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International audienceThis article deals with the methodologies commonly used in the framework of the structural approach to social representations. It concerns free and hierarchical evocations, the characterization questionnaire, the similarity analysis, the basic cognitive schemes model, the attribute-challenge technique and the test of context independence. More than a simple review of these methodologies, it offers a critical approach concerning the problems encountered and related to: thresholds or “cutoff points” used to diagnose the structure (core vs. periphery) and the accuracy of the structural diagnosis, grouping methods employed to reduce the corpus of verbal associations, the dilemma between reliability and feasibility, especially in field research, the adequacy and number of modalities of response in the framework of the structural diagnosis. Following this evaluation, this article suggests potential solutions to overcome these methodological limitations. Moreover, as methodological issues are closely related to theoretical questions, the link between social representation theory and identity approaches is discussed

Résumé Les deux recherches présentées se situent dans la perspective structurale des représentations sociales. Des travaux ultérieurs ont aboutis à la conclusion selon laquelle les éléments centraux sont « normatifs » (exprimant ce que doit être l’objet) plutôt qu’« inconditionnels » (exprimant ce qu’il est de façon certaine). Dans une première expérience, on montre que les éléments centraux Prioritaires sont inconditionnels alors que les centraux Adjoints sont normatifs. Ensuite, une seconde expérience valide l’hypothèse suivante : au sein du système périphérique les éléments de nature normative sont plus importants que les éléments de nature conditionnelle. Les conséquences théoriques et méthodologiques de ces résultats sont discutées. Il est en particulier mis en avant la nécessité d’étudier les représentations sociales comme des systèmes de catégorisation normativement ancrés.

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The present article aims to show that collective memories could serve as a criterion in social categorization. We predicted that a target person who shares common collective memories will be perceived as similar (to the self), relatively more favorably and categorized as an ingroup member. We conducted four studies using memories of historical events or childhood objects. These studies consistently showed that a target who shares common memories is more likely to be perceived as an ingroup member than someone who does not. This effect is mediated by perceived similarity to the self. Finally, individuals who share common memories are perceived more favorably than when they do not. However, according to the type of collective memories (historical events vs. childhood memories) sharing memories impacts either perceived competence or perceived warmth. The current sets of studies support the idea that collective memory influences social categorization processes, exemplifying its group identity-defining function.