Salvatore
Biographic Data
| ID | 19739 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Salvatore |
| FAMILY NAME | Salvatore |
| SIGNATURE | SALVATORE |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Salento |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4583-8478 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 101 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Managing climate crisis through the affects: A semiotic cultural perspective on improving pro-environmental behaviors
Low-dimensional meaning and management of uncertainty
Helping in Times of War: How Uncertainty Modulates Aid to Ukrainian Refugees through Compassion and Threat
The present paper focuses on the antecedents of solidarity behavior towards Ukrainian refugees, specifically examining the role of subjective uncertainty generated in public opinion by the aggression of Ukraine on feelings of compassion and perceptions of refugees as a threat. Based on pooled data from six representative samples collected in different waves during the first six months of the Russian army’s invasion of Ukraine among a representati…
Stability of Worldviews and Their Organizing Structures Over Time: A Retrospective Analysis
The scientific literature widely recognizes the role of worldviews in influencing psychological and socio-cultural phenomena. The investigation into the temporal stability of worldviews has mainly focused on the individual and population levels, ignoring the question of the stability of their content. This study adopts the Semiotic Cultural Psychology Theory (SCPT) to analyze the stability of worldviews and their organizational structures. Throug…
Psychoanalysis in a Semiotic Key. Implications for Psychoanalytic Theory
In this paper, we outline a processual notion of meaning and sensemaking and use this to frame a semiotic reading of some core concepts in psychoanalytic theory and practice. The processual notion is based on the Peircean semiotic theory of the sign, which differs from a classical, static view that there are fixed meanings (unconscious, implicit, or unknown) behind certain signs. We review the implications of the processual notion of meaning for …
Redefining Meaning: A Micro-Genetic Model of the Constitution of Experience
This article aims to renew the discussion about meaning in the field of psychology. A model is presented that, contrary to the classical view of meaning as an entity taken for granted, explains the dynamics through which it comes to be constituted, opening itself to the possibility of being experienced, as a psychological reality. The autoethnographic analysis carried out by von Fircks (IBPS 53(4):632–643, 2023) is used as example to show how suc…
Methods and Instruments in the Study of Meaning-Making
Focusing the Clinical Supervision on the Therapist’s Developmental Trauma: A Single Case Study
Perceiving Migrants as a Threat: The Role of the Estimated Number of Migrants and Symbolic Universes
As immigration is one of the dominant issues in contemporary public discourse, it is important to explain the mechanism of prejudice against immigrants from a cultural psychology perspective. Several studies in the literature have confirmed a significant relationship between perceptions of the estimated size of the immigrant population and negative attitudes towards them. This study aims to investigate whether this relationship is moderated by sy…
The Affective Regulation of Uncertainty: The Semiotic Dimensionality Model (SDM)
This paper presents a novel psychological model of the socio-cognitive management of uncertainty, the semiotic dimensional model (SDM). The SDM claims that uncertainty increases the momentum of affect-laden meanings in meaning-making. This is so because affective meanings provide a simplified interpretation of the world that restores the experience of being able to make sense of the reality destabilized by uncertainty. Moreover, the SDM models th…
How socio-institutional contexts and cultural worldviews relate to Covid-19 acceptance rates: A representative study in Italy
The Role of Affective Sensemaking in the Constitution of Experience. The Affective Pertinentization Model (Aper)
Culture and Policy-Making: Pluralism, Performativity, and Semiotic Capital
Why people join pro-Ana online communities? A psychological textual analysis of eating disorder blog posts
The decay of signs’ semiotic value: A cultural psychology interpretation of the contemporary social scenario
The article provides an analysis of the affective polarization of the public sphere, namely, the increasing momentum gained by affective sensemaking in the current socio-institutional scenario (e.g. raise of populism, distrust in democracy and spreading xenophobia). To this end, the Semiotic Cultural Psychology Theory (SCPT) is outlined. The SCPT focuses on the embodied micro-mechanisms bridging the intra- and inter-psychological levels of analys…
The Representation of Immigration. A Retrospective Newspaper Analysis
The article reports a comparative study of the representation of migration in media from three countries (Greece, Italy, and Turkey), over 2001–2018 period. Analysis showed the salience of two main frames – the view of migration as a matter of security and human beings as well. Themes framing the media discourses on migration are grounded on a semantic structure that is quite similar across the three countries compared, despite their considerable…
The politicization of otherness and the privatization of the enemy: Cultural hindrances and assets for active citizenship
The purpose of the article is to discuss the cultural hindrances and assets that promote constructive self-to-others relationships and active citizenship. Building on Carl Schmitt’s friend-enemy distinction, we argue that in contemporary societies the public and the private dimensions of the enemy have conflated, as the result of two concurrent phenomena: the politicization of otherness and the privatization of enemies. An integrated framework in…
Individual and perceived community determinants of sense of community: The role of universalistic values
Research on the determinants of the psychological sense of community (PSoC) is of particular importance to community interventions. A cross‐sectional study involving 778 residents in an Italian local community explored through a mediation model the effects on PSoC of an individual cultural variable that has been scarcely investigated in PSoC research, that is, values–specifically, universalism–, and a perceived contextual variable, that is, the a…
From the manifestations of culture to the underlying sensemaking process. The contribution of semiotic cultural psychology theory to the interpretation of socio‐political scenario
Several explanations of the current syndrome affecting advanced democracies make reference to a process of cultural change that has been triggered by the complex and interrelated phenomena known as globalization. The rise of populist‐authoritarian parties, the advent of post‐truth politics and the increasing dissatisfaction with democracy are seen by many political scientists as rather direct consequences of social and economic transformations wh…
The identity of Brexit: A cultural psychology analysis
In this paper, we propose a culturalist interpretation of the outcome of the Brexit referendum. This interpretation is grounded on the analysis of the U.K.'s cultural milieu, which is part of a more general study of the cultural milieus of several European countries. Specific to the United Kingdom, our analysis is based on a questionnaire carried out on a representative sample of U.K. respondents stratified by sociodemographic variables and geogr…
Globalization, demand of sense and enemization of the other: A psychocultural analysis of European societies’ sociopolitical crisis
The paper outlines a cultural–psychological interpretation of the current European societies’ socio-institutional crisis. To this end, preliminarily, the cultural psychological view of social behaviour is outlined, focusing on the idea that socio-political choices depend on how people make sense of their world. Second, the paper provides an interpretation of the current socio-political European scenario of crisis, based on the main results of a r…
Beyond the Meaning Given. The Meaning as Explanandum
There’s no such thing as a good Arab: Cultural essentialism and its functions concerning the integration of Arabs in Europe
Concerns about immigration are salient in the European Union and in Malta in particular. Previous research has demonstrated deep antipathy towards the Arab community in Malta, and social representations of Arabs are mired in a conflation of ethnic and religious categories with negative connotations. This paper presents evidence of the potency, within the public sphere, of negative arguments from cultural essentialism, concerning the integration o…
Liminal transitions in a semiotic key: The mutual in-feeding between present and past
This article proposes a reading of liminal transitions in semiotic terms; that is, as a byproduct of the dynamics of sensemaking consisting of how two components of meaning interact: the observable side of meaning ( Significance in Praesentia)—the rupture directly experienced by the interpreter—and a further generalized meaning—the semiotic scenario ( Significance in Absentia), which makes the lived experience interpretable. Due to its pre-semant…
Arabs in Europe: Arguments for and against integration
The recent wave of immigration across European countries has precipitated an unprecedented political crisis in many Western countries. This is compounded by the fact that the large majority of these migrants originate from Arab countries. Research has demonstrated that Arabs are devalued relative to other socioethnic groups. The present study sought to investigate representations of Arabs and their integration. Twenty-one interviews conducted in …
Sense of Community and the Perception of the Socio-Physical Environment: A Comparison Between Urban Centers of Different Sizes Across Europe
Understanding the Role of Emotion in Sense-making. A Semiotic Psychoanalytic Oriented Perspective
Beyond the Meaning Given. The Meaning as Explanandum
Globalization, demand of sense and enemization of the other: A psychocultural analysis of European societies’ sociopolitical crisis
The paper outlines a cultural–psychological interpretation of the current European societies’ socio-institutional crisis. To this end, preliminarily, the cultural psychological view of social behaviour is outlined, focusing on the idea that socio-political choices depend on how people make sense of their world. Second, the paper provides an interpretation of the current socio-political European scenario of crisis, based on the main results of a r…
The identity of Brexit: A cultural psychology analysis
In this paper, we propose a culturalist interpretation of the outcome of the Brexit referendum. This interpretation is grounded on the analysis of the U.K.'s cultural milieu, which is part of a more general study of the cultural milieus of several European countries. Specific to the United Kingdom, our analysis is based on a questionnaire carried out on a representative sample of U.K. respondents stratified by sociodemographic variables and geogr…
From the manifestations of culture to the underlying sensemaking process. The contribution of semiotic cultural psychology theory to the interpretation of socio‐political scenario
Several explanations of the current syndrome affecting advanced democracies make reference to a process of cultural change that has been triggered by the complex and interrelated phenomena known as globalization. The rise of populist‐authoritarian parties, the advent of post‐truth politics and the increasing dissatisfaction with democracy are seen by many political scientists as rather direct consequences of social and economic transformations wh…
How socio-institutional contexts and cultural worldviews relate to Covid-19 acceptance rates: A representative study in Italy
The Representation of Immigration. A Retrospective Newspaper Analysis
The article reports a comparative study of the representation of migration in media from three countries (Greece, Italy, and Turkey), over 2001–2018 period. Analysis showed the salience of two main frames – the view of migration as a matter of security and human beings as well. Themes framing the media discourses on migration are grounded on a semantic structure that is quite similar across the three countries compared, despite their considerable…
Individual and perceived community determinants of sense of community: The role of universalistic values
Research on the determinants of the psychological sense of community (PSoC) is of particular importance to community interventions. A cross‐sectional study involving 778 residents in an Italian local community explored through a mediation model the effects on PSoC of an individual cultural variable that has been scarcely investigated in PSoC research, that is, values–specifically, universalism–, and a perceived contextual variable, that is, the a…
Arabs in Europe: Arguments for and against integration
The recent wave of immigration across European countries has precipitated an unprecedented political crisis in many Western countries. This is compounded by the fact that the large majority of these migrants originate from Arab countries. Research has demonstrated that Arabs are devalued relative to other socioethnic groups. The present study sought to investigate representations of Arabs and their integration. Twenty-one interviews conducted in …
Psychotherapy Research Needs Theory. Outline for an Epistemology of the Clinical Exchange
Steps toward a Dialogical and Semiotic Theory of the Unconscious
Issues of Cultural Analysis
This commentary discusses some questions entailed in the Regina Day Langhout's (2005) article. The authors' point of view is an interpretative approach anchored in the European scholastic world, in particular that of Southern Europe with its Latin and Mediterranean culture. In the first part of the article we compare the model of school involved in Langhout's study with the South-West European one. In the second part, we deal with some epistemolo…
The Affective Regulation of Uncertainty: The Semiotic Dimensionality Model (SDM)
This paper presents a novel psychological model of the socio-cognitive management of uncertainty, the semiotic dimensional model (SDM). The SDM claims that uncertainty increases the momentum of affect-laden meanings in meaning-making. This is so because affective meanings provide a simplified interpretation of the world that restores the experience of being able to make sense of the reality destabilized by uncertainty. Moreover, the SDM models th…
The politicization of otherness and the privatization of the enemy: Cultural hindrances and assets for active citizenship
The purpose of the article is to discuss the cultural hindrances and assets that promote constructive self-to-others relationships and active citizenship. Building on Carl Schmitt’s friend-enemy distinction, we argue that in contemporary societies the public and the private dimensions of the enemy have conflated, as the result of two concurrent phenomena: the politicization of otherness and the privatization of enemies. An integrated framework in…
There’s no such thing as a good Arab: Cultural essentialism and its functions concerning the integration of Arabs in Europe
Concerns about immigration are salient in the European Union and in Malta in particular. Previous research has demonstrated deep antipathy towards the Arab community in Malta, and social representations of Arabs are mired in a conflation of ethnic and religious categories with negative connotations. This paper presents evidence of the potency, within the public sphere, of negative arguments from cultural essentialism, concerning the integration o…
Mainstream Economics and Sense-Making
Redefining Meaning: A Micro-Genetic Model of the Constitution of Experience
This article aims to renew the discussion about meaning in the field of psychology. A model is presented that, contrary to the classical view of meaning as an entity taken for granted, explains the dynamics through which it comes to be constituted, opening itself to the possibility of being experienced, as a psychological reality. The autoethnographic analysis carried out by von Fircks (IBPS 53(4):632–643, 2023) is used as example to show how suc…
The Formalization of Cultural Psychology. Reasons and Functions
Perceiving Migrants as a Threat: The Role of the Estimated Number of Migrants and Symbolic Universes
As immigration is one of the dominant issues in contemporary public discourse, it is important to explain the mechanism of prejudice against immigrants from a cultural psychology perspective. Several studies in the literature have confirmed a significant relationship between perceptions of the estimated size of the immigrant population and negative attitudes towards them. This study aims to investigate whether this relationship is moderated by sy…
Issues of Cultural Analysis
This commentary discusses some questions entailed in the Regina Day Langhout's (2005) article. The authors' point of view is an interpretative approach anchored in the European scholastic world, in particular that of Southern Europe with its Latin and Mediterranean culture. In the first part of the article we compare the model of school involved in Langhout's study with the South-West European one. In the second part, we deal with some epistemolo…
Steps toward a Dialogical and Semiotic Theory of the Unconscious
Understanding the Role of Emotion in Sense-making. A Semiotic Psychoanalytic Oriented Perspective
Mainstream Economics and Sense-Making
Between the General and the Unique: Overcoming the Nomothetic versus Idiographic Opposition
In accordance with Windelband’s original proposal, the notions of nomothetic and idiographic are complementary terms, rather than an oppositional dyad. Given their dynamic and field-dependent nature, psychological phenomena are inherently unique—the relationship between their way of being and their constant becoming is mediated by the contingent conditions of the field. Therefore, science cannot be anything but idiographic—always facing a new uni…
Psychotherapy Research Needs Theory. Outline for an Epistemology of the Clinical Exchange
Outlines of a general psychological theory of psychological intervention
While everyday life is necessarily using common sense for solving practical problems, it is not sufficient for psychology’s advancement of generalized knowledge. Our recognition of the conceptual-methodological unfeasibility of the common-sense foundation of psychology raises the necessity of developing a theory of intervention that considers the psychologist’s actions as belonging to the in-between zone: while everyday life is based on common se…
Multicentric Identities in a Globalizing World
The volume represents the continuing of a the Yearbook of Idiographic Science project, born in 2009 and developed through an annual series of volumes collecting contributes aimed at developing the integration of idiographic and nomothetic approaches in psychology and more in general social science.This year’s YIS project received many positive feedbacks and signals of interest, as well as several submissions, from many parts of the world. This fi…
The mountain of cultural psychology and the mouse of empirical studies. Methodological considerations for birth control
Cultural psychology has built up a powerful theoretical edifice, but it has not yet consolidated its own methodology of analysis. Thus, cultural psychologists adopt models of empirical investigation borrowed from other social science domains, taking it for granted that the latter are consistent with their theoretical framework. As a result, the mountain of powerful theory ends up giving birth to the mouse of empirical analyses which runs the risk…
Reflexivity and Psychology
Reflexivity is a category that is too appealing not to arouse interest. It is a concept largely diffused in several psychological domains, as well as associated with epistemological, theoretical, methodological and practical discussions. At the same time, it is a very polysemic notion, understood and used in many different ways.If one approaches the notion and tries to identify the semantic boundaries of its usage, the seeming solidity of the ter…
Educational subculture and dropping out in higher education: A longitudinal case study
The paper tests longitudinally the hypothesis that educational subcultures in terms of which students interpret their role and their educational setting affect the probability of dropping out of higher education. A logistic regression model was performed to predict drop out at the beginning of the second academic year for the 823 freshmen of a three-year bachelor degree in psychology at an Italian university. The model uses both measures of stude…
Liminal transitions in a semiotic key: The mutual in-feeding between present and past
This article proposes a reading of liminal transitions in semiotic terms; that is, as a byproduct of the dynamics of sensemaking consisting of how two components of meaning interact: the observable side of meaning ( Significance in Praesentia)—the rupture directly experienced by the interpreter—and a further generalized meaning—the semiotic scenario ( Significance in Absentia), which makes the lived experience interpretable. Due to its pre-semant…
Arabs in Europe: Arguments for and against integration
The recent wave of immigration across European countries has precipitated an unprecedented political crisis in many Western countries. This is compounded by the fact that the large majority of these migrants originate from Arab countries. Research has demonstrated that Arabs are devalued relative to other socioethnic groups. The present study sought to investigate representations of Arabs and their integration. Twenty-one interviews conducted in …
Sense of Community and the Perception of the Socio-Physical Environment: A Comparison Between Urban Centers of Different Sizes Across Europe
The Formalization of Cultural Psychology. Reasons and Functions
There’s no such thing as a good Arab: Cultural essentialism and its functions concerning the integration of Arabs in Europe
Concerns about immigration are salient in the European Union and in Malta in particular. Previous research has demonstrated deep antipathy towards the Arab community in Malta, and social representations of Arabs are mired in a conflation of ethnic and religious categories with negative connotations. This paper presents evidence of the potency, within the public sphere, of negative arguments from cultural essentialism, concerning the integration o…
The identity of Brexit: A cultural psychology analysis
In this paper, we propose a culturalist interpretation of the outcome of the Brexit referendum. This interpretation is grounded on the analysis of the U.K.'s cultural milieu, which is part of a more general study of the cultural milieus of several European countries. Specific to the United Kingdom, our analysis is based on a questionnaire carried out on a representative sample of U.K. respondents stratified by sociodemographic variables and geogr…
Globalization, demand of sense and enemization of the other: A psychocultural analysis of European societies’ sociopolitical crisis
The paper outlines a cultural–psychological interpretation of the current European societies’ socio-institutional crisis. To this end, preliminarily, the cultural psychological view of social behaviour is outlined, focusing on the idea that socio-political choices depend on how people make sense of their world. Second, the paper provides an interpretation of the current socio-political European scenario of crisis, based on the main results of a r…
Beyond the Meaning Given. The Meaning as Explanandum
The politicization of otherness and the privatization of the enemy: Cultural hindrances and assets for active citizenship
The purpose of the article is to discuss the cultural hindrances and assets that promote constructive self-to-others relationships and active citizenship. Building on Carl Schmitt’s friend-enemy distinction, we argue that in contemporary societies the public and the private dimensions of the enemy have conflated, as the result of two concurrent phenomena: the politicization of otherness and the privatization of enemies. An integrated framework in…
Individual and perceived community determinants of sense of community: The role of universalistic values
Research on the determinants of the psychological sense of community (PSoC) is of particular importance to community interventions. A cross‐sectional study involving 778 residents in an Italian local community explored through a mediation model the effects on PSoC of an individual cultural variable that has been scarcely investigated in PSoC research, that is, values–specifically, universalism–, and a perceived contextual variable, that is, the a…
From the manifestations of culture to the underlying sensemaking process. The contribution of semiotic cultural psychology theory to the interpretation of socio‐political scenario
Several explanations of the current syndrome affecting advanced democracies make reference to a process of cultural change that has been triggered by the complex and interrelated phenomena known as globalization. The rise of populist‐authoritarian parties, the advent of post‐truth politics and the increasing dissatisfaction with democracy are seen by many political scientists as rather direct consequences of social and economic transformations wh…
Culture and Policy-Making: Pluralism, Performativity, and Semiotic Capital
Why people join pro-Ana online communities? A psychological textual analysis of eating disorder blog posts
The decay of signs’ semiotic value: A cultural psychology interpretation of the contemporary social scenario
The article provides an analysis of the affective polarization of the public sphere, namely, the increasing momentum gained by affective sensemaking in the current socio-institutional scenario (e.g. raise of populism, distrust in democracy and spreading xenophobia). To this end, the Semiotic Cultural Psychology Theory (SCPT) is outlined. The SCPT focuses on the embodied micro-mechanisms bridging the intra- and inter-psychological levels of analys…
Psychology (25 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Epistemology (22 works) · Social Representations and Identity (21 works) · Social Psychology (17 works) · Political science (16 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Semiotics (13 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (12 works) · Computer Science (10 works)