Embracing Change Knowledge Continuity and Social Representations Alberta Contarello Editor Full Chapter PDF

Embracing Change: Knowledge,
Continuity, and Social Representations

Alberta Contarello (Editor)
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/embracing-change-knowledge-continuity-and-social-r
epresentations-alberta-contarello-editor/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...
Social Theory: Continuity and Confrontation: A Reader,

Third Edition 3rd Edition, (Ebook PDF)
https://ebookmass.com/product/social-theory-continuity-and-
confrontation-a-reader-third-edition-3rd-edition-ebook-pdf/
(eBook PDF) Working in America: Continuity, Conflict,

and Change in a New Economic Era 4th Edition
https://ebookmass.com/product/ebook-pdf-working-in-america-
continuity-conflict-and-change-in-a-new-economic-era-4th-edition/
Beyond the Knowledge Crisis: A Synthesis Framework for

Socio-Environmental Studies and Guide to Social Change
1st ed. Edition Debbie Kasper
https://ebookmass.com/product/beyond-the-knowledge-crisis-a-
synthesis-framework-for-socio-environmental-studies-and-guide-to-
social-change-1st-ed-edition-debbie-kasper/
Expressive Arts for Social Work and Social Change 1st

Edition Tuula Heinonen
https://ebookmass.com/product/expressive-arts-for-social-work-
and-social-change-1st-edition-tuula-heinonen/
The Reign of Constantine, 306–337: Continuity and
Change in the Late Roman Empire 1st Edition Stanislav
Doležal
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-reign-of-
constantine-306-337-continuity-and-change-in-the-late-roman-
empire-1st-edition-stanislav-dolezal/
(eTextbook PDF) for Education and Social Change 5th

Edition
https://ebookmass.com/product/etextbook-pdf-for-education-and-
social-change-5th-edition/
(eTextbook PDF) for Global Climate Change: Turning

Knowledge Into Action
https://ebookmass.com/product/etextbook-pdf-for-global-climate-
change-turning-knowledge-into-action/
Economies of Literature and Knowledge in Early Modern

Europe: Change and Exchange Subha Mukherji
https://ebookmass.com/product/economies-of-literature-and-
knowledge-in-early-modern-europe-change-and-exchange-subha-
mukherji/
Embracing The Demon Celeste King
https://ebookmass.com/product/embracing-the-demon-celeste-king/
Embracing Change
Embracing Change
Knowledge, Continuity, and
Social Representations
Edited by
A L B E RTA C O N TA R E L L O
1
3
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form

and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Contarello, Alberta, author.
Title: Embracing change : knowledge, continuity, and social representations /Alberta Contarello.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2022] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021034879 (print) | LCCN 2021034880 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780197617366 (hardback) | ISBN 9780197617380 (epub) |
ISBN 9780197617397
Subjects: LCSH: Social change. | Change (Psychology)
Classification: LCC HM831 .C658 2021 (print) | LCC HM831 (ebook) |
DDC 303.4—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021034879
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021034880
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197617366.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Integrated Books International, United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Contributors ix
PA RT I E N T E R I N G T H E F I E L D
Introduction: Why a Social Representations Perspective?
“Le Regard Psychosocial” for the Study of Change and
Continuity in the Field of Social Psychology 3
Alberta Contarello
1. Change Seen Through the Lens of Social Psychology in Europe
and the United States: Close and Distant Reading of Reference
Books and Papers Published in Two Key Journals 24
Valentina Rizzoli, Arjuna Tuzzi, and Alberta Contarello
PA RT I I T H E P R I M AC Y O F R E L AT IO N SH I P S
2. Stability and Change in Everyday Knowledge: From Taken for
Granted to Social Representation: The Case of Normality 59
Francesca Emiliani
3. Social Representations in the Classroom: The Experience of
Social Inequalities in Teacher–Student Relations 79
Giovanna Leone and Arie Nadler
PA RT I I I T H E P R I M AC Y O F C OM M U N IC AT IO N
4. Social Representations, Communication, and
the Evolution of Cultures 103
Bruno M. Mazzara
5. The Contribution of Social Representations Theory for a
Social Psychology of Communication Laboratory 127
Brigido V. Camargo and Andréa Barbará S. Bousfield
vi Contents
PA RT I V C HA N G E A N D C O N T I N U I T Y A S
O N G O I N G E N T E R P R I SE S
6. Battles of Ideas Between the Legal and the Legitimate: Studying
Change and Continuity in Sustainability and Ecological Issues 145
Paula Castro, Sonia Brondi, and Alberta Contarello
7. Research of the Health, Aging, and Society Laboratory: Changes
and Continuities of Social Representations in Health and Labor
Contexts 162
Antônia Lêda Oliveira Silva, Luiz Fernando Rangel Tura, and
Campos Madeira
PA RT V D IA L O G U E S W I T H C O G NAT E
P E R SP E C T I V E S
8. Social Constructionism and Social Representation
Theory: Convergences and Divergences in the Study of Change 181
Diego Romaioli and Alberta Contarello
9. The Discursive Format of “Social Warming”: How People
Change Their Self-Representation in the Context of a
“Mixed Family” 202
Giuseppe Mininni
Epilogue 219
Jorge Correia Jesuino
Index 227
Acknowledgments
This book took several years to come to light, my first and last sabbatical
leaves in Oxford playing a big role in it.
Ideas, gazes, voices, relationships, encounters, misunderstandings . . . again
connections, exchanges, links . . . My warm gratitude goes to all that animated
this picture along time— persons, places, institutions—
co- constructing
ideas, images, experiences.
Very many people have played a role: the contributors, de facto co-
authors, and then colleagues, mentors, students and PhDs, friends and
families, language revisers. A special thought goes to Francesca Helm, who
carried out the second linguistic review of the whole book, a further co-
author, as well as to the vibrant and globalized team of OUP. Too many to
thank individually, but to each of them (often in overlapping roles) goes my
most sincere gratitude.
Enjoying and re-launching our search for better ways of understanding—
and helping to co-produce—social psychological knowledge, in its conti-
nuity and change and, in the end, our life . . .
Alberta Contarello
Padua, September 5, 2021
Contributors
Andréa Barbará S. Bousfield, PhD Jorge Correia Jesuino, PhD

Associate Professor Professor emeritus ISCTE-IUL
Department of Psychology Researcher at CFCUL
Federal University of Santa Catarina University of Lisbon Portugal
Florianópolis, Brazil Campo Grande
Sonia Brondi, PhD Giovanna Leone, MSPsy
Assistant Professor Full Professor of Social Psychology
Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Department of Communication and
Education and Applied Psychology Social Research
University of Padua Sapienza University of Rome
Padua, Italy Rome, Italy
Brigido V. Camargo, PhD Campos Madeira, PhD
Full Professor of Psychology Associate Researcher
Federal University of Santa Catarina Health, Aging and Society Laboratory
Florianópolis, Brazil Federal University of Paraiba
João Pessoa, Brazil
Paula Castro, PhD
Full Professor of Psychology at ISCTE— Bruno M. Mazzara, MSSoc
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and Full Professor of Social Psychology
Director of CIS_iscte Communication and Social Research
Lisbon University Institute University of Rome Sapienza
Lisbon, Portugal Rome, Italy
Alberta Contarello, MSEd Giuseppe Mininni, MPhil/MA Semiotics

Full Professor of Social Psychology Full Professor of Social Psychology
Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Department of Educational Sciences,
Education and Applied Psychology Psychology, Communication
University of Padua University of Bari
Padua, Italy Bari, Italy
Arie Nadler, PhD
Francesca Emiliani, MMed/
Professor Emeritus
Specialization Psy
School of Psychological Sciences
Full Professor of Social Psychology
Tel Aviv University
(retired)
Tel Aviv, Israel
Department of Education Science
University of Bologna Antônia Lêda Oliveira Silva, PhD
Bologna, Italy Full Professor
Department of Public Health
Federal University of Paraiba
João Pessoa, Brazil
x Contributors
Valentina Rizzoli, PhD Luiz Fernando Rangel Tura, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow Associate Researcher
Department of Communication and History, Health and Society Laboratory
Social Research Institute of Public Health Studies
Sapienza University of Rome Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Rome, Italy Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Diego Romaioli, PhD Arjuna Tuzzi, PhD
Assistant Professor Full Professor of Social Statistics
Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Department of Philosophy, Sociology,
Education and Applied Psychology Education and Applied Psychology
University of Padua University of Padua
Padua, Italy Padua, Italy
PART I
EN T E R ING T HE F I E LD
Introduction: Why a Social
Representations Perspective?
“Le Regard Psychosocial” for the Study of Change and
Continuity in the Field of Social Psychology
Alberta Contarello
Our life is changing at an accelerated pace. Common metaphors are used

in public and in everyday conversations and discourses to underline this
phenomenon with an aura of great alarm when speaking of the tsunami of
the economic crisis, the overwhelming wave of the aging population in the
world, or—currently at the forefront—migration. The spread of information
and communication technologies (ICTs) and the ever-growing call for sus-
tainable economics are also being presented in terms of extreme urgency.
And, finally, the Covid-19 pandemic arrived and modified everything. Social
and human sciences are being challenged by not necessarily new but rapid
and astounding demands. For example, the Manifeste pour le science sociales,
by Calhoun and Wieviorka (2015), questioned the role of social sciences in
understanding the fast changes of our world and foreseeing possible futures.
Surprisingly enough, social psychology is less present than we might expect
in this multi-and interdisciplinary debate, although it has been appropri-
ately defined as a “science in movement” (Moscovici, 1972), one of develop-
ment and change (Moscovici, 2000).
Seeking to address this gap, the foci of this volume are forms of change
and continuity in the production of shared knowledge in our contemporary
world, understood from a social psychological perspective that is inspired
by social representations theory (SRT) (Jovchelovitch, 2007; Marková, 2003;
Moscovici, 1961/76; Tura & Oliveira Silva, 2012). This perspective explic-
itly deals with meaning-making in specific social contexts, enhancing both
the process of representing and the structures of social knowledge as well as
their evolution and transformations. The main purpose and commitment of
Alberta Contarello, Introduction: Why a Social Representations Perspective? In: Embracing Change. Edited by: Alberta
Contarello, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2022. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197617366.003.0001
4 Alberta Contarello
the volume are to highlight the social dimension, through a full recognition
of the inescapable role of “the Other” in the production of (social) under-
standing. This “Other” does not simply refer to some outside entity meant to
exert influence on the knower (as in the metaphor of mirroring reality), thus
leaving unchallenged an individualistic tilt of the discipline and a preferen-
tial attention to stability. Rather it refers to an inescapable “third” gaze that
the human condition imposes for the development of knowledge. Following
a dialogical epistemology (Marková, 2003), this gaze is conceived of as fo-
cused on everyday life, where common sense provides both its stuff and its
structure (cf. Emiliani, 2002).
Grounding our roots in seminal thinking that arose at the outset of the
discipline, mainly from Mead’s (1934) theorizing on the generalized Other,
to phenomenological sociology (Schutz, 1967) as well as historical-cultural
perspectives (renovating Vygotsky, 1978), we advocate for a more “social”
social psychology, one sharing great concern with the field of societal psy-
chology. We also further stress the co-construction of meaning via language
and communication in everyday life, reconsidering the structured and struc-
turing role of common sense. The main ambition of this volume is to show
that (this) social psychology has much to say as far as the themes of change
and continuity are concerned and to illustrate how relevant and coherent
empirical research can be carried out. In parallel, the innovative role of SRT
within social psychology will be enhanced. To this aim, the volume brings
together the voices of scholars whose work, within or in connection/rela-
tion with the theory of social representations, has extended its boundaries.
The main topics pertaining to the theory will be introduced in the various
chapters, illustrating their heuristic power as well as possible future paths of
research.
What Is at Stake? Change, Continuity, and

Social Psychology
How has change— and continuity—been studied in social psychology?

Already in 2003, Ivana Marková observed that
Casual inspection of psychological theories of social knowledge

indicates that in general they foreground stability as a theoretical
Introduction 5
concept . . . Moscovici (1976b) shows that the studies of social influence

have been largely based on congruence and movement towards conformity.
Thus these studies have emphasised the tendency for non-change in both
thinking and action. . . . It is not that change as a social and psychological
phenomenon has been ignored. . . . The fundamental issue here is that the
criterion for the study of change is the state of stability. It is stability that
is presupposed and the questions posed in research concern the causes or
reasons for disturbances of stability. For example, social research is often
concerned with the question as to why people change their attitudes rather
than why they retain their attitudes. Or, why people change their behaviour
rather than why they remain stable in their habits and activities. Although
we have numerous theories about stable universals, their nature, content
and form, we do not have theories of social knowledge based on the concept of
change. (Marková, 2003, p. 5, emphasis in the original)
Before trying to retrace some important steps in social psychology in this

regard, a few words are needed on what is meant here by “change” and
“continuity.”
From an etymological ground, the word “change”—coming from Latin,
Celtic, and French—means to become different, undergo alteration, switch.
In terms of synonyms, we find a great number of terms such as “transforma-
tion,” “modification,” “alteration,” “shift,” and “turn” and others with an eval-
uative stance, such as “innovation,” “development,” “revolution.” With regard
to antonyms, a smaller number of items exist, such as “similarity” or “same-
ness” (https://www.powerthesaurus.org/change). In this volume, I refer (and
invite the reader to refer) to change, in its various nuances, both as a verb
and a noun: both an ongoing transformation and a rapid switch from one
pattern to another. As mentioned earlier, the theoretical framework in which
this analysis is grounded is the social representations perspective; that is, our
concern will regard both meaning-making processes and their outcomes in
terms of contents and structures of shared knowledge. “Continuity,” on the
other hand, is not conceived of as an antonym to “change” but rather in a rela-
tion of complementarity with it. In this, I agree with Anderson’s (2007, p. 11)
note that “we are never at a standstill; our meanings, our bodies, and so on
are always in motion (e.g., altering, developing, evolving), from the moment
of birth to death. And there is always a sense of continuity in it; we do not
change, for instance, from one person to another, but as new and different
identities come forward, we remain who we have been and are, while at the
same time we are becoming.” This holds for human beings as well as for
shared systems of knowledge. However, I prefer the word “change” to “trans-
formation.” The main reason for my choice is that, in the social psychological
field in which SRT is grounded, we take into account a spiraling causality
where, instead of causes, we look for co-causes or co-occurrences in contin-
uous movement, but also consider moments of inertia. A beautiful and fit-
ting metaphor here might be that of a kaleidoscope, mingling movement and
stillness, ongoing perturbations and fixed shapes: changes and continuities.
Parallel to a scholarly attention to change and continuity in shared systems
of knowledge, it is interesting to note how the role of the researcher in this
area of study tends to move from that of an acute observer and interpreter
to that of somebody who tries to intercept explicit and implicit features, as if
with a radar or an amplifier, in order to monitor and possibly play the role of a
co-agent of change and continuity.
The aim of this volume is thus to approach the study of the dynamic be-
tween change and continuity, making explicit the constitutive thirdness of
the knowing process, offering theoretical-empirical contributions in various,
interrelated, research fields. Whether we focus on health, the environment,
forms of citizenship, or migration, the “social psychological gaze” requires us
to take into account the vitality and generativity of different points of view,
on both a theoretical level and, even more cogently, on the pragmatic level
of research methodology. Change arises and innovation emerges from di-
versity and conflict between perspectives. This is a long-standing lesson of
social psychology, from the seminal work by Lewin (1948) onward (cf. also
Moscovici & Doise, 1991). Widely accepted at a theoretical level, surpris-
ingly enough, this view encounters less favor in present-day research projects
within the discipline, which remains more cognitively and, recently, neuro-
logically oriented (cf. Emiliani & Mazzara, 2015).
The different themes considered in the book find their meaning and ur-
gency within temporal frames that compare “what we were like” and “what
we are becoming,” searching for shifts from the present to the conditional
tense: from pictures of what exists to analyses of what was there, to proposals
of what could better be. Research thus becomes a valid opportunity to offer
an exercise of possibilities (Badaloni & Contarello, 2012; Jovchelovitch &
Priego-Hernández, 2013). Writings and studies in this line, oriented toward
a societal approach, have been flourishing, mainly from cognate theoretical
perspectives such as social identity theory (e.g., Elcheroth et al., 2011; Special
Introduction 7
Thematic Section on “Societal Change” in the Journal of Social and Political

Psychology, 2013). Various chapters of this volume will explicitly dialogue
with these advances. A few introductory words might thus be helpful to draw
the contours of the perspective adopted and of the science within which it
developed.
Social Psychology: One, None, One Hundred Thousand—

A Science in Movement and the Position of SRT Within It
Since its early beginning in the first years of the twentieth century, social psy-
chology has adopted different shapes and forms, positioning itself in a variety
of ways between the human and natural sciences. It has enhanced, on the one
hand, social dynamics (Ross, 1908) and, on the other, psychological processes
guided by the specific makeup of human beings (McDougall, 1908). Over
more than a century, this duality has sometimes tended to fade away, while
at other times it has sharpened, producing an imperfect identity—or better, a
multiple identity—which makes this field of knowledge particularly vital and
contemporary. It is a science which is still in motion, rich in specificity and
tensions (Contarello & Mazzara, 2000; Farr, 1996; Moscovici, 1970).
Over time since its foundation, various definitions of social psychology
have been offered, at times clearly diverging and in mutual conflict, so much
so that Aronson (1972) declared “There are almost as many definitions of so-
cial psychology as there are social psychologists” (p. 4). To retrace the main
ones would be misleading in this context; it is, however, worth dwelling on a
few of them, in search of those which are more compatible or in tune with the
adopted perspective.
One of the most widely shared definitions was proposed during the
1950s by Gordon Allport, who defined the discipline as “an attempt to un-
derstand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviour of individ-
uals are influenced by the actual, imagined, and implied presence of others”
(Allport, 1954, p. 5). In a few words, the authoritative field pioneer framed
what would overall become the foundation for theory and research in the
discipline: the study of how “others” would have an impact on an individual’s
cognition, emotions, and intention to act. However, while recognizing the
fundamental role of the social dimension—the importance of “others”—this
definition still proposes a one-way direction of influence—from “them” to
the individual—and focuses on individuals as distinct agents.
Involved in the search for a “more social” social psychology (cf. Israel &
Tajfel, 1972), in the late 1970s, Tajfel and Fraser declared, “We are all social
psychologists,” offering one of the most inclusive definitions of the discipline;
that is, the study of “the various aspects of the interaction between individ-
uals, between and within social groups, and between individuals and social
systems, small or large, of which they are part” (Tajfel & Fraser, 1978, p. 22).
The authors hence organized their highly influential textbook to distinguish
between different levels of analysis: intraindividual, interindividual, inter-
group, and societal processes and dynamics (cf. Doise, 1986).
Further elaborating on these dynamics, Moscovici (1984b) defined social
psychology not merely as the study of individuals and society, but also as the
science of the conflict between individual and society. In his words, “The cen-
tral and exclusive object of social psychology consists in all the phenomena
pertaining to ideology and communication, examined in terms of their gen-
esis, structure and function” (p. 7). He had previously maintained, “Because
of its dual reference to the individual and the group, to the psychological and
the sociological, and to personality and culture, social psychology can be
assigned a hybrid position or status” (Moscovici, 1970). As he himself in-
dicated, the originality of this composite field of study lies particularly in its
“subversive” questioning of the division between the psychological and so-
cial (Moscovici, 1984b).
In this process of pluralizing perspectives, some areas of renewal have
been pivotal, indicating in the second half of the twentieth century the need
for certain “turns,” in particular toward a social psychology that would be
“more social,” but also culturally, linguistically, discursively, narratively, and
critically oriented (Sugiman et al., 2008). One of the theoretical perspectives
that developed in this broad context of debate is the framework of social
representations (Moscovici, 1961/761). These are understood as forms of so-
cial, practical, and situated thinking (Jodelet, 1984) and are of particular ap-
peal for those interested in the relationship between individual and society in
terms of continuity and change. The theory has recently celebrated its fiftieth
anniversary, which has been fêted with various publications (e.g., Lo Monaco
et al., 2016; Palmonari & Emiliani, 2019; Sammut et al., 2014).
1 This book encountered translations in various language decades after its publication: in English,
introduced by Daniel Lagace (2008), In Italian, edited by Annamaria de Rosa (2011), in Portuguese,
translated by Sonia Fuhrmann.mThis is a remarkable witness of its vitality. All the three versions and
editions are mentioned in the chapters of this volume.
Introduction 9
Autonomy of an Interdisciplinary Project
If today we re-read the 1970 text which introduces the volume by Jodelet,
Voet, and Besnard, from which the previous quotation is taken, thoroughly
examined within it we find some questions which are still alive and being
debated today. Moscovici (1970) recognized a heterogeneous nature in so-
cial psychology, intrinsically oriented to interdisciplinarity, with a mediating
role on several levels. On the one hand, it involved a task of coordination
and integration between disciplines (mainly psychology and sociology; but
as Jodelet [2009a] will indicate, also anthropology and social history) with
the production of complex and mixed approaches. On the other, a particular
mandate: that of constituting a “laboratory of social sciences.”
As regards its objects of study, Moscovici reiterates that, beyond the com-
pound nature of its name, social psychology is not a “mixed” science. It was
not born to respond to the limits of the two sciences with which it relates
most; at the same time, it does not move into the area of “no man’s science,” to
exist free from one or the other. Rather, it finds its own legitimacy, autonomy,
and coherence in addressing the study of new phenomena that are not con-
templated in the two other aforementioned areas of knowledge. Moscovici
(1970) indicates some of them: “how modalities of internalization and ex-
ternalization of the social decisively influence psychological and physiolog-
ical functions or processes,” or how “modifications of mental and cognitive
structures, of symbolic systems, through interpersonal and intergroup dy-
namics” happen, or again “the impact of representations and ideologies on
social processes, communication phenomena, and so on” (p. 16). These were
unexplored phenomena, in psychological as well as sociological inquiry,
which require both solid and innovative methodologies to be tackled.
If all of this holds true for social psychology in general, it does even more so
within the perspective favored here. In fact, a social psychology so defined can
properly address the “phenomenon of social representations” as the study of
a system of values, ideas and practices with a dual function: firstly

establishing an order that allows individuals to orient themselves in their
material and social world and to master it; secondly, making communi-
cation between the members of a community possible by providing them
with a code for social exchange and a code to unambiguously name and
classify the various aspects of their world and their individual and group
history. (Moscovici, 1973, p. xiii)
Consequently, both psychological and social aspects, as well as aspects re-

lated to communication, become relevant to scholars. Thus, the variety of
appropriate issues to be enquired about, as well as research methodologies to
be devised, expands further (see Flick, 2014), as exemplified in the following
chapters.
Le regard psychosocial
What fully characterizes the social representations perspective is the un-

conditioned adoption of a social-psychological gaze (a “regard psychoso-
cial”); that is, a threefold reading of knowledge (Moscovici, 1995). As already
maintained by Peirce (1931–1935), the knowledge of a social object neces-
sarily requires the mediation of an Alter, a “thirdness.” Thus, the binary for-
mula that connects the subject of knowledge and the known object is replaced
by the triad Ego-Alter-Object (Figure I.1): and not only. Proposing the no-
tion of a “thinking society,” Moscovici (1981, p. 257) clearly explains that
individuals and groups, far from being passive receptors, think for
themselves, produce, and ceaselessly communicate their own specific
representations and solutions to the questions they set themselves. In the
streets, in cafés, offices, hospitals, laboratories, etc., people analyse, com-
ment upon, and concoct spontaneous, unofficial “philosophies” which have
a decisive impact on their social relations, their choices, the way they bring
up their children, the way they plan ahead, and so forth. Events, sciences
and ideologies simply provide them with “food for thought.” (1984b, p. 16)
Object
(physical, social,
imaginary or real)
Ego Alter
Figure I.1 The triangle Ego-Alter-Object.

Introduction 11
The main purpose is thus to stress the priority of the social dimension. This
implies, in the research process, a diminished use of classical, linear research
models—which involve the study of the effects of independent variables,
manipulated or recorded by the experimenters, on dependent variables
measured by them—in favor of revised forms of these or more complex
models that take into account the reciprocal influence of the different elem-
ents involved, considered as true co-constructors of meaning.
The theory of social representations not only adopts the idea of a
“thirdness,” which becomes a fundamental pillar of it (see also Jesuino, 2009;
Marková, 2003), but it also opens up to different “ternary” reasonings. One
of these concerns the area of relevance of approaches oriented toward this
theory. As indicated by Moscovici (1961/76; 2011) and taken up by Flick
(1998) in his methodological reflections, a social representation can be un-
derstood as the space that extends between (1) changes in the investigated
social contexts, which produce new and different readings of relevant social
phenomena; (2) changes in the everyday practices of the individuals involved
in these contexts; and (3) transformations at the level of the psychosocial
processes that guide these practices, for example on the level of identity, or of
the construction of values, attitudes, or socio-cognitive modalities of seeing
one’s own and other groups (Figure I.2). Clearly, on the basis of these issues,
each of the vertices of the triangle must be understood as both a starting ele-
ment and as a landing point for the changes considered.
Clear in its outlines, this model easily lends itself to playing a generative
role for various joint research designs (multi-or mixed methods) focusing
Changes in social
“Realities”
Social Representations
Changes in social
Changes in uses
psychological
and practices
processes
Figure I.2 A second triangle: Between-ness.

Badaloni, S., & Contarello, A. (Eds.) (2012). Gender and changes. From under-representations of
women to new emerging scenarios. Padova: Padova University Press.
on change and continuity. We ourselves have used it effectively to study pro-

cesses of change from a social-psychological perspective regarding gender
(the underrepresentation of women in the scientific and technological uni-
verse; see Badaloni et al., 2012), age/generation (aging in an aging society;
see Contarello et al., 2016; Contarello & Romaioli, 2020), health (the imple-
mentation of projects aimed at reducing pain in health and hospital settings;
see Nencini et al., 2015), and the environment (Brondi et al., 2012; Contarello
et al., 2006). This involves analyzing existing situations and proposals for
change (often advanced by international bodies such as the World Health
Organization or European agencies and cascading national, regional, and
local ones) at the macro level, observing the transformations in the uses and
life practices at the meso level, and recording social-psychological processes
at the micro level as they unfold. Widening the focus of analysis requires
various shifts in research design and in the interpretation of the role of
researchers. I touch on some of these topics further on.
It is important, however, at this point to underline to what extent full
adoption of this “new look”—“le regard psychosocial”—leads to modifying
consolidated structures for theorizing and researching in social psychology
and related disciplines. In short, it is a question of putting the primacy of
relationships and communication at the forefront while taking social and
cultural forces into account. It also involves the question of designing, simul-
taneously within the same project, elements concerning different levels of
analyses, micro and macro (Lopes & Gaskell, 2014), or the three different
spheres of relevance of a social representation: intraindividual, interindi-
vidual, and transindividual (cf. Jodelet, 2009b). Occasionally, it also involves
organizing multi-or interdisciplinary research teams by bringing together
social psychologists with experts in areas such as political science, sociology,
and anthropology (cf. Sammuth et al., 2014) as well as other hard and soft
sciences (Badaloni et al., 2012).
This fully occurs especially in the more “societal” developments of the per-
spective, up to the point of assuming an intense “family resemblance” with
similar perspectives such as forms of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough,
1995; van Dijk, 1993), social constructionism (Gergen, 1999), and political
and societal psychology (Elcheroth et al., 2011; Jovchelovitch & Priego-
Hernandez, 2013; Howarth et al., 2013).
This brings us back to the long-term question of methods, on which
the specificity of social psychology lies, with its “arsenal” of research
designs, techniques, and procedures that are also rooted in related
Introduction 13
disciplines: ethnography for observation in natural settings, psychology

for monitoring and measuring personality characteristics and other psy-
chological constructs, and sociology for large-scale surveys. Plurality,
therefore—but also methodological originality—is intrinsic to the disci-
pline, with a fervor oriented to innovation that derives from the irreduc-
ibility of the new phenomena under study to theoretical and empirical
models already existing in the “mother” disciplines: psychology on the
one hand, sociology on the other. Fifty years later, we can now extend
the range of artifacts that enter the social psychologist’s toolbox, partic-
ularly when oriented toward the currents we are considering, to include
instruments adopted by social statistics, semiology, linguistics, and, more
recently, neurosciences. However, we must recognize that this openness
to interdisciplinarity remains a strength of social psychology, as do va-
riety and inventiveness in its methodological choices. After a period of full
prevalence of experimentation and correlational research, multimethod
choices or “mixed methods” are returning, integrating different method-
ologies into the same research project and giving full recognition to quali-
tative methods and procedures (Gergen, 2015). Launched mainly by social
psychology, this path is also undertaken by a large proportion of the social
sciences (Creswell, 2013; Flick, 2014).
The Time Dimension
The systems of knowledge that we are immersed in and that we contribute to

building change over time, at a faster or slower pace depending on different
concomitant conditions and with modalities ranging from a slow change
to sudden paradigmatic jumps. Their propensity for change—apparently
higher at present than in the recent past—is dictated by the pluralization of
knowledge and of values shared—but much more frequently challenged—in
our contemporary world. With this regard, Moscovici (1982) wrote about
the era of social representations. The one in which we have been living in the
“modern” world, no longer subject to massive, strong powers (religious or-
thodoxy, military dictatorships, and/or monarchical absolutism [although
we also witness counter-examples]) and imbued with independent com-
munication flows, might offer the citizen a plurality of voices and possible
positions in a democratization occurring from below: surely imperfect, but
potentially liberating.
The astonishing acceleration in individual and social communication

occurring in the third millennium has further enhanced this pluralization
between and within individuals and groups, demanding in-depth analyses
and extensions, both theoretical and methodological, in the study of social
representations (cf. Arruda, 2013; de Rosa, 2012).
Unfortunately, recent turns in what we could call global agenda setting—
or, in our terms, societal meaning-making processes—have made us less opti-
mistic with regard to the liberating potentials offered by these innovations.
Again, we can re-read some lines by Marková (2003).
However, under no circumstances are ahistorical explanations suitable as

explanations for human phenomena because these involve interdependen-
cies between societies, groups and individuals and therefore between crea-
tive agencies. The movements of changes of human social phenomena have
neither predetermined goals, nor do they necessarily lead to any progress.
(p. 49)
Subject to changes, social representations live along the dimension of time,

and it is precisely in their making, in the trajectory and in the processes along
which such forms of social, practical, and shared thinking are produced, that
the perspective in question concentrates its focus of analysis.
Starting from Moscovici’s pioneering study on the social representations
of psychoanalysis in France in the 1950s (Moscovici, 1961/76), much re-
search has highlighted the role of constitutive psychosocial processes—
objectification of new knowledge and anchoring to existing socio-cognitive
systems—but also the forms of communication adopted mainly by mass
media as well as the social psychological dynamics connected to processes of
influence (cf. Palmonari & Emiliani, 2009).
Already in the foundational work, the issue of time, and thus continuity
and change of representations along the temporal trajectory, was funda-
mental. Since then, some authors have further developed this issue. In par-
ticular, Bauer and Gaskell (1999) have proposed taking into account the
time dimension to denote the project that links Ego, Alter, and the Object
(cf. Bauer, 2015), and Valsiner has challenged social representation theory
by proposing an advancement in terms of a theory of enablement. Focusing
his attention on the study of the process of social representing rather than
on the meaning structures that gained stability in a society, he wrote “If
viewed from this perspective, social representations are meaning complexes
Introduction 15
that play the role of macro-level cultural constraints of human conduct in its
present-future transition” (Valsiner, 2003, p. 7.6, emphasis in the original)
and concluded, “The critical question for further development of the SR [so-
cial representation] theory is to create formal models of the transformation
of the current construction of oppositional structures into something new”
(p. 7.14).
In dialogue with these scholars, Sandra Jovchelovitch analyzes in depth
the “future-tense” orientation of social representations. Together with the
“who,” “how,” “why,” and “what” dimensions of representation, the author
reflects on the “what for” and, within this, on the future-making or anticipa-
tory function of representations, writing,
Representations seek to construct knowledge of the future cognitively,

socially and emotionally. Cognitively, they do so through the construc-
tion of projects, which correspond to cognitive anticipations of things to
come; socially, through the construction of utopias, which correspond to
the projection of visions about how things should be in times to come; and
emotionally, through the experience of hope, which corresponds to the
emotional field in which anticipation operates. Projects, utopia and hope
are the constitutive elements of the anticipatory function of representations
and are present mainly in knowledge systems open to the future and to
the unknown. Whereas a great deal of knowledge construction is driven
by backward energies linked to the past and to trajectories that remain
active in the present, there is a dimension of the process that is disposed
forwards, towards the not-yet-conscious and not-yet-become, the catego-
ries Bloch (1986) described when examining anticipatory consciousness.
(Jovchelovitch, 2007, pp. 113–114)
This function of social representations opens the way to challenging fields

and themes of research, particularly when the purpose of inquiry is an “an-
thropology of everyday life” (Moscovici, 1984a; Moscovici & Marková,
1998) in its present but also in its not-yet-happened conditions.
Future-Making: “Engagé” Approaches
Studying change, from the perspective we are considering, involves facing a

flow in movement characterized by mutual influences and relationships or,
more properly, by co-constructions of meaning-making.2 What then are the

role and the positioning of the researcher?
From a social representation perspective, Jesuino (2009) maintained
that the researcher might become a “traveling companion” of social poli-
cies. He/she indeed has the chance, on the one hand, to have access to spe-
cific fields or existing databases and/or to co-generate the latter, and, on the
other, to step back from the urgency that policy-makers and practitioners
in general have to face. The search for balance between detachment and
involvement thus becomes a challenging feature of doing research, to
a greater extent here than is usually the case in social psychology. With
this regard, Wagner and Hayes (2005, p. 328) noted that “in all research
having to do with culture and common sense, researchers are more a par-
ticipant than an observer in the research field” and that both participants
and researchers play the role of active agents in social processes. In her
analysis of “knowledge in context,” Jovchelovitch (2007) further elaborates
this point, discussing three main focuses inherent to the study of local rep-
resentational systems: knowledge, conscientization, and empowerment.
The first aims mainly to depict knowledge systems by providing “a picture
of the field in a given moment of the community being studied” (p. 168).
The second, in Jovchelovitch’s analysis, is strictly linked to Freire’s dialog-
ical method and borrows a strong commitment to the development of crit-
ical consciousness from the author of “the pedagogy of the oppressed” and
“the pedagogy of hope” via a recognition of underprivileged voices and,
more generally, of the plurality of coexisting worldviews. The third further
enhances the need to bring back socially excluded actors to the social arena
and foresees participatory exercises to “construct critical encounter(s)
based on the dialogical principle, where all stakeholders in the project can
gain and develop knowledge” (p. 172).
Together with the need for the “right distance,” reflexivity by the researcher
thus becomes essential, alerting awareness of her or his role as a potential
agent of change or a co-constructor of continuity rather than a detector of
traces. Such an awareness also implies repercussions on the social relevance
of the research and demands practices of inquiry that challenge a clear-cut
distinction between pure and applied research in favor of theoretically in-
formed interventions (cf. Contarello et al., 2013).
2 This heading echoes the title of an oeuvre dedicated to Denise Jodelet, enhancing a socially com-
mitted tilt in the study of social and local knowledge (Madiot et al., 2008).
Introduction 17
These ideas will be encountered throughout the various chapters of the

volume at hand. Clearly, as it is an edited publication and thus composed of
writings by different scholars, different positionings with these regards are
presented. With this plurality of voices, I hope the reader will appreciate both
the scientific quality of the various contributions and the social relevance
that they could play in a wider social psychological research agenda.
Outline of the Volume
Following these premises, the volume is divided into five parts. In Part
I, “Entering the Field,” Chapter 1, by Valentina Rizzoli, Arjuna Tuzzi, and
myself, offers an overview of the field and provides a framework for the fol-
lowing sections. “Change Seen Through the Lens of Social Psychology in
Europe and the United States” provides an overview of the study of change
and continuity in social psychology. In particular, it aims to systematically
test Marková’s above-mentioned observation regarding a lack of theories of
social knowledge based on the concept of change and, more generally, re-
garding the study of change to the detriment of stability. To this purpose, after
considering how change has been studied in reference books and by leading
figures in the discipline, the chapter presents a lexical content analysis of the
abstracts of two main journals in social psychology from the United States
(Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) and Europe (European Journal
of Social Psychology), since their inception, showing interesting trends over
time and probing the role of Moscovici’s thinking along this path.
Part II is devoted to “The Primacy of Relationships.” In Chapter 2,
“Stability and Change in Everyday Knowledge from Taken for Granted to
Social Representation: The Case of Normality,” Francesca Emiliani sets down
fundamental issues—and keywords—in the perspective adopted in this
volume: mainly, the essential role of relationships in the meaning-making
process. Through constant and repeated interactions within significant
relationships, humans learn to co-construct meaning, and, in everyday life,
they do so in search of stability, in answering to normative meta-systems.
Empirical observations regarding severe child deprivation as well as a study
with narratives on the global suspension of the taken-for-granted pro-
duced by the Covid-19 pandemic powerfully enlighten these processes.
Chapter 3, by Giovanna Leone and Arie Nadler, maintains the focus of atten-
tion on relationships, but moves to an intergroup level of analysis in “Social
Representations in the Classroom: The Experience of Social Inequalities in

Teacher–Student Relations.” From an interdisciplinary point of view, it aims
to illustrate, through experimental and observational studies, the ambivalent
nature of giving help and the potential risks of meaning-making processes,
which tend not only to stigmatize but also to let stigma be interiorized by
members of underprivileged groups. It is in the pendulum between conti-
nuity and change of social representations—in this case through teachers’
experiences of self-reflection—that social disempowerment may be rein-
forced or challenged.
Part III expounds on “The Primacy of Communication.” In Chapter 4,
“Social Representations, Communication, and the Evolution of Cultures,”
Bruno M. Mazzara overviews lines of research and perspectives on the diffu-
sion and change of social representations and illustrates a view of this spread
of such representations and the evolution of cultures via communication.
Discussing interpretations in terms of naturalization, mechanicism, and,
more widely, neurosciences, the author maintains that culture may be con-
ceived as a network of social representations in continuous change and that
the true “nature” of the human being is her or his need to create shared sym-
bolic contexts, in line with the provocative assertion by Rogoff (2003) that
the human species is “biologically cultural,” in the full and literal sense of this
expression. Chapter 5, “The Contribution of Social Representations Theory
for a Social Psychology of the Communication Laboratory,” by Brigido
V. Camargo and Andréa Barbarà Bousfield, aims to illustrate the way in
which a laboratory of social psychology of communication (LACCOS) can
work when it fully adopts a social representations perspective. Through an
example of research on scientific socialization in areas of health protection
and prevention in South-East Brazil, the active role of subjects (Ego-Alter)
in the construction and circulation of meaning-making is enhanced, as well
as the interaction in which the subjects take part within specific social and
historical situations.
As mentioned earlier, studying change and continuity in systems of
knowledge at a societal level invites one to take into account the role of legal
systems and normative regulations (cf. also Doise, 2013). Paula Castro has
long dedicated her interests to the relation between meaning-making in
everyday life and the implementation of new laws, showing the heuristic
power of SRT to analyze “the conflict which might arise between different
groups, differing with regard to sense-making, and how these differences
relate to local conflicts, are negotiated in everyday communication and
Introduction 19
re-presented in mediated formats” (Castro, 2015, p. 303). Part IV is about

“Change and Continuity as Ongoing Enterprises.” In Chapter 6, “Battles of
Ideas Between the Legal and the Legitimate,” Paula Castro, Sonia Brondi,
and myself focus attention on local knowledge; more specifically, on how
change and continuity may be achieved in the meaning-making processes
related to environmental issues. In that chapter, key theoretical concepts
from SRT are unfolded (i.e., cognitive polyphasia) and illustrated via em-
pirical inquiry. More explicitly directed to the implementation of theo-
retical analyses and practical outcomes is Chapter 7, “Research of Health,
Aging, and Society Laboratory,” by Antônia Lêda Oliveira Silva, Luiz
Fernando Rangel Tura, and Margot Madeira. Focusing on the issue of pop-
ulation aging, which has become—in various degrees and ways—a global
concern also pertaining to countries until recently defined as “developing,”
the authors present proposals for research and interventions inspired by
the social representations perspective aimed to foster individuals’ and
communities’ well-being in (mainly North-Eastern) Brazil. The interest
here, and the challenge, is to study and encourage change in meaning-
making regarding aging and the elderly in a society which has experienced
a remarkable aging of its population without previously undergoing an in-
crease in wealth, as has previously happened to the elderly population of
various countries.
Part V gives space to two “Dialogues with Cognate Perspectives” devel-
oped in social psychology at the same time as SRT. As was anticipated, the so-
cial representation perspective took part in the linguistic turn and enhanced
the role of communication, yet, through the past decades, it has occupied
a distinct place with regard to converging paradigms such as social con-
structionism and discourse analysis (cf. Sugiman et al., 2008). In Chapter 8,
“Social Constructionism and Social Representation Theory,” Diego Romaioli
and myself attempt to tackle the main similarities and differences in the way
SRT and social constructionism face the study of change and continuity in
meaning-making at the social and societal levels, focusing our attention on
the two key Authors who started these two perspectives. In Chapter 9, “The
Discursive Format of ‘Social Warming,’ ” Giuseppe Mininni proposes a pos-
sible integration of SRT and discursive psychology, advancing a dialectical
synthesis of the two that is suitable for the study of change and continuity in
knowledge systems. Both chapters of Part V include an illustration of inqui-
ries meant to help us better understand the issues at stake (e.g., aging in an
aging society, availability to volunteer, social warming in mixed families
in times of accelerated mobility) but also to help generate a novel reading

of them.
As this overview has indicated, each of the central sections is composed
of a more theoretical and a more “practical” chapter, but all of the chapters
have been designed to include a brief introduction, the presentation of
one or more central topics within the theory of social representations, and
one or more examples of research discussed at some length. The purpose
of the whole volume is thus to both reflect on and update lines of research
pertaining the study of change and continuity in meaning-making processes
regarding relevant social issues such as health, environment, and community
and to provide an array of suitable research methods from the social psycho-
logical domain.
References
Allport, G. (1954). The historical background of modern social psychology. In G.

Lindzey (Ed.), Handbook of social psychology (vol. I, pp. 3–56). Cambridge, MA:
Addison-Wesley.
Anderson, H. (2007). A postmodern umbrella: Language and knowledge as relational
and generative, and inherently transforming. In H. Anderson & D. Gehart (Eds.),
Collaborative therapy. Relationships and conversations that make a difference (pp. 7–20).
New York: Routledge.
Aronson, E. (1972). The social animal. New York: Viking Press.
Arruda, A. (2013). Modernity & Co: Repertoires of change. Papers on Social
Representations, 12, 8.1–8.16.
Badaloni, S., & Contarello, A. (Eds.) (2012). Genere e cambiamenti. Dalla
sottorappresentazione delle donne a nuovi scenari emergenti [Gender and changes.
From under-representation of women to new emerging scenarios]. Padova: Padova
University Press.
Bauer, M. W., Gaskell, G. (1999). Towards a paradigm of research on social representations.
Journal for the Theory of Social Psychology, 29(2), 163–186.
Bauer, M. W. (2015). On (social) representations and the iconoclastic impetus. In G.
Sammut, E. Andreouli, G. Gaskell, & J. Valsiner (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of so-
cial representations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brondi, S., Sarrica, M., Cibin, R., Neresini, F., & Contarello, A. (2012). The Chiampo
River 30 years later: Long- term effects of environmental regulations on social
representations. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 22, 283–299.
Calhoun, C., & Wieviorka, M. (2015). Manifeste pour le sciences sociales. Interventions.
Paris: Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. https://lectures.revues.org/19528?lang=en
Castro, P. (2015). Social representations of sustainability: Researching time, institution,
conflict and communication. In G. Sammut, E. Andreouli, G. Gaskell, & J. Valsiner
(Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of social representations. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Introduction 21
Contarello, A., Badaloni, S., Brondi, S., Manganelli, A. M., Monforte, V., Nencini, A., &
Pristinger, F. (2012). L’emergenza “Leaky Pipe” [The “Leaky Pipe” emergency]. In S.
Badaloni, & A. Contarello (Eds.). Genere e cambiamenti. Dalla sottorappresentazione
delle donne a nuovi scenari emergenti [Gender and changes. From under-representation
of women to new emerging scenarios]. Padova: Padova Universièty Press.
Contarello, A., Camargo, B. V., Wachelke, J., Piccolo, C., & Xavier Morais, D. (2016).
“Ageing Well” in changing times and places: Further notes on anchoring and stakes in
a Brazilian and an Italian context. Papers on Social Representations, 25(1), 11.1–11.31.
Contarello, A., & Mazzara, B. M. (2000). Le dimensioni sociali dei processi psicologici [The
social dmensions of psychological processs]. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
Contarello, A., & Romaioli D. (2020). “Eccezioni alla regola”. Rappresentazioni sociali
dell’invecchiamento nel contesto italiano contemporaneo. [“Exceptions to the rule”.
Social representations of ageing in the Italian contemporary context]. Psicologia
Sociale, 15(3), 403–424.
Contarello, A., Romaioli, D., Nencini, A., & Brondi, S. (2013). Pensare e fare “con.”
Rilevanza sociale e ricerca sociopsicologica ovvero metodologie e pratiche per una
ricerca socio-costruttivista [Thinking and doing “with.” Social relevance and social
psychological research—methodologies and practices for a social constructionist in-
quiry]. Psicologia Sociale, 8, 41–66.
Contarello, A., Sarrica, M., Nencini, A., & Romaioli, D. (2006). Tra identità e memoria.
Rappresentazioni delle ferriere [Between identity and memory. Representtions of the
iron foundries]. In P. M. Gagliardi & P. Mazzo (Eds.), Radici di ferro. Dongo, la ferriera,
il territorio. Milano: Silvana Editoriale.
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research Design. Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods
Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
de Rosa, A. S. (Ed.) (2012). Social representations in the “social arena.” London: Routledge.
Doise, W. (1986). Levels of explanation in social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Doise, W. (2013). Social psychology and social change. Papers on Social Representations,
22, 7.1–7.22.
Elcheroth, G., Doise, W., & Reicher, S. (2011). On the knowledge of politics and the poli-
tics of knowledge: How a social representations approach helps us rethink the subject
of political psychology, Political Psychology, 32(5), 729–758.
Emiliani, F. (2002). La realtà delle piccole cose [The reality of little things]. Bologna: Il
Mulino.
Emiliani, F., & Mazzara, B. M. (2015). From naturalization of humanities to “natural evi-
dence” of obviousness: The social reasons for which the mind is not the brain. Giornale
Italiano di Psicologia, 62(1/2), 31–56.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. London:
Longman.
Farr, R. (1996). The roots of modern social psychology. Oxford: Blackwell.
Flick, U. (Ed.) (1998). The psychology of the social. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Flick, U. (2014). An Introduction to Qualitative Research. London: Sage.
Gergen, K. J. (1999). An invitation to social construction. London: Sage.
Gergen, K. J. (2015). From mirroring to world‐making: Research as future forming.
Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 45(3), 287–310.
Howarth, C., Campbell, C., Cornish, F., Franks, B., Garcia-Lorenzo, L., Gillespie, A.,
Gleibs, I., Goncalves-Portelinha, I., Jovchelovitch, S., Lahlou, S., Mannella, J., Reader,
T., & Tennant, C. (2013). Insights from societal psychology: The contextual politics of
change. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 1(1), 364–384.
Israel, J., & Tajfel, H. (1972). The context of social psychology: A critical assessment. London:
Academic Press.
Jesuino, J. (2009). L’evolversi della teoria. In A. Palmonari & F. Emiliani (Eds.), Paradigmi
delle rappresentazioni sociali (pp. 113–146). Bologna: Il Mulino.
Jodelet, D. (1984). Représentations sociales: Phénomèmes, concept et théorie. In S.
Moscovici (Ed.), Psychologie sociale (pp. 357–378). Paris. Preisses Universitaires de
France.
Jodelet, D. (2009a). Rappresentazioni e scienze sociali: Incontri e rapporti reciproci. In A.
Palmonari & F. Emiliani (Eds.), Paradigmi delle rappresentazioni sociali (pp. 253–280).
Bologna: Il Mulino.
Jodelet, D. (2009b). Contributo das rapresentacoes sociais para o dominio da saude e da
velhice. In M. J. Lopes, F. Mendes, & A. Moreira (Eds.), Saude, educacao e representacoes
sociais (pp. 71–88). Coimbra: Formasau.
Jodelet, D., Viet, J., & Besnard, P. (1970). La psychologie sociale, une discipline en
mouvement. Paris: Mouton.
Jovchelovitch, S. (2007). Knowledge in context. Representations, community and culture.
London: Routledge.
Jovchelovitch, S., & PriegoHernández, J. (2013). Underground Sociabilities: Identity, cul-
ture and resistance in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. Brasilia: UNESCO.
Lewin, K. (1948). Resolving social conflicts: Selected papers on group dynamics. New York:
Harper.
Lo Monaco, G., Delouvée, S., & Rateau, P. (Eds.) (2016). Les représentations sociales.
Théories, méthodes et applications. Louvain-la-Neuve: De Boeck Supérieur.
Lopes, C. A., & Gaskell, G. (2014). Social representations and societal psychology. In G.
Sammut, E. Andreouli, G. Gaskell, & J. Valsiner (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of so-
cial representations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Madiot, B., Lage, E., & Arruda, A. (Eds.) (2008). Une approche engagée en psychologie
sociale: L’oeuvre de Denise Jodelet. Ramonville Saint-Agne: Editions Erès.
Marková, I. (2003). Dialogicality and social representations: The dynamics of mind.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marková, I. (2009). Dialogicità e conoscenza. In A. Palmonari & F. Emiliani (Eds.),
Paradigmi delle rappresentazioni sociali (pp. 211–252). Bologna: Il Mulino.
McDougall, W. (1908). An introduction to social psychology. London: Methuen.
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self, and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Moscovici, S. (1961/76). La psychanalyse, son image, son public. Paris: PUF (English trans-
lation 2008, Cambridge: Polity; Italian translation 2011, Milano: Unicopli; Portuguese
translation 2012, Petropolis: Vozes).
Moscovici, S. (1970). Preface. In D. Jodelet, J. Viet, & P. Besnard (Eds.), La psychologie
sociale, une discipline en mouvement (pp. 9–64). Paris: Mouton.
Moscovici, S. (1972). Society and theory in social psychology. In J. Israel & H. Tajfel (Eds.),
The context of social psychology (pp. 17–68). London: Academic Press.
Moscovici, S. (1973). Introduction. In C. Herzlich (Ed.), Health and illness. A social psy-
chological analysis. London: Academic Press.
Moscovici, S. (1976). Social influence and social change. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Moscovici, S. (1981). Social representations. In J. P. Forgas (Ed.), Social cognition.
New York: Academic Press.
Introduction 23
Moscovici, S. (1982). The coming era of representations. In J. P. Codol & J. P. Leyens (Eds.),
Cognitive analysis of social behaviour (pp. 115–150). The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Moscovici, S. (1984a). The phenomenon of social representations. In R. M. Farr & S.
Moscovici (Eds.), Social representations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Moscovici, S. (Ed.) (1984b). Psychologie sociale. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Moscovici, S. (2000). Social representations. Exploration in social psychology. Cambridge:
Polity.
Moscovici, S. (2012). A psicanálise, sua imagem e seu público. Petrópolis: Vozes.
Moscovici, S. (2005). Le regard psychosocial. Hermes, 41, 17–24.
Moscovici, S., & Doise, W. (1991). Dissentions et consensus. Paris: PUF (Italian translation
Dissensi e consensi. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1992).
Moscovici, S., & Marková, I. (1998). Presenting social representations. A conversation.
Culture & Psychology, 4, 371–410.
Nencini, A., Sarrica, M., Cancian, R., & Contarello, A. (2015). Pain as social
representations. A study with Italian Health professionals involved in the “Hospital
and District without Pain” project. Health Promotion International (on line first), 30(4),
919–928.
Palmonari, A., & Emiliani, F. (Eds.) (2009). Paradigmi delle rappresentazioni sociali
[Paradigms of social representations]. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Palmonari, A., & Emiliani, F. (Eds.) (2019). Repenser la théorie des représentations sociales.
Paris: Éditions des Archives Contemporaines.
Peirce, C. S. (1931–1935). Collected papers. New York: George Braziller.
Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford University Press.
Ross, L. (1908). Social psychology. New York: Macmillan.
Schutz, A. (1967). The phenomenology of the social world. Evanston, IL: Northwestern
University Press.
Sammut, G., Andreouli, E., Gaskell, G., & Valsiner, J. (Eds.) (2014). The Cambridge hand-
book of social representations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sugiman, T., Gergen, K. J., Wagner, W., & Yamada, Y. (Eds.) (2008). Meaning in action.
New York: Springer.
Tajfel, H., & Fraser, C. (Eds.) (1978). Social psychology as social science. Introducing social
psychology. London: Penguin.
Tura, L. F. R., & Oliveira Silva, A. (Eds.) (2012). Envelhecimento e representacoes sociais.
Rio de JaneiroQuartet Faperj.
Valsiner, J. (2003). Beyond social representations: A theory of enablement. Papers on
Social Representations, 12, 7.1–7.16.
van Dijk, T. (1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse and Society, 4(2),
249–283.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes
(ed. M. Cole). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Wagner, W., & Hayes, N. (2005). Everyday discourse and common sense: The theory of so-
cial representations. New York: Palgrave.
1
Change Seen Through the Lens
of Social Psychology in Europe and
the United States
Close and Distant Reading of Reference Books and
Papers Published in Two Key Journals
Valentina Rizzoli, Arjuna Tuzzi, and Alberta Contarello
How has social psychology investigated the concept of change? In this

chapter, we try to answer this question by moving in two directions. First, we
briefly consider the main lines of research described in some of the reference
books on social psychology and the contributions of leading scholars who
studied change (i.e., the great names in its history, cf. Lubek, 1993). Second,
we analyze the abstracts of the papers published in two journals of pivotal
importance in this field since their inception: the Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology (JPSP) and the European Journal of Social Psychology
(EJSP). In line with recent developments in digital methods, the distant
reading of large corpora of scientific literature can serve as a valid counter-
part to more traditional ways of pursuing a historical quest like the one we
posit here (Tuzzi, 2018).
Change in Reference Books on Social Psychology and

in Contributions of Leading Scholars
“An ancient aphorism . . . holds that social psychology is a field with a long
past but a short history” (cf. Farr, 1991). It is from this premise that Ross,
Lepperd, and Ward (2010, p. 13) begin to introduce social psychology in
what is probably the most often studied and quoted handbook on the matter
and that has been published in five prestigious editions (the latest of which
contains the above-mentioned comment; see Box 1.1). We could chart this
Valentina Rizzoli, Arjuna Tuzzi, and Alberta Contarello, Change Seen Through the Lens of Social Psychology in Europe and
the United States In: Embracing Change. Edited by: Alberta Contarello, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press
2022. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197617366.003.0002
Change Seen Through the Lens of Social Psychology 25
Box 1.1 The Various Editions of the Two Handbooks
Lindzey, G. (Ed.) (1954). The handbook of social psychology (vols. 1 & 2). Cambridge,
MA: Addison-Wesley.
Lindzey, G., & Aronson, E. (Eds.) (1968). The handbook of social psychology (2nd ed.,
vols. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Lindzey, G., & Aronson, E. (Eds.) (1985). The handbook of social psychology (3rd ed.,
vols. 1 & 2). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Gilbert, D. T., Fiske, S. T., & Lindzey, G. (Eds.) (1998). The handbook of social
psychology (4th ed., vols. 1 & 2). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
Fiske, S. T., Gilbert, D. T., & Lindzey, G. (Eds.) (2010). The handbook of social
psychology (5th ed., vols. 1 & 2). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Hewstone, M., Stroebe, W., Codol, J.- P., & Stephenson G. M. (Eds.) (1988).
Introduction to social psychology: A European perspective. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Hewstone, M., & Stroebe, W., & Stephenson G. M. (Eds.) (1996). Introduction to
social psychology: A European perspective (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.
Hewstone, M., & Stroebe, W. (Eds.) (2001). Introduction to social psychology:
A European perspective (3rd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Hewstone, M., Stroebe, W., & Jonas, K. (Eds.) (2008). An introduction to social
psychology: A European perspective (4th ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.
psychology (5th ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.
psychology (6th ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.
long past back over millennia, but—like most historians—we can also iden-
tify two pivotal periods much closer to our own times. A first period framed
the emerging science, launched more than a century ago by the work of key
figures like James and Mead in the United States, Wundt in Leipzig, and
Vygotsky in Moscow (although Ross, Lepperd, and Ward chose to leave out
Vygotky while including Helmoltz, Hall, Cattell, Titchener, Brentano, and
Ebbinghaus in their influential chapter). A second period gave social psy-
chology its “modern” shape, when Lewin, Hovland, Sherif, Asch, Festinger,
and others developed a new experimental scientific (or sub-scientific) ap-
proach to psychology, keen to manipulate social and situational factors to
clarify psychological processes. Over several decades, three core topics, or
macro-areas of study, took center stage. They concerned group processes,
attitudes, and self-and social cognition. At different times, in a kind of pen-
dulum motion, one or another of these core topics occupied the limelight
more or less exclusively. Giving a brief account of the most widely acknowl-
edged contributions to the discipline, Ross and colleagues try to detect a
26 Rizzoli, Tuzzi, and Contarello
common thread connecting the development of the main topics addressed

in social psychology with the historical period that prompted them. From
the Great Depression of 1929 to the challenges posed by fundamentalisms
at the turn of the Millennium, they browse these topics and try to arrange
them in some sort of order. Following their plot, we encounter aggression,
conformity, social influence, and terror management theory, in that order,
along one path; prejudice, propaganda, stereotyping, aversive racism, and
implicit attitudes along another; and social comparison, social cognition,
and a plethora of theories and models focusing on the self, right up to self-
theories informed by social neuroscience, along a third. While the authors’
effort is commendable, the outcome is rather puzzling. It gives the reader
the measure of how challenging it is to condense into a few lines or a single
table what 120 years or more of research and perspectives have produced—
sometimes moving in quite different directions. The authors themselves say
that we cannot write the history of social psychology (or of any other sci-
ence), but only a history because “any history of a field of study reflects par-
ticular values and tastes” (2010, p. 3). We agree and take this same stance for
our own historical outline, in this chapter and this volume as a whole. We
might add that a careful reading of currently available reference books would
support these scholars’ approach, as a glance at Table 1.1 shows how these
core topics have twisted and unfolded over the years and decades (cf. also
Rizzoli, 2018a). So, moving from this overall pattern, how has change been
considered and studied in social psychology over the course of time?
From the very beginning, the focus on group dynamics (as the social
psychology of groups and of intra-and intergroup processes was called in
Lewin’s time) might have been expected to prioritize the study of change,
especially given the importance attributed to the Lewinian notion of inter-
dependence. Instead, the strong emphasis on experimental methods, already
in the early stages, prompted a thorough analysis of the factors that might
produce change from one situation to another, be it a certain level of perfor-
mance, or morale, or eating habits, just to recall a few well-known examples
of the research that was conducted (Lewin, 1948). The object of interest in
this domain, both initially and much later on, was the shift from one social
psychological arrangement to another, and the purpose of research was to
explain the mechanisms behind such a shift from one sort of continuity to
another.
Over the many decades devoted to developing the grand topic of attitudes,
researchers’ efforts revolved around studying their measurement, change,
Table 1.1 Contents of five editions of the Handbook of Social Psychology (1954, 1968, 1985, 1998, 2010)
SECTION Historical Contemporary Research Methods The Individual in a Group Psychology Applied Social
TITLE introduction Systematic Social Context and Phenomena of Psychology
Positions Interaction
1st Chapter The Historical Stimulus-Response Experiments: Their Social Motivation Experimental Studies Prejudice and Ethnic
edition titles Background of Contiguity and Planning and The Perception of of Group Problem Relations
(1954) Modern Social Reinforcement Execution People Solving and Effects of the
Psychology Theory in Social Selected Socialization Process Mass Media of
Psychology Quantitative Psycholinguistics Psychological Communication
Cognitive Theory Techniques Humor and Laughter Aspects of Social Industrial Social
Psychoanalytic Attitude Structure Psychology
Theory and Its Measurement Mass Phenomena The Psychology
Applications Systematic Leadership of Voting: An
in the Social Observational Culture and Behavior AnalysisofPolitical
Sciences Techniques National Behavior
Field Theory Sociometric Character: The
in Social Measurement Study of Modal
Psychology The Personality and
Role Theory Interview: A Tool Sociocultural
of Social Science Systems
Content Analysis
The Cross-Cultural
Method
The Social
Significance of
Animal Studies
Continued
Table 1.1 Continued
SECTION Historical Systematic Research Methods The Individual in a Group Psychology Applied Social
TITLE Introductions Positions Social Context and Phenomena of Psychology
Interaction
2nd Chapter The Historical Stimulus-Response Experimentation in Psychophysiological Group Prejudice and Ethnic
edition titles Background of Theory in Social Psychology Approaches in Problem-Solving Relations
(1968) Modern Social Contemporary Data Analyses, Social Psychology Group Structure: Effects of the
Psychology Social Including Social Motivation Attractions, Mass Media of
Psychology Statistics The Nature of Coalitions, Communication
Mathematical Attitude Attitude and Communications, Industrial Social
Models of Social Measurement Attitude Change and Power Psychology
Behaviour Simulation of Social Social and Cultural Leadership Psychology and
The Relevance Behavior Factors in Social Structure Economics
of Freudian Measurement of Perception and Behavior Political Behavior
Psychology Social Choice and Person Perception Cultural Psychology: A Social Psychology
and Related Interpersonal Socialization Comparative of Education
Viewpoints Attractiveness Personality and Studies of Human Social-Psychological
for The Social Interviewing Social Interaction Behavior Aspects of
Sciences Content Analysis Psycholinguistics National Character: International
Cognitive Theory Methods and Laughter, Humor, The Study of Modal Relations
in Social Problem in and Play Personality and Psychology of
Psychology Cross-Cultural Esthetics Sociocultural Religion
Field Theory Research Systems Social Psychology of
in Social The Social Collective Behavior: Mental Healts
Psychology Significance of Crowd and Social
Role Theory Animal Studies Movements
Organizations The Social
Psychology of
Infrahuman
Animals
SECTION Theory and Theory and Theory and Special Fields and Special Fields and
TITLE Methods Methods Methods Applications Applications
3rd Chapter The Historical The Historical Experimentations Altruism and Leadership
edition titles Background Background in Social Aggression and Power
(1985) of Social of Social Psychology Attribution and Effects of Mass
Psychology Psychology Quantitative Social Perception Communication
Major Methods for Socialization in Intergroup Relations
Developments Social Psychology Adulthood Public Opinion and
in Social Attitude and Sex Roles in Political Action
Psychology Opinion Contemporary Social Deviance
During the Past Measurement American Society The Application of
Five Decades Systematic Language Use and Social Psychology
Learning Theory in Observational Language Users Personality and
Contemporary Methods Attitude and Attitude Social Behavior
Social Survey Methods Change Social Psychological
Psychology Program Evaluation Social Influence and Aspects of
The Cognitive Conformity Environmental
Perspective Interpersonal Psychology
in Social Attraction Cultural Psychology
Psychology
Decision-
Making and
Decision Theory
Symbolic
Interaction and
Role Theory
Organizations and
Organization
Theory
Continued
Table 1.1 Continued
SECTION Historical Methodological Intrapersonal Personal and Interdisciplinary Interdisciplinary

TITLE Perspectives Perspectives Phenomena Interpesonal Perspectives and Emerging
Phenomena Perspectives
4th Chapter Major Experimentation Attitude Structure Understanding Small Groups Health Behavior
edition titles Developments in Social and Function Personality and Social Conflict Psychology and Law
(1998) in Five Decades Psychology Attitude Social Behavior: A Social Stigma Understandings
of Social Survey Methods Change: Multiple FunctionalistStrategy Intergroup Relations Organizations:
Psychology Measurement Roles for The Self Social Justice and Concepts and
The Social Being Data Analysis Persuasion Social Development Social Movements Controversies
in Social in Social Mental in Childhood and Opinion and Actions
Psychology Psychology Representations Adulthood in the Realm of
and Memory Gender Politics
Control and Nonverbal Social Psychology
Automaticity in Communication and World Politics
Social Life Language and Social The Cultural
Behavioral Behavior Matrix of Social
Decision-Making Ordinary Personology Psychology
and Judgment Social Evolutionary Social
Motivation Influence: Social Psychology
Emotions Norms,Conformity,
and Compliance
Attraction and Close
Relationships
Altruism and
Prosocial Behavior
Aggression and
Antisocial Behavior
Stereotyping,
Prejudice, and
Discrimination
SECTION The Science of The Science of The Social Being The Social Being The Social World The Social World
TITLE Social Psychology Social Psychology
5th Chapter History of Social The Art of Social Cognitive Nonverbal Behavior Evolutionary Social Intergroup Relations
edition titles Psychology: Laboratory Neuroscience Mind Perception Psychology Intergroup Bias
(2010) Inside, Experimentation Social Judgment and Morality Social
Challenges, and Social Psychophysiology Decision-Making Aggression Justice: History,
Contributions Psychological and Embodiment Self and Identity Affiliation, Theory, and
to Theory and Methods Outside Automaticity and Gender Acceptance, Research
Application the Laboratory the Unconscious Personality in Social and Belonging: Influence and
Data Analysis Motivation Psychology The Pursuit of Leadership
in Social Emotion Health Interpersonal Group Behavior and
Psychology: Attitudes Experimental Connection Performance
Recent and Attitudes and Existential Close Relationships Organizational
Recurring Issues Persuasion: From Psychology: Interpersonal Preferences
Biology to Social Coping with the Stratification: and Their
Responses to Facts of Life Status, Power, and Consequences
Persuasive Intent Subordination The Psychological
Perceiving People Social Conflict: Underpinnings of
The Emergence Political Behavior
and Social Psychology
Consequences and Law
of Struggle and Social
Negotiations Psychology and
Language: Words,
Utterances, and
Conversations
Cultural Psychology
Note: The 1954 edition is usually considered the first official edition; however, listing the 1935 edition edited by Carl Murchison as first is a matter of debate.
32 Rizzoli, Tuzzi, and Contarello
and structure (McGuire, 1985, 1986; cf. also Albarracin & Johnson, 2019).
Changing attitudes, in particular, and persuasive communication remain
a core topic in the discipline (Bohner & Dicker, 2011). Despite the widely
shared conviction that attitudes are unstable, they are seen as sets of psycho-
logical evaluations, emotional trends, or behavioral intentions that gradually
acquire a degree of inertia and are sometimes induced to change as a result of
external perturbations due to social or contextual factors.
It is probably in the third area charted by Ross and colleagues, however—
what they call social perception/cognition and the self—that we find the
clearest layout. This third area brings together some quite diverse aspects of
social psychology that share an interest in social perception and social cog-
nition, focusing on how humans come to know the (social) world and them-
selves. Here, we might expect to find traces of what the great names of social
psychology had to say, starting from the seminal contributions of Mead and
Vygotsky, but this is rarely the case. The meta-theoretical and methodological
choices regarding the fields of investigation tend to focus on the impact of so-
cial and/or external forces on the arrangement of the plans and frameworks
guiding our behavior.
Attention to the attitudes, opinions, and behavior of individuals—and
to their tendency to be influenced, for better or for worse, by their peers or
settings—reflects an adherence to the definition of social psychology pro-
posed by Allport in 1954 (see Chapter 1). Together with the mainstream
preference for experimental and correlational methods within an overall
neo-positivist worldview, this has promoted studies that try to shed light on
individual processes seen as shifts between different general layouts inas-
much as they are triggered by an external source.
The three-way layout proposed by Ross and colleagues introduces the
latest edition of their work, and, on glancing at the table of contents in the
five editions of the handbook, we can generally find support for this pattern
(Table 1.1).
While this handbook is acknowledged as having formed generations of
social psychologists in the United States and around the world for at least
50 years, the Introduction to Social Psychology by Hewstone, Stroebe, Codol,
and Stephenson, first published in 1988, is recognized as a pivotal work that
highlights European contributions to social psychology. It contains a fair pre-
sentation of the science to students, taking into account contributions and
developments in the United States and Europe. To achieve this, most of the
chapters are jointly written by leading authors from both sides of the Atlantic
Change Seen Through the Lens of Social Psychology 33
and often from different theoretical perspectives. The volume is arranged in

several parts, along four main levels of analysis of social psychological pro-
cesses and dynamics, from the individual to the societal. Like the previously
mentioned Handbook, it, too, has been published in various editions. In our
view, although it is presented as a textbook, its structure and breadth give
it more the character of a handbook. Table 1.2 shows the volume’s contents
in its various editions. Here again, we can see that the main areas of the dis-
cipline are amply covered, including social cognition, attitudes, prosocial
and aggressive behavior, social influence, group dynamics, prejudice, and
intergroup relations. This last topic is widely developed (by comparison with
Lindzey’s Handbook and US reference books more generally), shedding light
on the key topics of self-and social identity, particularly dear to European
social psychology. Change and continuity are clearly taken into account, but
largely in the same direction as we encountered previously—as a shift from
one pattern to another, especially in the study of attitudes, social influence,
social behavior, and group dynamics.
Change: Retracing “Great Names”
As mentioned in the introduction to this volume, ever since the mid-

twentieth century various voices have challenged the just-described perspec-
tive, however. There have been efforts to widen the focus of our attention
toward a social rather than psychological level of analysis and to place
change at the forefront of our inquiries. The social construction movement
concentrates particularly on the ongoing process of constructing meaning
from practices and relations through social artifacts. From this perspective,
known reality is conceived not as static, but as fluid and continuously liable
to change, and scholarly inquiry is organized accordingly (Gergen, 2015; cf.
also Chapter 8). Discursive psychology, for its part, turned its attention to
the construction of everyday meanings through discourse and argumenta-
tion (cf. Billig, 1996; Edwards & Potter, 1992). The shifts in sense-making
that derived from taking a different stance on linguistic, rhetorical, and so-
cial levels became pivotal. The focus of attention, particularly in some crit-
ical advances, shifted to the processes of social change built into discourses
(Fairclough, 1992; see also Chapter 9). The narrative turn also pointed us to-
ward looking at how narrative works as an instrument of the mind in the
construction of reality (Bruner, 1991) and prompted us to produce suitable
Table 1.2 Contents of the various editions of (An) Introduction to Social Psychology (1988, 1996, 2001, 2008, 2012, 2016)
1st ed. 1988 2nd ed. 1996 3rd ed. 2001 4th ed. 2008 5th ed. 2012 6th ed. 2016
Introduction to a History of Social Psychology x x

Introducing Social Psychology Historically x
Introducing Social Psychology x x x
Social Cognition x x x x x x
The Self and Social Identity x
The Self x x
Emotion x x
Social Perception and Attribution x x x
Attribution Theory and Research x x
Attribution Theory and Social Explanations x
Attitudes: Structure, Measurement and Functions x x x x x x
Strategies of Attitude and Behaviour Change x x x
Strategies of Attitude Change x
Principles of Attitude Formation and Strategies of Change x
Processing Social Information for Judgments and Decisions x
Prosocial Behaviour x x x x x x
Aggressive Behaviour x x x
Aggression x x x
Conflict and Cooperation x
Social Interaction (Cooperation and Competition) x
Social Relationships x
Affiliation, Attraction and Close Relationships x x x x
Attraction and Close Relationships x
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
later than yourself. I reached Inverness this afternoon, and
discovered the names of Miss Wroat and Mrs. Peters registered at
the Caledonian. A servant of the house told me that you were at
Heather Hills, and a cabman brought me here. I know that Lally is in
this house, madam, and I must see her!”
Mrs. Peters smiled grimly as a full comprehension of Rufus Black’s
mistake dawned upon her. She understood readily that the shopman
whom Rufus had interrogated had not known of Mrs. Wroat’s death,
and had confounded the names of Mrs. Wroat and Miss Wroat, and
that Rufus very naturally thought her the “eccentric old lady” of whom
he had heard.
“And so you don’t believe that I am Mrs. Peters?” she asked.
“No, madam,” said Rufus bluntly. “I have traced an elderly lady—
yourself—and a young girl—Lally—all the way from London, and
under the names of Miss Wroat and Mrs. Peters. You are not Mrs.
Peters, and I demand to see her.”
“You can not see her,” said Mrs. Peters stoutly. “I have heard the
young lady’s story, and I shall protect her from the persecutions of a
man who deserted her in the most cowardly fashion, and who,
believing her to be dead, never made one movement to save her
supposed remains from interment in a pauper’s grave. You have no
claim upon Miss Bird, Mr. Rufus Black; you have yourself declared
that she is not your wife.”
“Lally has told you all?” cried Rufus, in a low, heart-broken voice.
“Not all though, for even she does not know all—the sleepless nights
I’ve passed, the days of anguish! I’ve hated myself, and despised
myself. I have been on the point again and again of committing
suicide. Her poor young face, as I fancied it, mutilated and dead, has
haunted me sleeping and waking. God alone knows my anguish, my
remorse! If Lally only knew all!”
“She knows more than you think,” said Mrs. Peters significantly.
“How? What? I do not understand.”
“Miss Bird has a shelter under this roof now, and while I live she shall
never want a friend,” said Mrs. Peters, purposely confirming Rufus
Black’s impression that Lally was a dependent, “but she has known
such extremes of poverty as would make you shudder. She left her
lodgings in New Brompton, turned out by an insolent landlady,
having only the clothes she stood in. She went out upon Waterloo
Bridge in her despair, to commit suicide. An unfortunate girl did
commit suicide, springing from Lally’s very side and Lally’s
handkerchief fluttering after the poor lost creature fixed upon her
Lally’s identity. Lally fled from the terrible scene, and that night she
slept upon Hampstead Heath, under the open sky, with tramps and
thieves all around her in the darkness, and she knowing it not—
homeless, houseless, penniless—”
“O Heaven!” cried Rufus Black, in an uncontrollable agitation.
“You think it terrible for a girl so young and beautiful? Listen. Worse
was to come. She went to a poor old seamstress she had known
when teaching music in a school. This seamstress gave her shelter
and protection, but she was dying of consumption, and Lally had
soon to work for her and nurse her, and after a little to bury her.
When the poor woman died, Lally was once more homeless, and
without work. She was nearly starved, and her one great desire was
to look upon your face again, herself unseen. And so she wandered
down into Kent—”
“Into Kent? Oh, my poor girl!”
“She was ragged and tattered, hungry and forlorn. She worked in the
hop-gardens for food and shelter. She saw you—”
Rufus uttered a cry of incredulity.
“She did not see me!” he ejaculated. “I should have known her in any
guise. I should have felt her nearness, had she been on the opposite
side of the street.”
Mrs. Peters’ lip curled.
“You think so?” she said dryly. “Let me tell you that your wronged
and deserted young wife was nearer to you than that, and yet you
did not know it. Do you remember a certain September evening
when you sat beside the heiress of Hawkhurst upon a way-side
bank, in the shadow of Hawkhurst park? Do you remember your
passionate vows of love to Miss Wynde? Do you remember telling
Miss Wynde that your very life here and beyond depended upon her
answer to your suit? Well, there was one listening to those
passionate vows whom you thought dead. In the thicket, almost
within an arm’s length of you, a poor worn-out, ragged tramp was
lying for a brief rest—a hungry, houseless, tattered tramp, Mr. Black
—and that tramp was your disowned young wife!”
“O my God! Impossible!”
“You passed on with your beautiful new love in all her pride and her
beauty, and the old love rose up from her thorny bed and crept after
you like a shadow, and when you stood in the light upon the
Hawkhurst terrace, with the hand of your new love pressed to your
lips, the old love stood outside the great gates a long way off, and
with her face against the bars looked in upon you both, as a lost soul
might look in upon Paradise.”
“Oh, Lally, Lally!” cried Rufus, in a wild anguish, utterly losing his
self-control. “Lally! Was she there? My poor, poor darling!”
“When you turned to come back down the avenue, she fled moaning.
She had seen you, and it seemed as if she must die. But she was
young and strong, and life clung to her, although her heart was
breaking. She wandered on for hours, and finally lay down under a
wayside hedge. The next day she worked in hop-gardens, and the
next night she slept in a barn with the hop-pickers, many of whom
are tramps and thieves out of London for a holiday. She earned a
little money, and went to Canterbury and advertised for a situation,
which she obtained—”
“As your companion, madam? May God in heaven bless you for your
goodness to my poor forsaken girl! And she lived and suffered while I
mourned her as dead. Oh, madam, I can explain all that seems so
strange to you and her. I never loved Miss Wynde as I loved Lally. I
believed Lally dead, and that I was her murderer. I was consumed
with remorse and anguish. I was desperate, and going to the bad,
and I prayed Miss Wynde to save me. But I loved only Lally. I pray
you to let me see her. She will believe me—”
“That is the very reason I shall not permit you to see her. She is
getting to take an interest in life, and I will not have her growing
peace disturbed. You are engaged to this heiress—”
“O no, I am not. And if I were I would not marry her now that I know
that Lally lives. My father threatened me with arrest and
imprisonment if I did not give Lally up. He assured me that the
marriage was null and void, and that he would provide for my poor
girl. I’m a coward, Miss Wroat, a poor, pitiful coward, and I have had
all my life long a deadly fear of my father. You cannot understand
that fear; perhaps no one can; but I shall fling off that awe and terror
of him, and be henceforth my own master. I was one-and-twenty
yesterday, madam, and I am now accountable alone to God and to
the laws of my country. I love Lally, and Lally alone, in all the world. I
am going to try to be worthy of her. She is poor, and I am poor; but if
she will take me back again,” said Rufus, humbly, “we will begin life
anew, and I will try to be a better man. I will work for her, and I’ll try to
be a great painter, so that she may be proud of me. And if I can’t be
that, I’ll be anything that is honest and manly to earn our support. I
know you have a poor opinion of me, madam, and I know I deserve
it. I don’t amount to much from any point of view, but if you would
intercede for me with Lally, and beg her to try me again and marry
me, I will bless you always as my benefactress and savior.”
The young man’s humility and anguished pleading touched the heart
of Mrs. Peters, but she steeled herself against him, and said:
“Mr. Black, I am sorry for you. I believe that you mean what you say
now, but if you were once to get under your father’s influence again,
Miss Lally would be as unhappy as ever. I advise you to go back to
Miss Wynde, and leave Lally here. In time she may marry an
honorable and upright gentleman, with whom she will be far happier
than she could be with you.”
A quick flush of jealousy overspread the youth’s face. His eyes
glared at Mrs. Peters with a hunted expression.
“She won’t marry again until I die, or the law has freed her from me,”
he exclaimed. “I would never have proposed marriage to Miss
Wynde, had I not supposed Lally to be dead. She is my wife,
madam, and I’ll declare her to be such until she herself forbids me to
do so. If she marries any other man I’ll kill him!”
The young man’s jealous fury was succeeded by an instant and
terrible despair.
“Forgive me,” he said humbly. “What am I, to talk of controlling Lally’s
movements? I have forfeited all claim upon her and upon her
forgiveness. If she refuses to take me back, I can only go to
perdition. If she will stretch out her hand to save me, I will be her
slave. Will you not take a brief message to her from me, madam—
only a few words?”
Mrs. Peters fancied she heard a light step in the hall. She listened,
but convinced of her mistake, said nervously and hastily:
“I cannot convey your message, sir. I entreat you to leave Miss Bird
in peace. I repeat that you cannot see her under this roof.”
“How summarily you dispose of the happiness and the very destiny
of a fellow-being!” said Rufus despairingly and reproachfully. “I would
see her in your presence—”
“You cannot. You have prolonged this interview beyond bounds, sir.
Take my advice and go back to Miss Wynde. I must bid you a good-
evening, Mr. Black. You can go out at this garden door, if you
please.”
Mrs. Peters threw open the garden door, and a gust of chill wind
swept in, nearly extinguishing the lights. Rufus hesitated, but the
door remained open, and Mrs. Peters looked so grim and stern that
he obeyed her without a murmur, and went out in a dead silence, his
wild eyes giving her a last look of reproach and despair.
A minute later, she heard his cab roll away from the house.
“I wonder if I have done right,” the woman muttered uneasily, as she
closed the door. “I have taken a great responsibility upon myself in
deciding the fate of my young mistress. I almost wish that I had let
him see her, but she is so young and tender and pitiful, she would be
sure to take him back again. His eyes will haunt me. He looked as a
man might look on his way to execution.”
At that moment the library door was tried from the hall, and an
imperious little knock sounded upon the panels.
“Peters,” cried Lally, from without, in an agitated voice, “let me in! let
me in!”
Peters calmed her face, and hastened to unlock the door.
Lally swept in impetuously, her gypsy face aglow, her black eyes full
of fire, her chest panting. She held in one hand a gentleman’s glove,
which she had just picked up from the hall floor.
Her keen eyes swept the room, and her countenance fell with
disappointment at finding Mrs. Peters alone.
“I heard a carriage go away just now, Peters,” she cried. “Who has
been here?”
“Was it not the wind, Miss?” cried Peters, flushing.
“No; I heard wheels going down the drive. And here is something I
found in the hall, Peters—a man’s glove. Whose is it?”
“It might be Toppen’s, Miss—”
“It might be, but it isn’t,” said Lally, full of suppressed excitement, that
made her strangely beautiful. “This is a gentleman’s glove. See how
soft and fine the kid is. The color is just the shade of lavender Rufus
used to wear when he wore gloves, and it has just the jessamine
scent he used to drop always into his gloves. And—and here is one
of the very glove buttons he used to slip from one pair of gloves to
another. I would know that small gold knob, with its chased edge,
anywhere. Peters, he has been here! Rufus has been here.”
The flushing, agitated face of Mrs. Peters confessed the truth.
“He has followed us up from London!” cried Lally, her eyes glowing
like suns. “He has come after me and traced me to this place. He
loves me still—he must love me, Peters! He must love me better
than Miss Wynde?”
“He said so, Miss Lally.”
“Ah, then it is true? But why did he go away without seeing me? Why
did you not call me? Perhaps he will give up all for me, thinking me
still poor like himself?”
“He said he would, Miss Lally,” said poor, honest Mrs. Peters, driven
to full confession. “He thinks that I am Miss Wroat, and that you are
Mrs. Peters, my poor companion. And he says he loves you, and
wants to marry you; but he is so unstable and cowardly, and I knew
you ought to make a grand marriage, with your face and your
fortune; and so—and so, Miss Lally, I sent him off, and he’s gone
back to England and to Miss Wynde.”
Poor Lally stared at her maid with dilating eyes and horror-stricken
countenance. Then she said, in a wailing voice:
“Oh, Peters, you meant well, I know: but—but you’ve broken my
heart!”
And with a low, wild moan, Lally fell forward in a dead swoon.
CHAPTER XVII.
SIR HAROLD’S RETURN.
That night upon which Rufus Black visited Heather Hills, and was
sent away again in despair, was a wild night throughout Great Britain
and upon its coasts. Ships were wrecked upon the Goodwin Sands,
and upon the south and west coasts. Over the open moors and
heaths of the country the winds went roaring like unloosed demons,
bent upon terrible mischief. Women with husbands at sea cowered
before their blazing fires that night, and children in their beds
snuggled closer and held their breaths with very fear. Houses were
unroofed in many places, chimneys were blown down, and lives
were lost upon bridges and country roads through falling timbers and
uprooted trees. The gale that night was one long to be remembered
for its wild violence, one so severe not having been experienced in
Great Britain for years.
Mr. Atkins, the Canterbury solicitor, sat in his office until a late hour
that night. His house was in a pleasant, quiet street, in a good
neighborhood, and the lower floor was occupied by him as his office,
the drawing-room being upon the second floor, and the family rooms
above. The main office had an independent entrance from the street,
with a door opening directly into the office—a convenient
arrangement duly appreciated by Mrs. Atkins, as it left the house
entrance free to her family and guests.
The solicitor had changed somewhat since his first introduction to
the reader. His honest face had grown thin and sallow, his hair was
streaked with gray, and there were anxious lines about his mouth
and eyes that told of unrest and trouble.
He sat in a lounging chair before the fire, his feet on the fender. His
family had long since retired, and the hour was wearing on toward
eleven o’clock. His fire flamed up in a wild glow, the gas burned
brightly, the red fire gleams lighted the dull office carpet and the well-
polished furniture, making the room seem especially cozy and
delightful. The shutters were lowered, but no care could shut out the
sound of the mad winds careering through the streets, clutching at
resisting outer blinds, and bearing along now and then some
clattering sign-board or other estray.
“An awful night,” sighed the solicitor. “I have a strange feeling as if
something were going to happen!”
He shifted uneasily in his chair, and bent forward and laid fresh coals
upon the fire. Then he leaned back again and thought.
The office clock struck eleven, and the loud clangor struck upon Mr.
Atkins in his nervous mood with singular unpleasantness. Before the
echo of the last stroke had died out, footsteps were heard in the
street, unsteady and wavering, as if the pedestrian were battling with
the storm, and found it difficult to advance against it.
“Some poor fellow,” thought Mr. Atkins. “He must be homeless, to be
out at this hour and in such a gale.”
The steps came nearer still and nearer, their sound being now and
then lost in the tumult of the winds. They paused at the foot of the
solicitor’s office steps, and then slowly mounted to the door.
“Who can it be at this time of night?” muttered Mr. Atkins. “Some
vagabond who means to sleep on my steps? Or is it some houseless
wanderer who sees my light through the shutters, and is come to
beg of me?”
It almost seemed as if it were the latter, for the office lights did gleam
out into the black streets, and lighted up a patch of pavement.
A knock, low and unsteady, was rung upon the knocker.
Mr. Atkins hesitated. He was not a timid man, but he had no client
who found it necessary to visit him at that hour, and his visitor, he
thought, was as likely to be some desperate vagrant or professional
thief as an honest man.
The knock, low and faint and imploring, sounded again. It seemed to
the solicitor as if there was something especially guarded and secret
in the manner of it.
He arose and took from his office desk a loaded pistol, and placed it
in his breast pocket. Then he went to the door and undid the bars
and bolts, throwing it half way open, and peering out.
A man stood upon the steps, muffled in a thick long overcoat, whose
fur collar was turned up above his ears. A slouched hat was drawn
over his face, and Mr. Atkins could not distinguish a feature of his
face.
“Who is it?” asked the solicitor, his hand feeling for his pistol.
“An old friend,” was the reply, in a hoarse whisper. “I must see you.
Let me in, Atkins.”
He stepped forward, with an air of command that impressed Atkins,
who involuntarily stepped aside, giving the stranger admittance.
The new-comer quietly turned the key in the lock.
Atkins clutched his pistol, quietly upon his guard.
“Who are you?” he demanded. “What do you want?”
The stranger took off his hat, revealing the upper portion of a noble
head, crowned with grizzled hair. Then slowly he turned down his
greatcoat collar, and stood before Atkins without disguise, displaying
a grandly noble face, with keen blue eyes, a pale bronzed
countenance, and sternly set lips above a gray military beard.
Atkins’ hand dropped to his side. With a wild and stifled shriek, he
staggered to a chair, his eyes glaring wildly at the stranger.
“My God!” he cried, with white lips. “Sir Harold Wynde!”
Sir Harold—for it was indeed he, returned that day to England, after
a prolonged journey from India—smiled his old warm smile, and held
out his hand.
“Sir Harold Wynde!” repeated Atkins, not taking the hand—“who—
who died—”
“I can give you the best of proofs, Atkins, that I did not die in India,”
said the baronet, with a cheery little laugh. “You look at me as at a
ghost, but I’m no ghost. Feel my hand. Is not that real flesh and
blood? Atkins, you are giving me a sorry welcome, my old friend.”
Atkins still stared with a wild incredulity at his old friend and
employer. He could not yet comprehend the glad truth.
“I—I must be dreaming,” he muttered. “I felt queer to-night. I—”
Sir Harold advanced and, pulling off his glove, laid his hand on that
of Atkins. Its touch was chill, but unmistakably human.
“What!” cried the baronet. “Do you believe in ghosts, my friend? I
wouldn’t have believed a bona-fide wraith could have so startled the
hard-headed Atkins I once knew. I was not eaten by the tiger, Atkins,
but I have been kept a prisoner in the hands of human tigers until I
managed to escape last month. You know me now, and that I am no
ghost?”
Atkins rose up, pale and trembling still, but with an unutterable joy on
his face.
“It is Sir Harold alive, and in the flesh!” he ejaculated. “Sir Harold
whom we mourned as dead! This is a miracle!”
He clasped the baronet’s hand, and laughed and cried in a breath.
He seemed overflowing with his great joy.
The baronet held the trembling hand of his friend in a strong, restful
pressure for some minutes, during which not a word was spoken
between them. Their hearts were full.
“I am not myself to-night, Sir Harold,” said Atkins brokenly, after a
little. “I have been upset lately.”
He drew Sir Harold toward the fire, helped him off with his greatcoat,
and ensconced him in the lounging chair before the fender. Then he
drew a chair close beside the baronet’s, and asked tremulously:
“Have you been to Hawkhurst yet, Sir Harold?”
“No, not yet. You could not think I would leave home again so soon,
if I had gone there? I only landed in England to-day, coming through
France. I am a week overdue. I arrived in Canterbury an hour ago,
and as soon as I had food I came to you. I saw your light through the
shutters, but if I had not seen it I should have rapped you up, in my
impatience. I want you to go with me to Hawkhurst, and to break the
news that I still live to my wife and daughter. My appearance
shocked you nearly into an apoplexy. I must not appear
unannounced to them.”
Mr. Atkins trembled, and covered his face with his hands.
“You would go to-night—in this storm?” he asked.
“Yes, yes. What is the storm to me? A few miles only divide me from
my home and loved ones. And I shall see them before I sleep. Oh,
Atkins, how I have looked forward to this hour of my home coming: I
have thought of it during the days and nights when I lay chained in
an Indian hut among the Himalayas; I have thought of it when pacing
the lonely deck at midnight under the stars. I have prayed for this
hour as the crowning joy of my life. Almost home! It seems as if my
soul would burst with rapture. My home! My wife! My child! The
sweetest, holiest words in our language!”
The baronet’s face glowed with a joyous radiance. Atkins was sick at
heart.
“I have been careful that no hint of my return as from the dead
should arrive before me,” continued Sir Harold. “I came home under
the name of Harold Hunlow. Only Major Archer and his family,
besides yourself, know that I still live. At the hotel I registered the
name of Hunlow, and no one but a new waiter I had never seen
before saw my face. The surprise of my family will be complete.
Come, Atkins, let us be off. I have a cab waiting at the hotel.”
“I—I wouldn’t go to-night, Sir Harold,” said Atkins feebly.
Something in his tones alarmed the baronet.
“Why not?” he demanded. “I—I have taken it for granted that they
are all well at home. Octavia—Neva—how are they? Speak!”
Atkins arose, twisting his hands nervously together. His pallor
frightened Sir Harold, who arose also.
“What is it?” he whispered. “They—they are not dead?”
“No, Sir Harold—no!”
“Thank God! You frightened me, Atkins. I can bear anything, now
that I know they are alive. What has happened? They have not met
with an accident? Don’t tell me, Atkins, that my wife, my beautiful
young wife, is insane through grief at my supposed death?”
Atkins groaned aloud.
“No, no,” he said, grating his teeth and clenching his hands. “It is not
that.”
“What is it then? Speak, for God’s sake. The suspense is killing me!”
“I have bad news for you, Sir Harold,” said the solicitor tremblingly.
“Let me give you a glass of wine—”
Sir Harold clutched the solicitor’s arm, his burning eyes fixed upon
the solicitor’s face.
“Speak!” he said hoarsely.
“I will, if you will sit down.”
Sir Harold dropped silently into his chair.
“Lady Wynde,” said Atkins—“Lady Wynde—how can I speak the
words to you who love her so, Sir Harold—She has married again!”
Every vestige of color died from the baronet’s face, and he lay back
upon his chair fainting. Atkins rang for water and brandy. He bathed
Sir Harold’s face and chafed his hands, and poured brandy down his
throat, the tears on his own cheeks. Presently Sir Harold gasped for
breath, and looked up at him with a dazed and stunned expression.
“Say that over again, Atkins,” he said feebly. “I don’t quite
understand.”
“I said, Sir Harold,” said the solicitor, every word giving him a pang,
“that Lady Wynde had married again.”
Sir Harold gave a strange cry, and covered his face with his hands.
“Don’t take it so, Sir Harold,” cried Atkins. “You’ve had a happy
escape from her. She’s a heartless, unprincipled—”
Sir Harold put up his hand.
“Don’t!” he said pleadingly. “You hurt me, Atkins. She thought me
dead, my poor Octavia. Who—who did she marry!”
“A gamester and adventurer named Craven Black. During the past
month, Sir Harold, I have devoted much time to the study of Mrs.
Craven Black’s antecedents. Forgive me, Sir Harold, but in this hour
you must know all the truth. I am like the physician who cuts deeply
to extract a ball. Sir Harold, the woman you married was never fit to
be taken into your family; she was never fit to be placed as step-
mother and guardian over a pure young girl—”
“Atkins, she is my wife. Mine still, although another claims her. I will
not hear a word against her.”
“You must hear it, Sir Harold,” said Atkins resolutely. “If you do not
hear it from me, others less kind will pour it into your ears. You
cannot escape the knowledge. As I said, during the past month I
have studied up Lady Wynde’s antecedents. I have seen Mrs. Hyde,
Lady Wynde’s aunt, and I have also seen a former maid of her
ladyship. I tell you, Sir Harold, and I pray you to forgive me for telling
you the truth, the woman you married never loved you. She married
you only as a part of a daring conspiracy—”
“Atkins!”
“It is true, so help me God!” cried Atkins solemnly. “Lady Wynde—I
suppose she is Lady Wynde still, her last marriage being rendered
invalid by your return to the living, as one might say—Lady Wynde
was engaged to marry Craven Black before she ever saw you. Mrs.
Hyde told me this herself.”
“I cannot believe it!”
“Craven Black was poor, and so was Octavia Hathaway. You were at
Brighton, rich, a widower. Craven Black conceived the idea that
Octavia should win and wed you, and secure a rich jointure, upon
which, in due time, having rid themselves of you, they should marry
—”
“This is monstrous! Atkins, you are deceived. You are belying a
noble woman!”
“Hear the rest, Sir Harold. As God is my judge, I believe your wife
married you intending to poison you!”
Sir Harold shook his head. The idea seemed too monstrous for
belief.
“That affair in the water at Brighton was planned beforehand,”
persisted Atkins. “You rescued the lady, as was expected of you. She
followed up the acquaintance, and married you. You went to India;
and I believe, if you had not gone, you would have died here
suddenly of poison. When Lady Wynde had worn mourning a year in
most decorous fashion, Craven Black and his son came up to
Wyndham, and early in September there were great festivities at
Hawkhurst, at the third marriage of Lady Wynde. There was a ball at
the great house, and a ball for the tenantry on the lawn, with music
and fire-works. It was for all the world an affair such as might have
greeted the coming of age of an heir to a grand property, rather than
the marriage of a widow from the house of her late husband to a
notorious adventurer.”
Sir Harold groaned heavily.
“And they are at Hawkhurst now?” he said, in a voice so altered that
Atkins hardly recognized it.
“No; they have been away for a month.”
“You understand that all these charges are not proved against Lady
Wynde?” said Sir Harold. “I shall take my wife back again, Atkins, if
she will come, and I will stand between her and the censure of a
gossipping world.”
“Did you write from India the night before you disappeared, enjoining
your daughter by her love for you to marry the son of Craven Black?”
demanded Atkins abruptly.
“No; how should I? I don’t know Craven Black, nor his son.”
Atkins went to his desk, and took out a letter.
“Read that, Sir Harold,” he said, returning and presenting it to the
baronet. “Lady Wynde gave that letter to Miss Wynde, telling her that
it was your last letter to your daughter, written upon the eve of your
supposed death.”
Sir Harold read the letter to the very end, an awful sternness
gathering on his countenance. The tender epithets by which he had
called his daughter, his particular modes of speech, and his own
phraseology, in that skillfully forged letter staggered him.
“I never wrote it,” he said briefly. “It is a forgery!”
“Of course. I knew that. But Lady Wynde gave it to Miss Neva,
declaring it to be your last letter.”
“Who is this Rufus Black?”
“A weak-souled, kindly young fellow, the son of a villain, and a ready
instrument in the hands of his father. He loves Miss Neva, and
proposed to her. She, however, loves Lord Towyn—”
“Lord Towyn! My old college-mate?”
“No; his son. Arthur has come into the title and property, and is as
noble a young man as any in England. Miss Neva favored him, and
the result is, Lady Wynde and Craven Black conceived a hatred of
your daughter, and determined to bend her to their will. Sir Harold,
as God hears me, Lady Wynde is a wicked, unscrupulous woman.”
Sir Harold’s face was deathly white. The letter, still held in his
trembling hands, was proof of his wife’s wickedness, and he began
to be convinced that he had been cruelly deceived by an
unprincipled woman.
“It would have been better if I had died in India!” he moaned.
“Not so. Sir Harold, there is more to hear. Can you bear another
blow?”
Sir Harold bowed; he was too broken to speak.
“A month ago, Lady Wynde, with her new husband and Miss Wynde,
went away, ostensibly to Wynde Heights. But they did not go there. A
letter came from Brussels to Lord Towyn, purporting to be from Miss
Wynde, but Lord Towyn went to Brussels, and discovered that the
young lady and her enemies have not been there. We have had
detectives at work for weeks; Lord Towyn is at work day and night
scarcely knowing rest, and I have done all that I could, but the fact
remains. Craven Black and his wife have abducted Miss Wynde, and
God alone, besides her enemies, knows where she is.”
The baronet leaped to his feet.
“Neva missing!” he cried.
“Yes, Sir Harold, missing for a month past, and she is in the hands of
enemies who would not scruple to take her life, if they could hope to
make money by her death. We have searched Great Britain for her,
and have detectives at this moment upon the Continent. She is gone
—lost! Her enemies have determined to force her into a marriage
with Rufus Black, and to seize upon her property. She is helpless in
their hands. You have returned in time to help search for her, but I
am hopeless. We shall never find her except she is dead, or married
to the son of that villain!”
Sir Harold was about to speak, but his voice choked. He leaned
against his chair, looking like one dying.
And at this juncture, while the wind tore yet more madly through the
streets, footsteps were heard ascending to the street door of the
office, and, for the second time that night, the office knocker
sounded lowly, secretly, and cautiously, yet with an imperiousness
that commanded an instant admittance.
CHAPTER XVIII.
ON THE RIGHT TRACK AT LAST.
The conclusion of the low and cautious knocking upon the office
door of Mr. Atkins was lost in a wild burst of the gale which tore
along the streets, shrieking and moaning like some maddened
demon. Sir Harold Wynde and Mr. Atkins looked at each other, and
then both glanced at the clock. It was upon the stroke of twelve.
“A late hour for a call,” said the baronet uneasily. “I have no wish to
be seen, Atkins. I am in no mood to encounter a possible client of
yours.”
The knock sounded again, in a lull of the storm, low, secret and
imperative.
Atkins’ face brightened up with sudden relief and joy.
“I know that knock,” he said. “Please step into the inner office, Sir
Harold. You shall see no one but friends to-night.”
He opened the door of the small, dark, inner office, and Sir Harold
passed in and stood in the darkness, leaving the door slightly ajar.
Atkins hastened to open the outer door. A gust of wind swept fiercely
in, and with it, and as if impelled by it, a man hurried into the office,
and closed the door with both his hands.
He was slender, but so muffled in coat collar and cap that no one
could have guessed his identity.
“Lord Towyn?” said Atkins doubtfully.
The new-comer took off his cap and turned down his collar. The
lawyer’s instinct had not deceived him. The noble face, the bright
blue eyes, so full of warmth and glow, the tawny mustache, and the
golden hair above a grand forehead—all these, now displayed to the
solicitor’s gaze, were the features of Neva’s favored lover. But the
young earl looked pale and worn by anxieties, and although now
there was a glow and brightness and eagerness in his face and
manner, yet one could see in all his features the traces of great and
recent suffering.
“Alone, Atkins?” he exclaimed, extending his hand, while he swept a
quick glance about the room. “I am glad to have found you up, but
had you gone to sleep, I must have awakened you. I have just
received important news by messenger, who routed me up at my
hotel. I came to you as soon as I could—”
“If the news is unpleasant, do not tell it just yet,” said Atkins
nervously, with a glance at the inner room. “I have news too, Lord
Towyn. Come to the fire. Bless us, how the wind howls!”
The young earl removed his greatcoat and advanced to the fire, and
Atkins went into the inner office. The sound of whispering followed.
Lord Towyn heard the sound and started, and at the same moment
his glance fell upon Sir Harold Wynde’s cast-off greatcoat and hat.
Presently Atkins returned, rubbing his hands together with
excitement.
“You are not alone, I see,” said the young earl. “I will see you again,
Atkins—”
“Stay, my lord,” said the solicitor. “I have news, great news, to impart
to you. Let me communicate mine first. Can you bear a great
surprise—a shock?”
“You have heard from Miss Wynde?” cried Lord Towyn. “You have
later news even than mine? Speak, Atkins. Those villains have not
succeeded in forcing her into a marriage with young Black? It is not
that—say that it is not.”
“It is not that, my lord. How am I to tell you the startling news I have
just learned? My lord, I have had a visit to-night from a gentleman
who has just returned from India. He knew Sir Harold Wynde well,
and came to give me all the particulars of Sir Harold’s supposed
death!”
“Supposed death? How strangely you choose your words, Atkins.
Supposed death?”
“Yes, my lord,” cried Atkins, trembling and eager. “We have all
mourned Sir Harold as dead. And this gentleman says—prepare for
a surprise, my lord—he says that Sir Harold Wynde still lives!”
The young earl started, and grew white.
“It is impossible!” he ejaculated. “He lives? It is preposterous! Atkins,
you are the sport of some impostor!”
“No, no, my lord. I believe it; I believe that Sir Harold lives!”
“Have you forgotten the letter of Surgeon Graham, giving a
circumstantial and minute account of Sir Harold’s death?” demanded
Lord Towyn. “If Sir Harold had survived his encounter with the tiger,
would he not have returned home over a year ago?”
“The—the gentleman who gave me the particulars of Sir Harold’s
fate,” said Atkins, full of suppressed excitement, “says that the
baronet was unfortunate enough to incur the enmity of his Hindoo
servant, who secretly swore revenge. Sir Harold actually
encountered the tiger, as was said, but a shot from the servant
frightened the beast, and he fled back into the jungle. Sir Harold was
wounded and bleeding and his horse was killed. The Hindoo servant
picked up his disabled master, and, instead of taking him back to
Major Archer’s bungalow, he carried him forward and gave him into
the hands of some of his own friends and country people, and these
friends of the Hindoo carried off Sir Harold further into the hill
country, to their home, a sort of mountain fastness. They kept him
there closely imprisoned, and while we mourned our friend as dead,
he was chained in a cell but little better than a dungeon.”
Lord Towyn still looked incredulous.
“How did the bearer of this strange tale discover these strange facts,
if facts they are?” he demanded. “I should like to see this gentleman
from India? I should like to question him—”
He paused, as the door of the inner room opened, and Sir Harold
Wynde, pale and haggard, came into the outer office.
Lord Towyn uttered a strange cry, and sprang backward, his face
whitening to deathliness.

Embracing Change Knowledge Continuity and Social Representations Alberta Contarello Editor Full Chapter PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Embracing Change Knowledge Continuity and Social Representations Alberta Contarello Editor Full Chapter PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Embracing Change: Knowledge,

Continuity, and Social Representations

Social Theory: Continuity and Confrontation: A Reader,

(eBook PDF) Working in America: Continuity, Conflict,

Beyond the Knowledge Crisis: A Synthesis Framework for

Expressive Arts for Social Work and Social Change 1st

(eTextbook PDF) for Education and Social Change 5th

(eTextbook PDF) for Global Climate Change: Turning

Economies of Literature and Knowledge in Early Modern

Embracing The Demon Celeste King

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

© Oxford University Press 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

You must not circulate this work in any other form

Library of Congress Cataloging-​in-​Publication Data

Andréa Barbará S. Bousfield, PhD Jorge Correia Jesuino, PhD

Alberta Contarello, MSEd Giuseppe Mininni, MPhil/​MA Semiotics

Valentina Rizzoli, PhD Luiz Fernando Rangel Tura, PhD

Our life is changing at an accelerated pace. Common metaphors are used

What Is at Stake? Change, Continuity, and

How has change—​ and continuity—​been studied in social psychology?

Casual inspection of psychological theories of social knowledge

concept . . . Moscovici (1976b) shows that the studies of social influence

Before trying to retrace some important steps in social psychology in this

Thematic Section on “Societal Change” in the Journal of Social and Political

Social Psychology: One, None, One Hundred Thousand—​

Autonomy of an Interdisciplinary Project

a system of values, ideas and practices with a dual function: firstly

Consequently, both psychological and social aspects, as well as aspects re-

What fully characterizes the social representations perspective is the un-

Figure I.1 The triangle Ego-​Alter-​Object.

Figure I.2 A second triangle: Between-​ness.

on change and continuity. We ourselves have used it effectively to study pro-

disciplines: ethnography for observation in natural settings, psychology

The Time Dimension

The systems of knowledge that we are immersed in and that we contribute to

The astonishing acceleration in individual and social communication

However, under no circumstances are ahistorical explanations suitable as

Subject to changes, social representations live along the dimension of time,

Representations seek to construct knowledge of the future cognitively,

This function of social representations opens the way to challenging fields

Future-​Making: “Engagé” Approaches

Studying change, from the perspective we are considering, involves facing a

more properly, by co-​constructions of meaning-​making.2 What then are the

These ideas will be encountered throughout the various chapters of the

Outline of the Volume

Representations in the Classroom: The Experience of Social Inequalities in

re-​presented in mediated formats” (Castro, 2015, p. 303). Part IV is about

in times of accelerated mobility) but also to help generate a novel reading

Allport, G. (1954). The historical background of modern social psychology. In G.

Valentina Rizzoli, Arjuna Tuzzi, and Alberta Contarello

How has social psychology investigated the concept of change? In this

Change in Reference Books on Social Psychology and

Box 1.1 The Various Editions of the Two Handbooks

common thread connecting the development of the main topics addressed

SECTION Historical Methodological Intrapersonal Personal and Interdisciplinary Interdisciplinary

and often from different theoretical perspectives. The volume is arranged in

Change: Retracing “Great Names”

As mentioned in the introduction to this volume, ever since the mid-​

Introduction to a History of Social Psychology x x

You might also like

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Alberta Contarello, MSEd Giuseppe Mininni, MPhil/MA Semiotics

How has change— and continuity—been studied in social psychology?

Social Psychology: One, None, One Hundred Thousand—

Figure I.1 The triangle Ego-Alter-Object.

Figure I.2 A second triangle: Between-ness.

Future-Making: “Engagé” Approaches

more properly, by co-constructions of meaning-making.2 What then are the

re-presented in mediated formats” (Castro, 2015, p. 303). Part IV is about

As mentioned in the introduction to this volume, ever since the mid-