Abstract

MORAIS, Edclecia Reino Carneiro de; SANTOS, Maria de Fátima de Souza  and  ALESSIO, Renata Lira dos Santos. The Controversy of Abortion: Theoretical-Methodological Reflections on a non-Autonomous Representation. Estud. pesqui. psicol. [online]. 2021, vol.21, n.3, pp. 869-888. ISSN 1808-4281.  http://dx.doi.org/10.12957/epp.2021.62688.

This paper aims to provide a theorical-methodological reflection on non-autonomous and controversial social representations, based on the structural analysis of the social representation of abortion. 171 students from medicine, law and nursing courses participated in the study. A free association of words (FAW) questionnaire was applied with the inducer term: abortion. Three types of analyses were conducted (prototypical, similarity and multiple correspondences-MCA) using a methodological triangulation. The results indicated consistent polarizations of meanings within the elements of the representational structure, which raises questions about the existence of a central nucleus that acts as a reference locus of the social representation of abortion. The similarity analysis presented two semantic universes, exemplified by the elements of death and woman. Also, the AMC evidenced the controversial aspect of the social representation of abortion, demonstrating disagreements within the analyzed groups. To conclude, the results indicate that the social representation of abortion is described as a non-autonomous and controversial representation.

Keywords : social representation; abortion; college students; structural approach.

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