Le rappresentazioni sociali e l'attuale dibattito metodologico: l'esigenza di un approccio conversazional-discorsivo

The present paper is meant as a contribution to the discussion on the methodology adopted in the psychological research of the Social Representations. The starting point is the evaluation of the methods of collection and analysis of the most frequently used data. Through such methodological procedures we then come to realise how the process character and the super-individual or collective nature of the study subject have so far been disregarded in favour of a static and individual interpretation. The awareness of the tight link between representations and interpersonal communication has led us to highlight some important methodological implications. Above all there emerges the call for the use of dialogic-colloquial methodologies that recognise in interlocution interpersonal communication the matrix of co-construction and transmission of social representations, founded on the observation and description of real phenomena occurred (displayed) in the interpersonal communication processes.