| Objective:To explore social representations of "disability" in different genders.Methods:The enrolled subjects were 160 health college students,including 80 males and 80 females.Two evoked words networks were constructed for analyzing the structure of the social representation of "disability".By using complex network analysis techniques including network visualization,k-core decomposition and statistical analysis for randomized networks,the structures of two networks had been analyzed and compared.Results:On the structure properties,this study revealed that the social representations of "disability" had similar size,density and constituent ratio of components in both genders.It also revealed that the power distribution of words in females were flatter than that in males.There was a central structural core in each gender group.On the contentaspect,males and females shared several core elements and had other specific core elements of their own.The shared core elements included objects in a scene of "disability"(wheel chair,walking stick,hospital,elders),causes of "disability"(traffic accident,sick) and emotion expression(sympathy,caring).The "wheel chair" had the most powerful word influence domain.Together with "walking stick",the two elements turned out to be core elements which integrated central core structure with its peripheral system.The specific core elements of male group were emotion-expressing words,while those of female group were words about body conditions.Conclusion:In both genders of medical students,the "wheel chair" and "walking stick" are two icons of social representation of "disability".There are similar structure properties in both genders' social representation of "disability".However,the contents of their representations were different from each other. |
