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

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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.
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