The Fairytale Semantic Differential Technique: A Cross-Cultural Application.

Victor Petrenko,Olga Mitina

doi:10.3390/bs10070112

Abstract

The “Fairytale Semantic Differential” method, in which the respondent assesses several fairytale characters according to a set of personal characteristics, is designed for individual psychological work with children 4–10 years old. Personality characteristics, according to which the characters are evaluated, are formulated in terms understandable to child respondents, i.e., these are words that parents and teachers use when dealing with children of this age. An analysis of the child’s attitude to a certain fairytale character makes it possible to determine the individual properties of his/her moral value sphere. Quantitative indicators that can be calculated on the basis of the data collected by the questionnaire are discussed. These indicators characterize the child’s personality, his/her understanding of interpersonal relationships, the dimensionality of the categorial space of interpersonal perception, the content of these categories and its hierarchy, the level of cognitive development in this domain, and the degree of socialization. The results of an empirical study that was conducted in Moscow, Baku, and Tashkent are presented. Age and sex differences were found in the cognitive complexity of interpersonal perception and socialization. Also, an example of individual semantic space is presented.

Highlights

The psychosemantic approach has been used since the mid-1970s in the USSR and later in Russia as a methodology that allows research related to the reconstruction of people’s mentality [1,2]
Fairytale SemanticDifferential (FSD) can be used either for individual counseling work which a psychologist can lead with a child or in screening studies where the method can be used for getting sample data
This article presents the possibilities of using a Fairytale Semantic Differential method for working with children 4–10 years old

Summary

Introduction

The psychosemantic approach has been used since the mid-1970s in the USSR and later in Russia as a methodology that allows research related to the reconstruction of people’s mentality [1,2] This method was developed by combining the approaches of C. Petrenko [1] as a psychosemantic method to examine the cognitive complexity of children’s interpersonal perception and elicit personal constructs, as well as to determine their levels of self-esteem and socialization. This method was designed for children aged between 4 and 10, i.e., of preschool and primary school age. A computer version was developed [5]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion