The delimitation of groups in the study of social representations: A methodological comparison of representation on Facebook

Résumé 0

An exploratory study was carried out to compare, with the same social objective, the results obtained by two different approaches to the study of social representations, particularly in their conception of consensus: the structural approach and that of organizing principles. The social representation of Facebook was studied with these two approaches on the same participants from a mixed Swiss population ( N = 361) by comparing groups of different sizes or homogeneities. The results show that these characteristics have an impact on the methods proposed by the two approaches, urging us to consider their usual results with caution: the disclosure of the central core is highly dependent on the groups’ size, especially if they are heterogeneous. The organizing principles are not very applicable to small groups, but they capture homogeneous positions within a heterogeneous population. The theoretical and methodological implications are discussed in relation to the potential applications of both approaches.