Abstract

AMARAL, Virgílio. Psychosocial regulation in the organization of intelligence beliefs: relations between social representations of intelligence and personal conceptions of intelligence. Psicologia [online]. 2006, vol.20, n.2, pp.129-142. ISSN 0874-2049.

In the present work we analyse the processes that regulate the organi­zation of beliefs about intelligence in adolescents, namely the influence of the “familiarity” with the object of the representation. Results show that subjects for whom intelligence is an unfamiliar topic explain it in a biological way and repre­sent it as a natural gift. We also research the relations among the “familiarity” principle, the social repre­sentations of intelligence, and the personal conceptions of intelligence. Results show that some beliefs about “alternative intelligences” to the school definitions predict negatively static conceptions and positively dynamic conceptions. We also find that a belief in the “natural inequality” of intelligence is a hegemonic lay theory, shared both by static and dynamic subjects.

Keywords : intelligence; social representations; personal conceptions.

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