عنوان

A sociosemantic analysis of adolescents' self-perception patterns in four secondary schools in Spain

Number

TLets536402

Title Proper

A sociosemantic analysis of adolescents' self-perception patterns in four secondary schools in Spain

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Díaz Martínez, Capitolina

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Institute of Education, University of London

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

1994

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

Institute of Education, University of London

Text preceding or following the note

1994

Text of Note

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.

Culture, Communication and Media

Díaz Martínez, Capitolina

Institute of Education, University of London

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y