The Role of Affects in Culture-Based Interventions: Implications for Practice

Abstract

The study aimed to show the relevance of two types of sense-making processes (i.e. cognitive and affective) in culture-based interventions. A hierarchical model based on a psychodynamic theoretical framework was tested. According to this model, a generalized affective meaning connoting the whole field of participants' experience would have a regulative, downward, and causal influence on the specific meanings related to the issues addressed by the intervention. Secondary analyses-namely PLS Path Modeling with higher order constructs-were performed on a dataset resulting from a survey involving three hundred and ninety freshmen enrolled in a psychology course at the University of Salento, Italy. These analyses were aimed at detecting the anticipatory images of the University. Our findings provide evidence supporting the theoretical model proposed. Implications for culture-based interventions are discussed.

Symbolic universes between present and future of Europe. First results of the map of European societies' cultural milieu

“…VOC is the revised version of a family of questionnaires aimed at analysing the cultural milieu in terms of latent dimensions of sensemaking. Previous versions of the questionnaire have been used for the last 20 years with the aim of analysing the cultural milieu characterizing specific domains of activity (school: [ 27 , 28 ]; higher education: [ 17 ]; organizations: [ 29 ]; health: [ 30 ]; local community: [ 31 ]; local development: [ 32 , 33 ]; as well as the cultural frame of the representation of social objects -e.g., the profession of psychologist: [ 25 ]; urban mobility: [ 34 ]; risks in the workplace: [ 35 ]; gambling: [ 26 ]. All these analyses were performed in Italy.…”

The identity of Brexit: A cultural psychology analysis

“…VOC is a 68‐item questionnaire that maps how people represent affect‐laden, significant aspects of their life and context. Previous studies conducted on Italian and English versions of the questionnaire have shown a satisfactory construct validity of the questionnaire (Carli & Salvatore, ; Ciavolino et al, ; Mannarini, Nitti, Ciavolino, & Salvatore, ) as well as a satisfactory level of inner consistency (Alfa value above 0.70, cf. Ciavolino et al, and Supporting Information).…”

“…The questionnaire's items were constructed on the grounds of a methodology integrating psychoanalytic and psycho‐cultural standpoints (Carli & Paniccia, ; Mannarini et al, ; Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, ; Salvatore & Venuleo, ) aimed at detecting the oppositional structures underpinning the modes of interpreting reality. According to this methodology, workable items facilitate the expression of perceptions/opinions/judgments concerning the microsocial and macrosocial environment (e.g., evaluation of the place where the person lives, level of trustworthiness of social structures) and social identity (e.g., moral judgments on critical social behaviours) and in so doing to trigger the activation of generalized meanings (for a discussion, see Ciavolino et al, ).…”

From the manifestations of culture to the underlying sensemaking process. The contribution of semiotic cultural psychology theory to the interpretation of socio‐political scenario

“…For instance, from the affective standpoint, what is beautiful tends to be seen also good and trustable, in spite of the fact that there is no semantic linkage among these three characteristics (Tonti & Salvatore, ) . This does not mean that affective meaning is irrational – rather, it is a‐semantic: it works independently from semantic rules, but however in a systematic way (for a discussion of this point, Salvatore & Zittoun, ; see also Mannarini, Nitti, Ciavolino, & Salvatore, ). This means that people are able of rational thought, though a bounded form of rationality, constrained not only by structural cognitive limits (as recognized by bounded rationality paradigm, Gigerenzer & Todd, ; Kahneman, ), but also by the embeddedness of reasoning in generalized, affect‐laden worldviews (i.e.…”