Common-sense Representations Research Articles

Professional Narratives about Older Adults and Health Services Responsive to Fall-Inducing Frailty.

The second external cause of death from unintentional injuries is falls in people over 60 and is a worldwide Public Health problem. Associated factors are identified early in Primary Health Care. Thus, we analyze professional narratives about older adults/old age and the organization of services in the presence of fall-inducing frailty. A structured narrative was applied under the following stages: understanding the context, setting/plot/character analysis, and interpretive synthesis. Data were collected from August to November 2022, distributing 21 health professionals in three Narrative Focus Groups. In the analyses, the collective conceptions dialogued with Bourdieu's Epistemology of field, habitus, and capital. Technical and common sense representations of older adults were simultaneously observed among the results, along with the belief of old age as a problematic life stage. Care is centered on the installed disease/ailment. Encouraging autonomy and self-care emerges in integrative health practices, which older adults underestimate. Professionals access the lives of older adults according to their habitus, which, in turn, is structured (structuring) in the disputes for installed capital. Thus, the care provided disregards subjectivities and symbolic systems associated with falls.

Respite. Quiet. A House of Dreams.

Respite. Quiet. A House of Dreams.

Incremental BERT with commonsense representations for multi-choice reading comprehension

Incremental BERT with commonsense representations for multi-choice reading comprehension

Public administration, legal culture, and empirical research: Residential policies for the Sinti in Venice

This article proposes a model for analyzing contested local policies for Roma and Sinti people, starting with a case study on a Sinti “village” established by Venice’s local authority. A multidimensional analytical framework is adopted, investigating how the local setting and the political and discursive opportunity structures existing at higher territorial levels intersect, and how local residents’ collective actions influence the public authorities’ behavior. Concerning the first aspect, we identify a mutually reinforcing effect of legal culture, policies, and common-sense representations that contributes to consolidating the representation of Roma and Sinti people as “foreigners” and “nomads.” As for the second aspect, our analysis shows how the different perceptions of citizenship (and of the relationship between the Sinti and citizenship, in particular) of the various protagonists in the conflict affect the practices that are implemented.

A commonsense reasoning framework for explanatory emotion attribution, generation and re-classification

We present DEGARI (Dynamic Emotion Generator And ReclassIfier), an explainable system for emotion attribution and recommendation. This system relies on a recently introduced commonsense reasoning framework, the TCL logic, which is based on a human-like procedure for the automatic generation of novel concepts in a Description Logics knowledge base. Starting from an ontological formalization of emotions based on the Plutchik model, known as ArsEmotica, the system exploits the logic TCL to automatically generate novel commonsense semantic representations of compound emotions (e.g. Love as derived from the combination of Joy and Trust according to Plutchik). The generated emotions correspond to prototypes, i.e. commonsense representations of given concepts, and have been used to reclassify emotion-related contents in a variety of artistic domains, ranging from art datasets to the editorial contents available in RaiPlay, the online platform of RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana (the Italian public broadcasting company). We show how the reported results (evaluated in the light of the obtained reclassifications, the user ratings assigned to such reclassifications, and their explainability) are encouraging, and pave the way to many further research directions.

Enhancing Transformer-based language models with commonsense representations for knowledge-driven machine comprehension

Compared to the traditional machine reading comprehension (MRC) with limitation to the information in a passage, knowledge-driven MRC tasks aim to enable models to answer the question according to text and related commonsense knowledge. Although pre-trained Transformer-based language models (TrLMs) such as BERT and Roberta, have shown powerful performance in MRC, external knowledge such as unspoken commonsense and world knowledge still cannot be used and explained explicitly. In this work, we present three simple yet effective injection methods integrated into the structure of TrLMs to fine-tune downstream knowledge-driven MRC tasks with off-the-shelf commonsense representations. Moreover, we introduce a mask mechanism for a token-level multi-hop relationship searching to filter external knowledge. We have conducted extensive experiments on DREAM and CosmosQA, two prevalent knowledge-driven datasets. Experimental results indicate that the incremental TrLMs have outperformed the baseline systems by 1%-4.1% with a fewer computational cost. Further analysis shows the effectiveness of the proposed methods and the robustness of the incremental model in the case of an incomplete training set.

The Dirty Body that Cleans

Abstract This article examines representations of domestic workers in Brazilian “common sense,” in the Gramscian use of the term. It argues that the dominant trope of maids' bodies as “dirty,” and yet the “most suitable” to carry out the job of cleaning, is produced at the intersection of three major components of Brazilian cultural politics: the pervasive authoritarianism that is directed mainly at the poor; the contempt for manual labor and the constant ridicule of manual workers' alleged inferiority; and the repulsion for the black body, frequently portrayed as hyper-resistant and infra-human. These components, in turn, are deeply permeated by Brazilian conceptions of blackness, whiteness, masculinity, femininity, and higher- and lower-class identities, and their interconnections with notions of cleanliness and filth. The article thus looks at common-sense representations of domestic workers' dark-skinned female bodies as sites where race, gender, and class asymmetries meet and sustain one another.

Comparison of the role of self-efficacy and illness representations in relation to dietary self-care and diabetes distress in adolescents with type 1 diabetes

This cross-sectional study examined the joint effects of self-efficacy and illness representations on dietary self-care and diabetes distress in adolescents with type 1 diabetes by comparing two theoretical models: the Self-regulation Model (Leventhal, H., Meyer, D., & Nerenz, D. (1980). The common-sense representations of illness danger. In S. Rachman (Ed.), Medical Psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 7–30). New York: Pergamon.) and Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, A. (1997). Self efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman.). One hundred and fifty-one adolescents with type 1 diabetes completed self-report measures of dietary self-efficacy, illness representations, dietary self-care and diabetes distress. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The model best supported by the data (Leventhal's Self-regulation Model) showed that dietary self-efficacy, perceived consequences and treatment effectiveness had direct and independent effects on both dietary self-care and diabetes distress. Together with dietary self-efficacy, perceived short-term treatment effectiveness was a significant predictor of dietary self-care. Age was found to be a negative predictor of short-term treatment effectiveness beliefs. Diabetes distress was best predicted by self-efficacy and perceived consequences. It can be concluded that to target effectively dietary self-care and distress, clinicians should focus on key illness representation variables (perceived short-term treatment effectiveness and perceived consequences) in conjunction with self-efficacy.

Playing the ‘race card’: white anxieties and the expression and repression of popular racisms in the 1997 UK election

ABSTRACT Vautier's article is a case study of a particular moment in the 1997 election campaign in the United Kingdom when a Conservative politician, Nicholas Budgen, was accused of ‘playing the race card’ during a House of Commons debate in the run-up to the May general election. Here, as in other moments when this political game is discussed, the term ‘race card’ appears in both political commentary and in academic analysis as a taken-for-granted term. Its use as an unquestioned general descriptor overlooks how these moments of scandalous politics work to replay and reinforce, albeit with contemporary adjustments, longstanding ideas of national belonging and so-called racial truths. Commonsense understandings and representations of racial difference work to sustain racialized anxieties, addressed here as white anxieties. White anxiety refers to the (often implicit and routine) fear, resentment and indignation that people can experience within white-dominated societies, such as Britain, in response to imagined displacement by those identified as racially or ethnically different. Election campaigns are important moments when issues of national identity, nation and belonging are invoked as voters are asked to think about how, and by whom, the nation should be managed. Politicians, with the complicity and the separate efforts of the media, often marshal white anxieties by reinforcing notions of difference in speeches and debates over multiculturalism, immigration and scarcity with regard to resources such as jobs, housing and health services. These themes also sustain whiteness as the naturalized cultural capital of belonging and citizenship. Election campaigns, in terms of both official and unofficial politics and media participation are discursive spaces that operate to sustain commonsense notions of racialized difference and otherness. Taken-for-granted entitlements are posited by some as under threat with Whites as potential losers of material and symbolic resources. The aim is to bring the discourses that marshal and sustain such anxieties into sharper view. The analysis of this case study illustrates racialized discourses that are relevant to a range of contexts, not least to more recent events and campaigns in British politics in which similar narrative tropes are deployed, including, for example, the frequent references to so-called bogus asylum-seekers, post-7/7 attempts to link terror to cultural difference, and the intermittent calls for further immigration limits by both the press and politicians in recent years.

Discursive Elements in the (De)Banalisation of Nationalism: A Study of Speeches by Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy

The paper offers a study of the contributions of Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown to a dominant culturalist discourse on identity in Europe. In recent years, issues about immigration and integration have been central across the European community, concurrent with a general feeling of cultural insecurity. In this paper, I argue that mainstream political discourse has shifted from common sense nationalism into an even more ambiguous discourse by also taking over aspects of national-populism. The aim of the paper is consequently to show that common sense representations of nationalism tend to go beyond 'banal nationalism'. I suggest how a culturalist shift has occurred in their more overt use of nationalist representations. Thus, despite the formal aim to render a new social cohesion, the cultural references inherent to nationalism seem to generate an exclusionary imaginary, which not only allows the reproduction of nationalism but also promotes forms of exclusions, which foster introverted assertions of identities.

Relations socio-sexuelles des personnes handicapées vivant en institution ou en ménage : une analyse secondaire de l’enquête « Handicaps, incapacités, dépendance » (HID)

Common sense representations and scientific discourse assume that the sexuality of disabled people is principally influenced by somatic, psychic and functional factors. The sexual life of disabled individuals is rarely considered as being the result of a form of social construction. This study, based on a secondary analysis of the survey “Disability, functional limitations and dependence” (HID), carried out in France in 1998, highlights the influence of forms of institutional organization on the socio-sexual relations of disabled individuals. We carried out an analysis allowing us to compare persons who reported at least one disability who live in specialized institutions with those who live in private households. The results of a series of regressions provide evidence that: (1) disabled persons’ socio-sexual relations are much more limited when they live in institutions than when they live in private households and a fortiori even more limited than in the general population; (2) rates of being single and divorced were noticeably higher in specialized institutions; (3) persons in institutions had less children than people living in households. This analysis demonstrates the major influence exerted by the institutional organization of sexuality on disabled people whatever the type or degree of reported disability or incapacity. In addition, individuals living in an institution are subject to variations in the frequency of their socio-sexual relations. These variations are linked to the type of institutional organization in which they find themselves and not to the type of disability or incapacity. This final result strengthens the hypothesis that the institutional organization of sexuality has a negative influence on the possibility of having socio-sexual relations.

Common sense representations of schizophrenia in patients and their relatives

This study tests whether the same dimensions that have been shown to be relevant to cognitive understanding of physical health problems may also be applied validly to severe mental health problems such as schizophrenia. 22 people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and 18 of their relatives, were asked open-ended questions about their understanding of schizophrenia. The responses were recorded and were sorted into common sense dimensions. Construct validity for the use of the dimensions assessed by the most recently updated Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) was examined. The results suggest that the dimensions of the IPQ-R are present in people's understanding of schizophrenia. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Psychological aspects of diabetic neuropathic foot complications: an overview.

Despite recent advances in understanding and major efforts to control the biomedical risk factors for neuropathic foot complications, the rates of foot ulceration and amputation remain unacceptably high. As the current focus on physical factors alone has not led to a substantial decline in foot complications in persons with diabetes, we propose a more balanced approach with the consideration of potentially important psychological factors. Until recently, psychosocial research in diabetes has almost exclusively focused on self-care behaviours and the burdens associated with the management of glycaemia, almost to the total neglect of the effects of chronic complications including neuropathy. As the burdens associated with the complications of diabetes begin to overshadow those specific to the control of glycaemia, it is important to develop social and psychological concepts and measures that capture how patients perceive and respond to specific threats such as that of neuropathy. There is now some progress in this area as evidenced by emerging patient-centred, theory-based methods to identify psychological factors influencing adherence behaviours, emotional status and quality of life in diabetic patients at high risk of developing foot ulcers. The development of a conceptual model of patient's common-sense representations or beliefs about foot complications and the type and source of their emotional distress should allow clinicians and behavioural investigators to share ideas for the assessment of patient beliefs and behaviour, and the development of educational methods that should improve clinicians' ability to empower patients to manage their neuropathy more efficiently.

Common sense, science and social representations

The theory of social representations is perfectly suited to the empirical investigation of the public's understanding of science. A sharp distinction is drawn between a scientific theory and its social representation corresponding, respectively, to the contrasting worlds of science and of common sense. Representations of science are to be found in the media as well as in people's minds and need to be sampled and studied in both locations. Moscovici initiated this French tradition of research with his study, in the late 1950s, of psychoanalysis. It is a sociological form of social psychology with close affinities to the sociology of knowledge. The applicability to the natural sciences of a theory developed in relation to the social and human sciences is discussed. The views of Moscovici and of Wolpert are compared and contrasted, especially in regard to the relations between science and common sense. It is argued that the study of social representations is a form of social science that natural scientists need to take seriously if their advice to governments is to become more effective. This is discussed in relation to such health issues as the purity of water and the conduct of government-sponsored campaigns to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS as well as in regard to the wider issues of threats to the ecosystem.

Further explorations of common-sense representations of common illnesses.

Further explorations of common-sense representations of common illnesses.

Further explorations of common-sense representations of common illnesses.

A simple method is presented for measuring people's illness cognitions--their common-sense representations of common illnesses. Data were collected from 1,628 different respondents who described a recent illness form 1 to 3 separate times over a 17-month period. A free-clustering task performed by a set of naive participants confirmed that these cognitions fall into the five components that have been previously noted: identity, time line, consequences, cause, and cure. These five components are found to be reasonably stable over time and across different illness episodes. Several consequences of these illness cognitions, in terms of changes in health-locus-of-control beliefs and different propensities to visit a doctor, are also noted. Specifically, controllable attributions for getting sick and personal responsibility attributions for getting better are associated with increased beliefs in Self-Control Over Health and decreased beliefs in Chance Health Outcomes; people with strong Identity and Cure components in their common-sense representations of common illnesses have a greater propensity to visit a doctor when feeling ill.

Common sense representations of common illnesses.

Evidence is provided that common sense representations of common illnesses involve five components: (1) a label; (2) consequences; (3) a time line; (4) a cause; and (5) a cure. The last two components, attributions for getting sick and for getting better, can be conceptualized along the familiar dimensions of stability, locus, and controllability. The content of schemas for one's most recent illness are shown to have small but significant effects on changes in health locus of control beliefs but not on preventive health behaviors. It is suggested that if people consistently employ the same schemas for every disease they experience, then cumulatively schematic processing could have very large effects on health beliefs and health behaviors. It is further suggested that if the same illness schemas are employed when major diseases are encountered, then schemas based on the experience of minor illnesses could have dramatic and much more immediate effects on morbidity and mortality. The germ model of disease suggests that people get sick when an external, organic agent (a germ) somehow invades the body. When people are sick, they experience unpleasant symptoms, which motivates them to visit a physician. The physician cures the disease by killing the germs, often with the purposive introduction of another external organic agent, a drug or medicine. However, health researchers have long known that this simple germ model of disease is not a very satisfactory representation of the disease experience for many of us. People's subjective experience with any given disease varies a great deal more than is suggested by the simple determinacy of the germ model. For example, people differ in how frequently they complain about different symptoms (Desroches, Kaiman, & Ballard, 1967; Suchman, 1965; Zborowski, 1952; Zola, 1966) and in their propensity to