Social Representational Analysis as an Alternative Approach to Exploring Cultural Values

Values remain notoriously difficult to “capture” because they cannot be directly observed. Attitudes and opinions are the only known indicators of their presence. The relationship between values and attitudes or opinions is that between latent and manifest, so that values can be justifiably inferred from observed attitudes and expressed opinions. Nevertheless, this is an epistemological limitation to reckon with. So, the alternative we propose is to explore cultural values as an integral part of social representations. We want to show that social representation theory can help with identifying values in an accurate and reliable manner. It is only due to the fact that we already have a common representation of social reality that we can develop attitudes that can then be manifested by expressing opinions. If values directly intervene in the formation of attitudes, they will surely be part of the representations that triggered that formation in the first place. Using a mixed-method approach, professionals’ representations of their professional role were explored in order to identify the values associated with it. As cognitively processed cultural constructs, values can be identified as elements of the central node of professionals’ representation of their profession.