Implicit Conceptions Research Articles

Conceptions of sport ability and practice of sport: an implicit measure

People may endorse two conceptions of the nature of sport ability: an entity theory (sport ability is considered innate, stable, a gift, a talent) and an incremental theory (sport ability is improvable, linked to training and effort). Previous studies (e. g., Biddle et al., 2003) have used explicit methods to assess these beliefs. Using an implicit measure (ST-IAT, Single-Target Implicit Association Test) in order to overcome the social desirability which might be induced by self-reported measures, this study examined (1) whether automatic and implicit conceptions of sportsper-sons and non-sportspersons differed, and (2) the correlation between IAT score and explicit perceived competence in sport. The results showed that sportspersons automatically associated sport with training rather than talent, whereas non-sportsper-sons had an easier association between sport and talent. Even if sportspersons had higher perceived competence in sport than non-sportspersons, the IAT score was not related to perceived competence.

Musical Learning and Teaching Conceptions as Sociocultural Productions in Classical, Flamenco, and Jazz Cultures

This study analyzes the discourse of musicians from three different cultures of musical learning, ranging from the more formal classical European culture, through the jazz culture, to the less formal flamenco culture in Roma communities. It is based on cultural studies of learning and education and the implicit conceptions theory. Thirty-one semi-professional guitarists were interviewed about learning and teaching music. We applied the lexicometrical method using correspondence analysis. We found significant lexical differences among the three cultures for all the three educational dimensions analyzed (teaching, learning, and evaluation). We describe literal answers from the most representative participants from each culture (using the automatic selection of modal response procedure according to χ2 distance) and a qualitative analysis of their full answers. Finally, we project a distribution of the three cultures of learning onto a factorial plane, which summarizes distribution of the three cultures of learning according to two axes that we have interpreted in terms of (a) locus of control (self-others) and (b) phenomenology (analytical–emotional distance–conceptual–explicit knowledge/sensory–involvement–embodied–implicit knowledge), respectively. The discourse of classical and flamenco participants expressed other-regulated learning, although classical participants were closer to an explicit, conceptual pole, whereas flamenco participants were closer to an implicit, embodied pole. The discourse of jazz participants lay in between the other two, closer to the explicit pole, but including characteristic language about self-regulation.

MARKET INTERNALIZATION OF EXTERNALITIES: WHAT IS FAILING?

The usual internalization of externality ‘by the market’ can be thought of through two different exchange modes: competitive markets, with Kenneth J. Arrow (1969); or bargaining, with Ronald H. Coase (1960). Although, in both cases, ‘externality’ refers to a non-exchanged effect that produces suboptimalities, these authors are working with two different, implicit conceptions of externality, rooted in different analytical worlds and calling for different institutions—parametric prices for the former but not for the latter. Moreover, while both start out with different theoretical frameworks, the authors share a concern for realism and unite when they introduce transaction costs, both advocating a policy design that calls for taking into account the costs of the different solutions. Nevertheless, this introduction of transaction costs does not itself escape consistency problems, since they do both maintain a reference to their respective ideal worlds.

How to access the conceptions and theories that underlie teaching practices? A theoretical-methodological reflection based on dialogic discourse analysis / ¿Cómo acceder a las concepciones y teorías que subyacen a las prácticas docentes? Una reflexión teórico-metodológica desde el Análisis dialógico de los discursos

This article discusses the methodologies used to access the implicit theories and conceptions that underlie teachers’ teaching practices, as well as the theoretical-methodological assumptions behind these approaches. The study was planned stressing the importance of inquiring into both subjectivity as a polyphonic construct and the practices inherent to different discursive genres, bearing in mind the theoretical and methodological potential of dialogic discourse analysis.

Reticence and the Fuzziness of Thresholds

This article discusses implicit conceptions of reticence in the early philosophical writings of Mikhail Bakhtin. Contrary to the image of Bakhtin as a thinker of dialogue, polyphony, and voice, it finds a strand in Bakhtin's thought that suggests that there might be good reasons for remaining silent and not stepping into the world in speech: in reticence, the human being avoids both judgment and being judged, eludes the risk of the addressee's absence or unreliability, and resists the finality of utterance that shares in the finality of death. This essay makes a case for a Bakhtinian apology for quietism and seeks to contribute to recent work in Common Knowledge on that subject. Bakhtin's conception of reticence is usefully understood with reference to threshold situations: in withholding a future word, a human being hovers on the borders of nonbeing and being, on the borders of the present, future, and past. In this sense, reticence is allied to conceptions of fuzziness and blur that have also been concerns of this journal in recent years. In making these claims, the essay relates Bakhtin's thought to a Russian literary tradition of thinking about silence (Tiutchev's and Mandelstam's Silentium poems), as well as to a more broadly European intellectual context (Arendt and Heidegger, for example), where thinkers understand being in terms of becoming and understand disclosure through speech.

Responsibility and Informal CSR in Formal Cameroonian SMEs

In this article, we explore the implicit conceptions of business ethics and social responsibility of owners−managers of small and medium enterprises (SME) in Cameroon. While using a hermeneutical approach, our main objective is to clarify how Sub-Saharan African business people themselves understand and define corporate responsibility in their particular economic and political environment. Our aim is not to deliver an empirical study of business practices and management behavior in SMEs. We wish to discuss which responsibilities they themselves judge to be relevant and which can legitimately be attributed to them by third parties. Secondly, we relate our findings to other empirical work on SMEs, in Africa and elsewhere. It is shown that there are similarities with the way in which SMEs in Europe interpret their responsibility, but also striking differences. Further, we relate our findings to some theoretical controversies around corporate social responsibility (CSR) in SMEs, to questions about evaluation tools for CSR in the SME context, and to the role of CSR with respect to poverty alleviation in developing countries.

Mapping actor roles in social media: Different perspectives on value creation in theories of user participation

While media studies have been locked into a classic producer-text-audience model, most theories of social media suggest some degree of collapse between the producer and audience. In this article, we address social media in terms of processes of value creation. The aim of the article is to demonstrate that social media are either addressed in terms of economic and socio-political value creation, that is, power, exploitation and business revenues, or in terms of value creation as sense-making, that is, creative explorations of the self and management of social relationships in everyday life. These different interests in value creation, we argue, have consequences for the conceptualization of the media user as a participatory agent. With specific focus on the notion of value creation in social media, we uncover implicit conceptions of the social media user guiding industry and user-centric perspectives, respectively. We demonstrate that while studying the same phenomenon, the two perspectives operate with very different conceptions of the producer/user nexus. We then discuss whether the literature is inconsequential in the analytic treatment of its own suggested collapse by questioning if, and if so how, this collapse is in fact taking place. Finally, we offer a mapping of the multifarious actor roles identified in the literature review to nuance the understanding of the producer/user nexus in social media and use it to identify and discuss possible opportunities for collapse and cross-fertilization of user-centric and industry perspectives in future studies of social media.

Neuroética: reflexiones sobre los principios latentes de la moral en medicina

Ethical dilemmas resulting from neural sciences have promoted the emergence of a new discipline termed neuroethics. Researchers distinguish between ethics of neuroscience and neuroscience of ethics. The former deals with ethical problems arising from new forms of interventions into the brain. The latter investigates the neural mechanisms that may possibly underlie morality as such. This article presents a survey of the new empirical facts and directions, and a critical evaluation of the methodological and ontological problems underlying neuroethics as such. Conceptual analyses of research issues and the underlying implicit conceptions of human being are thoroughly investigated based on Heidegger's thought.

Conceptions of Civil Society in International Law-Making and Implementation: A Theoretical Framework

The wave of civil uprisings that has swept the Middle East and North Africa has placed fostering civil society participation high on the agenda of national governments and international organizations. Despite widespread appeals to civil society engagement, however, the term “civil society” is deeply ambiguous: behind it lie conflicting normative values and commitments. This renewed commitment to civil society participation in democratic governance makes it all the more pressing to understand these different normative conceptions of civil society and the often-conflicting prescriptions that flow from them.In this article, I develop a theoretical framework that disaggregates civil society organizations into their possible functions and purposes, ranging from apolitical and individualistic to policy-oriented and state-integrated. I then argue that five groups of theories of civil society, each espousing different value systems, map onto this framework, providing strikingly different answers to fundamental questions, such as: Why should international organizations and national governments encourage civil society participation? Which civil society actors should participate? Which institutional designs best foster such participation and result in successful implementation? Does civil society participation contribute to or detract from the legitimacy of international organizations? Applying the normative framework to a concrete case study (the regime to monitor the UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS), I then detail how choosing one theoretical interpretation of civil society over another leads to different prescriptive outcomes. I show how these five groups of theories suggest five different monitoring regime designs: (1) delegation to market-ordered, apolitical private associations, (2) deference to the state, (3) participation of minority voices, (4) criticism of state action, and (5) collaboration among all stakeholders. In the final part of this article I engage normatively with the debate regarding the legitimacy of international organizations. I show how the theoretical framework I propose helps illuminate the implicit conceptions of civil society found in both celebratory and skeptical positions towards civil society’s legitimizing role. I then propose an inclusive-contestatory theory of civil society that requires the creation of three spaces of deliberation (local, bridging, and comprehensive). I argue that such a theory provides the best justification and framework for civil society participation in international governance.

Formal and implicit conceptions of authenticity in teaching

Recent literature in higher and adult education has identified ‘authenticity’ in teaching as a significant yet under-researched phenomenon lacking a straight-forward definition. By exploring how academic teachers and their students, next to educational theorists and philosophers, understand the notion of authenticity in teaching we offer this empirical study as a contribution towards a deeper understanding of this complex and multi-dimensional construct. In order to identify teachers' and students' implicit conceptions we asked the former to participate in semi-structured interviews and the latter to take part in focus-group sessions, both of which we analysed for emerging themes. The results contribute to greater conceptual clarity of the concept, which is a crucial prerequisite for future studies exploring relationships between authenticity in teaching and its effects on students. Suggestions for future research are offered.

Balancing the management control package of small, rapidly growing firms in turbulent environments

The thesis of this paper is that the management control package of small rapidly growing firms in turbulent environments needs to be based on a dynamic conception of balance. While many contemporary management control frameworks endorse balance as a guiding principle for management control, its specific features receive little attention and implicit conceptions are static. This paper first characterises the balance of a control package in terms of situational requirements on component selection, component weight, relations and coherence. The paper then examines the consistency between balance in contemporary management control frameworks and implications for balance derived from firm attributes. The conclusions suggest that by considering balance as a state and as an act, acknowledging requirements of balance and imbalance, and recognising situational and temporal dimensions of balance, we may advance the boundaries of management control research.

The three worlds of European civil society—What role for civil society for what kind of Europe?

The article argues that it is difficult to agree on the political role and the democratic credentials of civil society in the EU not just because the concept of civil society is ambiguous but also because civil society is linked to different images of the nature of the European polity. An analytical model is developed that categorises three distinct conceptions of the Union and spells out the different roles civil society may take in each of them to render the EU more democratic. The empirical analysis exposes the implicit conceptions which inspired the Commission to involve civil society in EU governance and investigates how these conceptions changed with the formalisation of EU–society relations. The article concludes that no coherent normative theoretical concept gained ground and, consequently, civil society is assigned contradictory roles which do not add up but depreciate the democratic state of the Union.

Sonority as variation: A study about the conceptualization of physical notions in university students

Results of researches over conceptions and specific competencies of university students as regards acoustic waves and their conceptualization are put forward in this paper. The starting point is a theoretical scheme previously done [4] [5] that allows the linking and interconnection of theorical contributions related with the cognitive psychology, the developmental psychology, problems solving, the linguistic and symbolical representation of concepts and their relation with the didactics. The corpus is made up mainly by answers to written works which have allowed analyzing implicit conceptions of students, especially those ignored or misunderstood by them. This is a qualitative research, in which data are grouped in categories that are not provided before the theoretical framework. Conclusions show the potentiality of the theoretical framework to interpret processes of meaning building of the level of sonority as variation, and for the design and improvement of instructional proposals tending to achieve a critical meaningful learning.

Sujetos en la Política Educacional Chilena de Transversalidad

It is stated that there are different implicit conceptions of the psychological subject in the way students are considered bythe cross-curricula educational Chilean policy.The fundamental assumption whichleads the analysis is that opposite cosmo visions about the person are reflected in the current language related with the personal identity.Particularlythe Cross-curricula Fundamental Objectives of the Chilean Educational Reform are analyzed. Furthermore, it is argued that this co-existence of visions could somehow explain the difficulties on the implementation of the cross-curricula fundamental objectives in Chilean education.Finally, it is proposed that the challenge for succeeding in the articulation of values education learning at school, should be contextualized in a society where different conceptions of psychological and moral subjects are present.

El trabajo de laboratorio en cursos de física desde la teoría de campos conceptuales

Los Trabajos de Laboratorio, dirigidos a la resolucion de problemas de ciencia, implican el abordaje de situaciones problema mediante tareas y subtareas propias del quehacer cientifico. El proceso de aprendizaje durante el desarrollo de estos trabajos se analiza desde la Teoria de Campos Conceptuales propuesta por Gerard Vergnaud. Esta teoria considera el saber y el saber hacer como dos aspectos indivisibles en el desarrollo conceptual; y, permite analizar la relacion entre conocimientos explicitos y conceptualizaciones implicitas a partir de las acciones de los sujetos en situaciones especificas. El desarrollo cognitivo se concibe en el marco de campos conceptuales, constituidos por conjuntos de: situaciones, conceptos y reglas de accion, y representaciones simbolicas, y centrado en la asimilacion y acomodacion de esquemas del sujeto en accion. Se presenta y discute un modelo (MATLaF) elaborado para la comprension de los procesos cognitivos en un trabajo de laboratorio.

The Politics and Law of Philoctetes

In Philoctetes, Socrates portrays the political conflict that divided Athens at the time of the play. Philoctetes, representing the traditional aristocratic values, must be rejuvenated and reintegrated into the new, commercial Athens, represented by Odysseus, while the new Athenian polity must be transformed in order to accommodate Philoctetes. Neoptolemus has the task of bringing about the necessary reconciliation, forcing him to search for a concept of justice that can incorporate the two factions. His failure makes necessary the appearance of Heracles, whose divinity succeeds where humans failed. The play thus brings into question the ability of a legal system, based on implicit conceptions of justice, to generate and sustain the social reconciliations necessary to community.

Through the Prism of Prostitution: Conceptions of Women and Sexuality in Sweden at Two Fins‐de‐Siècle

Implicit conceptions of women's sexuality rest on long historical traditions, and their formation show both stability and change. Women have gained a number of citizen rights in society, but where women's rights to bodily integrity are concerned these have been harder to attain. For more than a hundred years feminists have questioned a constitutive norm which states that men's sexuality is women's responsibility, and demanded changed state laws on prostitution and sexual violence. Sweden has a radical law which criminalizes the purchase of sexual services. Still, however, men's sexuality is by some seen as women's responsibility.

Implicit Virtues, Divergent Goods, Multiple Communities

Developing good theory about virtues and character requires facing a major obstacle: Many behavioral scientists, including scientific, humanistic, and postmodern, oppose the very idea of virtue. Careful examination of their narratives, ideologies, practices, and communities suggests, however, that each clearly has notions about praiseworthy human characteristics, that is, about virtues. Concepts of virtues and character within a variety of behavioral science approaches are discussed and identified. Virtues are closely related to concepts of goodness and community, with different virtues linked to divergent concepts of the good and competing communities. The problems of implicit conceptions of virtue and the good are discussed. Explicit discussions of virtue, goodness, and multiple communities, it is argued, can help us develop the best possible accounts of character.

Implicit Theories of Spanish Painters

This work used as a starting point a previous historiographic study that identified 6 implicit theories on artistic creativity, and a second study that led to the formulation, in propositional terms, of the statements configuring its content as knowledge schemas. What we present here is the process of construction of a questionnaire to evaluate painters' identification with the different implicit theories on artistic creativity. Taking the most typical statements from each theory, we eliminated items through statistical analysis and carried out exploratory studies on the factorial structure of those remaining. This process resulted in the design of a questionnaire with 5 factors: impulsiveness, experimentation, search for oneself, communication, and psychological disorder. These dimensions, obtained on the basis of the analyses carried out with samples of painters, show substantial differences with respect to the theories previously defined in the general population, which suggests that there is less than total correspondence between implicit conceptions about the creativity of the artist and the general public. The last analyses carried out after application of this test have shown that ascription to a particular pictorial style does not condition the adoption of one implicit theory or another.

Teachers’ implicit view of intelligence predict pupils’ self-perception as learners

Teachers regularly make judgements about their pupils’ intelligence while interacting with them in the classroom. The main aims of this paper are to analyse the structure of teachers’ judgements of their pupils’ intelligence, and to evaluate the influence that teachers have on pupils’ judgements of their own and their peers’ intelligence. Cross-cultural comparisons between English and Portuguese pupils are considered. In total 58 children 10- to 11-year-old and two teachers from London, UK and 47 children 5- to 6-year-old and two teachers from Lisbon, Portugal participated. The children completed aptitude tests and self-perception measures for general ability, reading and mathematical ability. The teachers ranked their pupils’ academic abilities from ‘best in the class’ to ‘weakest in the class’. Results show that teachers’ implicit conceptions of intelligence reflect a view of intelligence that is similar to what IQ tests measure. In addition the results support the notion that children’s verbal ability is more highly valued than mathematical ability. Moreover, the results also suggest that teachers have a considerable impact on their pupils’ self-perception as learners. Cultural differences are also discussed.