Social Representations as Cognitive-Emotional Processes: Examining Individual Tensions

Résumé

We tested key predictions of a recent theoretical model positing social representations (SRs) as cognitive-emotional processes. The study aims to investigate how emotional experience initiates the dynamics of an SR object, paying particular attention to the role of tension in these dynamics. This attempt seems crucial as SRs are essential to the construction of social knowledge. The study of the impact of emotional experience on the dynamics of SRs could thus be a way to provide some support to the original assumption in Social Representations Theory (SRT) that SRs are dynamic objects of social change. One hundred and thirty management students had to recall highly positive and negative emotions immediately after participating in a three-day teamwork situation. Having previously identified students’ (gendered) SRs of teamwork, the study examines individual tensions following emotional experience, i.e. the cognitive impact of the nature (positive or negative) of emotion on the clarification of the SR object. Highlighting the fundamental role of the meaning-generative function of SRs, the results showed variation in SRs dynamics of teamwork depending on the valence of emotion, the status of SR components, and gender as a sociocultural variable. We interpret gender variations in SR dynamics of teamwork following emotional experience as reflecting social positioning vis-à-vis a shared cultural reality. Our findings are discussed considering the support they offer to the model, how the nature of emotions can produce contrasting SRs dynamics and suggested theoretical implications about the place that should be given to emotions in SRT.