Social Representations of Responsibility in a Transcultural Comparison

Humberto Emilio Aguilera Arévalo, M.A.

Doctoral thesis

Abstract:

Every day, we hear people using the words responsible or irresponsible in conversations. However, people use them with distinctive meanings. To clarify the meaning, I asked university students from Guatemala and Czech Republic the following question: What does it mean to be responsible or irresponsible? How do I define myself, nationals and foreigners as responsible or irresponsible? We profited from the philosophical approach to the responsibility construct as a virtue, a morally valuable trait, when we praise or criticize someone, and we call him responsible or irresponsible. Nevertheless, this approach has never been tested in social psychology. This research was a descriptive study of objectification using the structural approach of social representations, based on the Geneva school research strand, to obtain with four questionnaires the common structure and variations in the representational field of these constructs. We found that Guatemalan and Czech defined themselves, nationals and foreigners as responsible or irresponsible with desirable or undesirable traits. Furthermore, there were common desirable and undesirable traits in the Guatemalan and Czech definitions of personal responsibility and irresponsibility. Additionally, false consensus was observed when Guatemalan and Czech students defined themselves and their nationals with common desirable and undesirable traits. We suggest that further research is necessary to correlate Guatemalan and Czech desirable and undesirable traits with their norms of responsibility and values.

Keywords

responsible, irresponsible, social representations, Guatemalans, Czechs, cross-cultural

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 19. 6. 2012

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 25. 6. 2012
• Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Mojmír Tyrlík, Ph.D.
• Reader: Mgr. Jan Širůček, Ph.D., prof. PhDr. Jozef Výrost, DrSc.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Doctoral programme / field:
Psychology (4-years) / Social Psychology (Eng.)