Table 1
Characteristics of the central and peripheral systems of a representation.
| Central system | Peripheral system | |
|---|---|---|
| Functions | (a) Meaning-generating function | (a) Making the central core concrete |
| (b) Meaning-organising function | (b) Regulating the central core | |
| (c) Protecting the central core | ||
| Properties | (a) Stable | (a) Flexible |
| (b) Consistent and rigid | (b) Bears contradiction | |
| (c) Rather insensitive to immediate context changes | (c) Sensitive to the immediate context | |
| (d) Consensual (defines the homogeneity of the group) | (d) Supporting the heterogeneity of the group |
Table 2
Results obtained by the two techniques for representations of health.
| Items | ACT | TCI | Test statistic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthy lifestyle | 46.7% | 97.5%a | χ2(1; N = 223) = 73.7, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .57 |
| Food | 43.8% | 94.1%a | χ2(1; N = 223) = 67.4, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .55 |
| Essentiality | 27.6% | 92.4%a | χ2(1; N = 223) = 98.9, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .67 |
| Prevention | 50.5% | 91.5%a | χ2(1; N = 223) = 46.6, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .46 |
| Equilibrium | 49.5% | 88.1%a | χ2(1; N = 223) = 39.4, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .42 |
| Well-being | 43.8% | 87.3% | χ2(1; N = 223) = 47.4, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .46 |
| Public authorities | 32.4% | 82.2% | χ2(1; N = 223) = 56.9, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .50 |
| Sport | 28.6% | 78.8% | χ2(1; N = 223) = 56.7, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .50 |
| Work | 30.5% | 78.0% | χ2(1; N = 223) = 50.8, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .48 |
| Absence of illness | 29.5% | 50.8% | χ2(1; N = 223) = 10.5, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .22 |
| Avoiding medication | 21.0% | 38.1% | χ2(1; N = 223) = 7.8, p = .005, Cramer’s V = .19 |
| Avoiding hospital | 22.9% | 33.9% | χ2(1; N = 223) = 3.3, p > .05, Cramer’s V = .12 |
| Doctor | 23.8% | 33.9% | χ2(1; N = 223) = 2.7, p > .05, Cramer’s V = .11 |
| Medication | 15.2% | 6.8% | χ2(1; N = 223) = 4.1, p = .04, Cramer’s V = .14 |
| Hospital | 13.3% | 5.9% | χ2(1; N = 223) = 3.6, p > .05, Cramer’s V = .13 |
[i] Note. The ACT stands for the attribute-challenge technique; TCI stands for the test of context independence.
a Elements determined as central on the basis of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with a centrality threshold of 87.5% for the TCI (N = 118) and of 86.7% for the ACT (N = 105).
χ2 Chi-square test between the rates of replies of each condition.
Table 3
Principal Component Analyses (PCA, Varimax rotation) of the ACT and the TCI questionnaires.
| ACT | TCI | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factors | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Eigen value | 4.89 | 1.77 | 1.37 | 1.06 | 3.01 | 2.06 | 1.47 | 1.11 | 1.08 | 1.00 |
| % Variance explained | 32.63 | 11.91 | 9.10 | 7.09 | 20.04 | 13.71 | 9.81 | 7.42 | 7.22 | 6.67 |
| Food a | .79 | .78 | ||||||||
| Equilibriuma | .78 | .58 | ||||||||
| Healthy lifestylea | .75 | .52 | .48 | |||||||
| Sport | .56 | .75 | ||||||||
| Essentialitya | .47 | .46 | .54 | |||||||
| Avoiding hospital | .90 | .75 | ||||||||
| Work | .60 | .70 | ||||||||
| Avoiding medication | .58 | .79 | ||||||||
| Well-being | .52 | .55 | .67 | |||||||
| Hospital | .87 | .79 | ||||||||
| Medication | .72 | .82 | ||||||||
| Absence of illness | .53 | .77 | ||||||||
| Doctor | .51 | .79 | ||||||||
| Public authorities | .81 | .86 | ||||||||
| Preventiona | .45 | .46 | .51 | .47 | 49 | |||||
[i] Notes. ACT stands for the attribute-challenge technique; TCI stands for the test of context independence. Only saturations above .30 are presented.
a Elements determined as central on the basis of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with a centrality threshold of 87.5% for the TCI (N = 118).
Table 4
Results obtained by the two techniques for representations of health.
| Items | ACT | TCI | Test statistic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthy lifestyle | 40.4% | 97.2%a | χ2(1; N = 120) = 49.8, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .64 |
| Food | 34.6% | 91.5%a | χ2(1; N = 122) = 43.2, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .59 |
| Equilibrium | 40.4% | 87.3%a | χ2(1; N = 117) = 32.2, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .52 |
| Prevention | 34.6% | 81.7% | χ2(1; N = 121) = 26.2, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .47 |
| Well-being | 46.2% | 78.9% | χ2(1; N = 119) = 14.47, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .35 |
| Essentiality | 36.5% | 74.6% | χ2(1; N = 116) = 19.55, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .41 |
| Public authorities | 21.2% | 66.2% | χ2(1; N = 116) = 20.7, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .42 |
| Sport | 23.1% | 59.2% | χ2(1; N = 121) = 14.7, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .35 |
| Work | 11.5% | 53.5% | χ2(1; N = 117) = 21.9, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .43 |
| Absence of illness | 19.2% | 43.7% | χ2(1; N = 117) = 6.5, p = .01, Cramer’s V = .24 |
| Avoiding hospital | 15.4% | 33.8% | χ2(1; N = 117) = 5.7, p = .01, Cramer’s V = .22 |
| Doctor | 26.9% | 26.8% | χ2(1; N = 122) = 0.0, p > .05, Cramer’s V = .00 |
| Avoiding medication | 15.4% | 23.9% | χ2(1; N = 121) = 1.3, p > .05, Cramer’s V = .10 |
| Medication | 15.4% | 5.6% | χ2(1; N = 122) = 3.38, p > .05, Cramer’s V = .17 |
| Hospital | 13.5% | 2.8% | χ2(1; N = 121) = 5.33, p = .02, Cramer’s V = .21 |
[i] Note. ACT stands for the attribute-challenge technique; TCI stands for the test of context independence.
a Elements determined as central on the basis of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with a centrality threshold of: 83.38% (N = 67), 83.50% (N = 68), 83.62% (N = 69), 83.74% (N = 70), and 83.86% (N = 71) on the basis of the number of responses retained per items for the TCI, and of 79.95% (N = 46), 80.16% (N = 47), 80.37% (N = 48), 80.57% (N = 49), 80.77% (N = 50), 80.96% (N = 51) on the basis of the number of responses retained per items for the ACT.
χ2 Chi-square test between the rates of replies of each condition.
Table 5
Principal Component Analyses (PCA, Varimax rotation) of the ACT and TCI questionnaires.
| ACT | TCI | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factors | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Proper value | 6.15 | 2.06 | 1.37 | 1.30 | 3.88 | 1.85 | 1.61 | 1.25 | 1.05 | |
| % Variance explained | 41.03 | 13.77 | 9.13 | 8.67 | 25.89 | 12.30 | 10.76 | 8.33 | 7.02 | |
| Avoiding hospital | .91 | .68 | ||||||||
| Well-being | .70 | .53 | ||||||||
| Doctor | .70 | .75 | ||||||||
| Absence of illness | .69 | .42 | ||||||||
| Essentiality | .65 | .73 | ||||||||
| Fooda | . | .91 | .68 | .43 | ||||||
| Healthy lifestylea | .90 | .74 | ||||||||
| Equilibriuma | .78 | .72 | ||||||||
| Sport | .69 | .60 | ||||||||
| Prevention | .78 | .83 | ||||||||
| Work | .72 | .42 | .46 | |||||||
| Medication | .84 | .79 | ||||||||
| Public authorities | .72 | .91 | ||||||||
| Hospital | .56 | .68 | ||||||||
| Avoiding medication | .45 | .55 | .85 | |||||||
[i] Notes. ACT stands for the attribute-challenge technique; TCI stands for the test of context independence. Only saturations above .30 are presented.
a Elements determined as central on the basis of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with a centrality threshold of: 83.38% (N = 67), 83.50% (N = 68), 83.62% (N = 69), 83.74% (N = 70), and 83.86% (N = 71) on the basis of the number of responses retained per item for the TCI.