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Social Representations and Health PsychologyDepartment of Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK. h.joffe{at}ucl.ac.uk The author examines the specific contribution that social representations research has made to health psychology. In particular, the approach highlights the symbolic, emotive and social aspects of how lay people make meaning of facets of health and illness, and emphasizes the importance of the evolution of these meanings. Empirical work on health and illness is used to cast light on the specific workings of social representations and on the enrichment of the health field offered by this naturalistic perspective. Distinctions are drawn between the social representations approach and other social constructionist approaches in the health field. In addition, the differentiation between social representations and more mainstream approaches to health issues is examined. Primarily, the social representations approach eschews the notion of human thought as analogous to information processing, with the attendant individualist, cognitivist and rationalist assumptions, and recognizes the importance of non-verbal material in the study of the human psyche.
Key Words: Emotions • Meanings of health/illness • Stigma • Symbols
Social Science Information, Vol. 41, No. 4,
559-580 (2002) This article has been cited by other articles:
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