Adolescents' social representation about political Left- and Right-wing ideologies
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Date
2011
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Видавництво Львівської політехніки
Abstract
In daily discourse people often talk about the ‘left’ and ‘right’ as a potential label of their political identity. Are these names just simple labels or do they have an underlying content? The social representations theory can be a conceptual
framework to examine the core- and peripheral contents of ideologies. A plenty of research have investigated adults’
political views and thoughts, but only a few studies concentrated on teenagers’ opinion and concepts about ideologies. The aim of this paper (as a part of a bigger research) was to reveal adolescents’ social representations of the political Left and Right. Using the Five Words Association Method we attempted to explore the social representation of political Left and Right
among adolescents. 228 high school students participated in the study. Data showed that the core structure of the representation is formed by current political actors, ideologies and symbolic contents, such as colors regardless to the wing. In addition, periphery mostly included actual-political
contents, methods and tools of political activity. An affective evaluation also was characteristic for both sides, however, the
direction varied. Left was associated more often with negative adjectives and deviant behavior. These findings refer to the
importance of historical context.
Description
Keywords
Left-wing, Right-wing, social representation, five words association method, adolescents
Citation
Adolescents' social representation about political Left- and Right-wing ideologies / Ágnes Szabó, Balázs Fehér, Nóra Miklós, Ádám Szabó // Гуманітарні та соціальні науки : матеріали IIІ Міжнародної конференції молодих вчених HSS-2011, 24–26 листопада 2011 року, Львів, Україна / Національний університет "Львівська політехніка". – Львів : Видавництво Львівської політехніки, 2011. – С. 134–137. – (3-й Міжнародний молодіжний фестиваль науки "Litteris et Artibus"). – Bibliography: 7 titles.