis advisor, Dr. Daniel White, and has been approved by the members of her/his supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of The Honors College and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ____________________________ Dr. Daniel White ____________________________ Dr. Michael Harrawood ______________________________ Dean Jeffrey Buller, Wilkes Honors College ___________ Date ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Daniel White, for his insight, conversation, and encouragement. I would also like to thank Dr. Michael Harrawood for giving me a lot of books and talking about philosophy with me. Finally, I would like to thank Calvin Bankert, John Carney, Alexa Robinson, Janeen Smith, and Daniel Zengotita for talking to me about things. It all helped. iii ABSTRACT Author: Philip Edmond Olsen Title: Reading the World, Writing the Mind: Ideology, Morphogenesis, Revolution Institution: Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Daniel White Degree: Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences Concentration: Philosophy Year: 2014 In the 1960s, the French Communist thinker Louis Althusser undertook to reorient capitalistic societies toward realizing socialist ideals.
    [Show full text]
  • Terms for Talking About Information and Communication
    Information 2012, 3, 351-371; doi:10.3390/info3030351 OPEN ACCESS information ISSN 2078-2489 www.mdpi.com/journal/information Concept Paper Terms for Talking about Information and Communication Corey Anton School of Communications, Grand Valley State University, 210 Lake Superior Hall, Allendale, MI 49401, USA; E-Mail: [email protected]; Tel.: +1-616-331-3668; Fax: +1-616-331-2700 Received: 4 June 2012; in revised form: 17 August 2012 / Accepted: 20 August 2012 / Published: 27 August 2012 Abstract: This paper offers terms for talking about information and how it relates to both matter-energy and communication, by: (1) Identifying three different levels of signs: Index, based in contiguity, icon, based in similarity, and symbol, based in convention; (2) examining three kinds of coding: Analogic differences, which deal with positive quantities having contiguous and continuous values, and digital distinctions, which include “either/or functions”, discrete values, and capacities for negation, decontextualization, and abstract concept-transfer, and finally, iconic coding, which incorporates both analogic differences and digital distinctions; and (3) differentiating between “information theoretic” orientations (which deal with data, what is “given as meaningful” according to selections and combinations within “contexts of choice”) and “communication theoretic” ones (which deal with capta, what is “taken as meaningful” according to various “choices of context”). Finally, a brief envoi reflects on how information broadly construed relates to probability and entropy. Keywords: sign; index; icon; symbol; coding; context; information; communication “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple.
    [Show full text]
  • Critical Multiculturalism in the Classroom: from Theory to Practice
    UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-1998 Critical multiculturalism in the classroom: From theory to practice Denise Michelle Dalaimo University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Dalaimo, Denise Michelle, "Critical multiculturalism in the classroom: From theory to practice" (1998). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 3065. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/puxi-p9md This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy subm itted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted.
    [Show full text]
  • Allison Davis and the Historical Development of His Sociological Concepts: "Cultural Deprivation" and Compensatory Education", 1925-1983
    Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1996 Allison Davis and the Historical Development of His Sociological Concepts: "Cultural Deprivation" and Compensatory Education", 1925-1983 Andrea Marie Macaluso Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Educational Leadership Commons Recommended Citation Macaluso, Andrea Marie, "Allison Davis and the Historical Development of His Sociological Concepts: "Cultural Deprivation" and Compensatory Education", 1925-1983" (1996). Dissertations. 3610. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/3610 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1996 Andrea Marie Macaluso LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO ALLISON DAVIS AND THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF HIS SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS: "CULTURAL DEPRIVATION" AND COMPENSATORY EDUCATION", 1925-1983 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND POLICY STUDIES BY ANDREA MARIE MACALUSO CHICAGO, ILLINOIS MAY 1996 Copyright by Andrea Marie Macaluso, 1996 All rights reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is with sincere appreciation and gratitude that I acknowledge the efforts of the members of this dissertation committee. Their instruction and guidance lent insight to my research and writing. Their own accomplishments lent inspiration to my studies. Co-Directors Dr. Gerald L. Gutek, Dr. Steven I. Miller both contributed greatly to this dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • The Myth of Cultural Deprivation, Or a Case for Cultural Pluralism
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1973 The ym th of cultural deprivation, or a case for cultural pluralism. Barbara Lazarus Wilson University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Wilson, Barbara Lazarus, "The ym th of cultural deprivation, or a case for cultural pluralism." (1973). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 2751. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/2751 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE MYTH OP CULTURAL DEPRIVATION OR, A CASE FOR CULTURAL PLURALISM A Dissertation Presented By BARBARA LAZARUS WILSON Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OP EDUCATION Major Subject Education (c) Barbara Lazarus Wilson 1973 All Rights Reserved THE MYTH OF CULTURAL DEPRIVATION, OR, A CASE FOR CULTURAL PLURALISM A Dissertation By BARBARA LAZARUS WILSON Approved as to style and content by: Dr, Emma CappellUzzo^ Chairman of Committee C/V . , / ft- Dr. Glenn Hawke s. Member / f /) ' ( t -• iU. iX / May, 1973 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With the hope that an "acknowledgement” is foremost an expression of gratitude, I would like to acknowledge in chronological order those people who have helped me with the ideas expressed here, and have given me the insight and confidence to write my dissertation: Thomas Wilson, J.
    [Show full text]
  • The Implication of Cultural Diversity in American Schools
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Professional and Organizational Development To Improve the Academy Network in Higher Education 1994 The Implication of Cultural Diversity in American Schools Johnson A. Afolayan Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/podimproveacad Part of the Higher Education Administration Commons Afolayan, Johnson A., "The Implication of Cultural Diversity in American Schools" (1994). To Improve the Academy. 299. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/podimproveacad/299 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in To Improve the Academy by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. The Implication of Cultural Diversity in American Schools Johnson A. Afolayan Moorhead State University The purpose ofthis article is to analyze the major factors respon­ sible for the cultural diversity in America and their implications for professional educators. These factors include immigration, communi­ cation, linguistic diversity, cultural values, and desegregation. While some educators look to the demographics of the new student popula­ tion, others consider historical clues as a method of understanding American diversity. Statistics about school achievement and dropout and graduation rates show the disparity among the ethnic groups. The new immigrants and ethnic groups may experience conflict as a result of cultural attitudes of teachers and peers. Individuals cannot be understood unless they are seen against the cultural history from which they have come and in terms of the situation in which they currently live. Because of the diversity in the American population, educators need to be sensitive to the cultural elements that may affect students' performance and self-esteem.
    [Show full text]
  • Teachers and Multiculturalism in Turkey
    Teachers and Multiculturalism in Turkey: An Evaluation of the Competency Perceptions of Teachers Regarding Multiculturalism and their Reflection of These Perceptions to the Classroomi Gülay Aslan Gaziosmanpaşa University, Tokat, Turkey Abstract This study, aiming to determine the competency perceptions of teachers regarding multiculturalism of teachers working at the secondary schools in Tokat province, Turkey, employed a descriptive survey model. The study population was 341 teachers working at secondary education institutions in Tokat province in the 2014-2015 school year. Data was collected using a questionnaire consisting of seven questions to collect personal information, the “Multicultural Competency Perceptions Scale” developed by Başkaya & Kağnıcı (2011), and an open-ended question. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS 20 program, and qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis technique. From the analyses, the scores regarding the multiculturalism competency perceptions of teachers were found to be positive and above the mean score. While the multiculturalism competency perceptions of teachers did not differentiate according to gender, workplace, faculty of graduation, age, or seniority, they differed according to the residential area, and subject. The findings obtained through the qualitative data showed that although teachers had positive perception of their competency regarding multiculturalism, this was not reflected to any great extent in the classroom. Keywords: multiculturalism, multicultural education, teacher education, Turkey 361 | P a g e Teachers and Multiculturalism in Turkey 1. Introduction Culture can be defined as the sum of organized customs, ideas, and beliefs that forms the roles determining the expected behaviors of a society (Duverger, 2004), or the traditional values and beliefs that ethnic, religious, and social groups transmit without any change through one generation to the next (Guiso, Sapienza & Zingales, 2006).
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Systems Theory?
    What is Systems Theory? Systems theory is an interdisciplinary theory about the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science, and is a framework by which one can investigate and/or describe any group of objects that work together to produce some result. This could be a single organism, any organization or society, or any electro-mechanical or informational artifact. As a technical and general academic area of study it predominantly refers to the science of systems that resulted from Bertalanffy's General System Theory (GST), among others, in initiating what became a project of systems research and practice. Systems theoretical approaches were later appropriated in other fields, such as in the structural functionalist sociology of Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann . Contents - 1 Overview - 2 History - 3 Developments in system theories - 3.1 General systems research and systems inquiry - 3.2 Cybernetics - 3.3 Complex adaptive systems - 4 Applications of system theories - 4.1 Living systems theory - 4.2 Organizational theory - 4.3 Software and computing - 4.4 Sociology and Sociocybernetics - 4.5 System dynamics - 4.6 Systems engineering - 4.7 Systems psychology - 5 See also - 6 References - 7 Further reading - 8 External links - 9 Organisations // Overview 1 / 20 What is Systems Theory? Margaret Mead was an influential figure in systems theory. Contemporary ideas from systems theory have grown with diversified areas, exemplified by the work of Béla H. Bánáthy, ecological systems with Howard T. Odum, Eugene Odum and Fritj of Capra , organizational theory and management with individuals such as Peter Senge , interdisciplinary study with areas like Human Resource Development from the work of Richard A.
    [Show full text]
  • We Are the Horses: Identity Work in the Southeastern Missouri Ozarks
    We Are the Horses: Identity Work in the Southeastern Missouri Ozarks By Kelly Fish-Greenlee Submitted to the Department of Anthropology and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _____________________________ Chairperson Committee members* _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ Date Defended: _______________ The Dissertation Committee for Kelly Fish-Greenlee certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: We Are the Horses: Identity Work in the Southeastern Missouri Ozarks Committee: _____________________________ Chairperson _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ Date Approved: _______________ ii ABSTRACT Kelly Fish-Greenlee, Ph. D Department of Anthropology, May 2009 In the face of extreme conditions such as a natural disaster, social upheaval and forced relocation, how do populations maintain cultural continuity with identity and tradition? This dissertation considers a specific community’s response at the end of the 20 th and early 21 st centuries to government appropriation of traditional territory and forced relocation. The residents of Carter and Shannon Counties in Missouri, forced to abandon and change their long- time relationship to the land, were faced with the task of maintaining their identity after the 1964 establishment of the Ozark National Scenic
    [Show full text]
  • Mediated Learning Experience and Cultural Diversity
    Mediated Learning Experience and Cultural Diversity Alex Kozulin ICELP, Jerusalem, Israel The problem of immigrant and ethnic minority students’ cognitive and problem-solving skills has both theoretical and practical significance. As a theoretical problem it poses a question of cross-cultural differences in cognition and their influences on education. As a practical problem it emerges each time the teacher enters a culturally heterogeneous classroom with the aim of providing students with skills necessary for successful formal education. Cross-cultural differences in cognition There are several alternative approaches to the problem of cross-cultural differences in cognition. Some of them are based on the belief in the basic uniformity of human cognition with differences explained as quantitative in nature, other emphasize the formative influence of culture leading to the heterogeneity of cognitive performances and styles. First, let us consider what can be called a psychometric model of ethnic differences in cognition. The model originates in the nineteenth century idea of the evolutionary development of cognition in different ethnic groups. Within this model human cognition is perceived as basically uniform, although its development and progress occurred unevenly in different ethnic groups. Culture as such does not play an important role within this model being perceived as an aggregate of individual cognitive efforts. The most recent revival of this model cast in psychometric terms was undertaken by Herrnstein and Murrey (1994) in their popular The Bell Curve. Herrnstein and Murrey took for granted the basic uniformity of human cognition and the feasibility of assessing it with the help of standard psychometric IQ tests.
    [Show full text]
  • The Unfinished Project of Theoretical Biology from a Schellingian Perspective
    Swinburne Research Bank http://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au Author: Gare, A. Title: Overcoming the Newtonian paradigm: the unfinished project of theoretical biology from a Schellingian perspective Year: 2013 Journal: Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology Volume: 113 Issue: 1 Pages: 5-24 URL: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2013.03.002 Copyright: Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. This is the author’s version of the work, posted here with the permission of the publisher for your personal use. No further distribution is permitted. You may also be able to access the published version from your library. The definitive version is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/ Swinburne University of Technology | CRICOS Provider 00111D | swinburne.edu.au Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1 Overcoming the Newtonian paradigm: The unfinished project of theoretical biology from a Schellingian perspective Arran Gare* Philosophy, Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia Keywords: Reductionism; Emergence; Epigenesis; Biosemiotics; Relational biology; Teleology; Biomathics ABSTRACT: Defending Robert Rosen’s claim that in every confrontation between physics and biology it is physics that has always had to give ground, it is shown that many of the most important advances in mathematics and physics over the last two centuries have followed from Schelling’s demand for a new physics that could make the emergence of life intelligible. Consequently, while reductionism prevails in biology, many biophysicists are resolutely anti-reductionist. This history is used to identify and defend a fragmented but progressive tradition of anti-reductionist biomathematics. It is shown that the mathematico-physico-chemico morphology research program, the biosemiotics movement, and the relational biology of Rosen, although they have developed independently of each other, are built on and advance this anti-reductionist tradition of thought.
    [Show full text]
  • ED 355 570 ABSTRACT Most of What Communication Scholars Theorize
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 355 570 CS 508 098 AUTHOR Lanigan, Richard L. TITLE Roman Jakobson's Semiotic Theory of Communication. [Revised.] PUB DATE 19 Nov 91 NOTE 10p.; Revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association (77th, Atlanta, GA, October 31-November 3, 1991). PUB TYPE Speeches/Conference Papers (150) Viewpoints (Opinion/Position Papers, Essays, etc.) (120) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PCO1 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Communication (Thought Transfer); Information Theory; *Language Role; Models; *Semiotics IDENTIFIERS Discourse; *Jakobson (Roman) ABSTRACT For most of the 20th century, Roman Jakobson's name will have been synonymous with the definition of communication as a human science, i.e., communicology. Jakobson is the modern sourceof most of what communication scholars theorize about andpractice as human communication, and he will be the source of howcommunication scholars shall come to understand communication in the future asthe theoretical and applied use of semiotic principles of epistemology. Roman Jakobson alone offers a theory of communication(derived from Jakobson's immediate correction in 1950, on linguistic and semiotic grounds, of an ill-fated information theory) groundedin the study of human language as Aristotle's trivium of an integratedpractice of thought, speech, and inscription, i.e., logic, rhetoric,and grammar, all of which are explicated by a semiotic understandingof what it means to be human. Analysis ofJakobson's model of communication indicates that it is inherently semiotic in origin, rather than linguistic as he himself believed. (A figure representing aspectsof communication theory and information theory is attached.)(RS) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
    [Show full text]