Irvin Goldman and Marcel Trudel et al. have authored chapters in a Brazilian volume entitled Comunicação, Identidade e Subjetividade. Of the 15 chapters, 3 are in English and 12 in Portuguese.
Goldman, Irvin (2017). Some occasional notes on communication, self and subjectivity. In Gustavo Said & Monalisa Xavier (Organizers), Comunicação, identidade e subjetividade [Communication, identities and subjectivities] (pp. 13-26). Teresina, Brazil: Nova Aliança.
Abstract: Since its inception in the earlier decades of the 20th century, communication research has moved through several phases. Powerful effects models driven by the pessimism of the European mass culture/mass society critique were later replaced by a more optimistic “liberal pluralist”outlook articulated through the lens of American behavioral social science. This chapter addresses the historical trends and movements in communication theory and research that moved from an essentialized subject (positivism) to a framework whereby interpretive and critical models came to valorize a cultural-historical framework. Elaborations are provided pertaining to Stephenson’s Q methodology, including his perspectives on communication theory, most notably the play theory of mass communication (Stephenson, 1967), as well as Stuart Hall’s British cultural studies.
Irvin Goldman <igoldman02> is professor emeritus, University of Windsor, and visiting scholar with the Faculty of Communication and Design, RTA School of Media, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
Trudel, Marcel, Stephanie-M. Fecteau, Manon Boily, & Claire Gauzente (2017). Study on facial attractiveness in the context of hypothetical adoption: The contribution of Q methodology. In Gustavo Said & Monalisa Xavier (Organizers), Comunicação, identidade e subjectividade [Communication, identities and subjectivities] (pp. 37-52). Teresina, Brazil: Nova Aliança.
Abstract: In order to explore the contribution of visual stimuli (e.g., pictures of young children), this study applies Q methodology to observe the emergence of distinct regroupments of people’s representations. Participants (n=280) were subdivided into four P samples comprised primarily of students in a master’s program in education and psychoeducation who were asked to Q sort 34 pictures of young children based on their degree of agreement to adopt them. A second sample (n=34) also completed the Q sort with the directive to distribute the pictures according to an aesthetic criterion: the most beautiful children. In both conditions, the Q-sort arrangement was a quasi-normal distribution with a five-point range. The data were then subjected to by-person factor analysis with varimax rotation. Independent analysis of each of the four samples revealed the presence of three factors. When combined with the aesthetic representations, the findings show that this condition was associated with one factor for each sample in favor of girls. A second cluster of factors across the four samples showed that the aesthetic criterion was less involved in the selection of children. Finally, we identified a cluster associated with more controversial choices by participants strongly influenced by the aesthetic appearance of boys. Discussion focused on the replication of the results among the four samples under study and on the usefulness of external criteria as a way to explore the contribution of cultural variables that may influence subjective representations. In addition, this visualization process may resemble the one favored in the context of international adoption. The study also demonstrates how Q methodology provides a systematic approach for identifying the convergence of representations through the prioritization of visual cues.
Marcel Trudel <marcel.trudel@usherbrooke.ca> is with the Faculté d’éducation (retired), Université de Sherbrooke, Mercier, Quebec, Canada.
You must log in to post a comment.