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The Thousand Shades of the Financial and Economic Crisis: a Study of the Social Representations of the Crisis in Portugal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2015

Gabrielle Poeschl ,
Joaquim Pires Valentim  and
Bruno Pereira da Silva
Gabrielle Poeschl*
Affiliation:
Universidade do Porto (Portugal)
Joaquim Pires Valentim
Affiliation:
Universidade de Coimbra (Portugal)
Bruno Pereira da Silva
Affiliation:
Universidade do Porto (Portugal)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Gabrielle Poeschl. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. Universidade do Porto. Rua Alfredo Allen. 4200–135. Porto (Portugal). E-mail: gpoeschl@fpce.up.pt
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Abstract

The study describes the representations of 453 Portuguese students about the present financial and economic crisis, examining the impact of the family financial situation on these representations, and the relationship between these representations and different factors likely to influence them. An initial word association task produced 2339 responses, from which 86.75% were classified into six classes by a downward hierarchical classification. Four classes (58.26% of the corpus) confirmed that the austerity measures implemented in Portugal affected the respondents with different degrees of severity: respondents described the consequences of the crisis in terms of misery, difficulties, or change, depending on their family’s income. More generally, the discourses (41.73% of the corpus) pointed out the factors that were viewed as responsible for the crisis as well as the geopolitical situation of Portugal. The answers given to opinion scales revealed a consistent pattern of results: respondents with a lower family income experienced less positive emotions toward the crisis (η2 = .03, p = .007), more negative emotions, stronger feelings of vulnerability and relative deprivation that resulted from comparison with others (all η2 ≥ .05, p < .001). However, the unequal consequences of the crisis were reflected neither in differences in the respondents’ expectations about their future situation, which they foresaw without great changes, nor in their lack of willingness to participate in protest actions against the austerity measures.

Keywords

social representationsfinancial and economic crisisPortugalvulnerabilityrelative deprivation
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 18 , 2015 , E77
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2015 

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