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Gordon Sammut

Biographic Data

ID658032
NAMEGordon Sammut
GIVEN NAMESGordon
FAMILY NAMESammut
SIGNATURESAMMUT G
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Malta
ORCID0000-0001-5923-9946
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS28
TOTAL CITATIONS114
AUTHOR COUNT28
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2009
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX6
  • Politics and the New Challenge of Migration: Bridging Cultural, Social and Political Divides

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut•BOOK•Politics and the New Challenge of…•2025

    This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the social psychology of conflict rooted in human evolution, with a particular focus on migration and its challenges in a globalized world. It examines theories for how conflict emerges between cultural, social, and political groups striving to advance their own interests and agendas and considers their impact on democratic systems that guarantee human rights and freedoms. Building on the study of …

  • Conflict and Change: Integrating Social and Developmental Psychology

    Open Access•Ivana Markova, A Gillespie et al.•BOOK•Conflict and Change•2025

    Social and developmental psychology are often viewed as distinct subdisciplines, each with its own theories and methodologies. However, this book seeks to bridge that divide by proposing an integrative framework that considers various levels of analysis, from the individual to the societal. It emphasizes the interplay of fundamental concepts such as intra- and inter-group conflict and change across these levels. By revisiting and renewing foundat…

  • The Pass method: Ecologically valid scaling for intergroup relations research

    Open Access•Luke J Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Asian Journal Of Social Psychology•2025

    Intergroup relations research remains characterised by a lack of ecological validity, particularly when different groups are studied. In this paper, we present the PASS Method for ecologically valid scaling, illustrating its efficacy via a study on Arab‐Maltese relations in Malta (EU). The PASS Method proceeds as follows: (1) A relevant Project (e.g., intercultural integration) is identified; (2) Argumentation on the project, by relevant groups, …

  • Acts from the cracks: Representations and positions of the decolonial in the geopolitical (de)construction of power‐entangled knowledge

    Open Access•Ali Saeedi, Mauro Sarrica et al.•ARTICLE•British Journal of Social…•2025•Cited by: 1•References: 11

    This paper examines the geopolitical implications of knowledge production in psychology through two studies that respond to the growing body of work on the 'Decolonisation of Knowledge' and the 'Decolonisation of Psychology' over the past two decades. By adopting a constructivist approach, particularly through the lens of Social Representation Theory (SRT), these studies explore the ways in which geopolitical contexts shape decolonial activism wi…

  • Stability of Worldviews and Their Organizing Structures Over Time: A Retrospective Analysis

    Open Access•Matteo Reho, Alessandro Gennaro et al.•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2025•References: 56

    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…

  • Worldviews, attitudes to science and science policy in Kuwait: The engagement and mobilisation effects

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Mohammad Sartawi et al.•ARTICLE•Research & Politics•2024•Cited by: 1•References: 1

    The relevance of policymaking stems from its utility in helping social systems manage the output of their constituent members by shaping behavioural and procedural processes. Whilst policymaking might be well-meaning, it does not always lead to satisfactory outcomes. Policy may fail in generating uptake or establishing intent. For this reason, the study of the psychological characteristics of citizens is pertinent in understanding reactions to po…

  • Minority arguments on integration: Arabs in the Southern European state of Malta

    Open Access•Luke J Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Journal of Community & Applied…•2023•Cited by: 1•References: 12

    Intercultural relations benefit from the social psychological study of arguments made by different groups about joint projects of mutual concern. This focus allows researchers to map representations of the project in question, among communities in different cultural milieus. This paper presents a study looking at Arabs' views on the project of integration. Arabs' perspectives revolved around six argumentative themes: cultural, economic, psycholog…

  • The Minimal Model of Argumentation: Qualitative data analysis for epistemic speech, text and policy

    Open Access•Luke J Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2023•Cited by: 2•References: 100

    Social scientific work on argumentation is yet to address the perennial tension between social cognition and social constructionism. Moreover, argumentation‐based qualitative analysis protocols are needed for interview and textual data. Nonetheless, argumentation models remain too complex to reflect everyday argumentation and are not necessarily reflective of underlying cognitive processes. This presents the need for further theorising social beh…

  • Introspective Projection: Prototypical Representations of Policing in the Service of Rule of Law

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Rebekah Mifsud et al.•ARTICLE•Integrative Psychological and…•2023•References: 16

    Mass protests that have taken place over the past decade in various Western democracies have called into question the role of police in society, as officers have employed measures to contain rallies protesting for or against various issues. A number of these protests have resorted to violent means, resisting the police or protesting directly against their role and methods. The present study sought to investigate the prototypical representations o…

  • The Representation of Immigration. A Retrospective Newspaper Analysis

    Bruno Maria Mazzara, Evrinomy Avdi et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of Immigrant & Refugee…•2021•Cited by: 5•References: 30

    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…

  • Attitude Measurement

    Open Access•Luke J Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut•OTHER•The Blackwell Encyclopedia of…•2020•References: 1

    Attitudes refer to evaluative stances held toward social objects. Earlier writings sought to position the attitude construct in its rightful place among other social psychological concepts. Being at the intersection of sociology and psychology, attitudes have been measured using a variety of methods, at times overlapping and occasionally contrasting in nature. Moreover, some methods are more sensitive to context than others. Major topics of discu…

  • The motivational staircase: Evolutionary insights from reversal theory

    Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Peace and Conflict Journal of…•2019•Cited by: 1•References: 1

    This paper discusses key insights from Reversal theory in evolutionary perspective. Reversal theory proposes four motivational states that may serve to justify and motivate the act of fighting. Individual soldiers are variably motivated in combat. Consequently, they respond to different construals of war depending on their idiosyncratic motivations. This paper proposes that these variable motivations are rooted in our genetic baggage and that the…

  • Globalization, demand of sense and enemization of the other: A psychocultural analysis of European societies’ sociopolitical crisis

    Open Access•Salvatore, T Mannarini et al.•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2019•Cited by: 8•References: 31

    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…

  • There’s no such thing as a good Arab: Cultural essentialism and its functions concerning the integration of Arabs in Europe

    Open Access•Luke J Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut et al.•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2018•Cited by: 3•References: 22

    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…

  • Arabs in Europe: Arguments for and against integration

    Gordon Sammut, Sandra Jovchelovitch et al.•ARTICLE•Peace and Conflict Journal of…•2017•Cited by: 5•References: 3

    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 …

  • The Sociocultural Determination of Planned Behaviour

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Luke J Buhagiar•ARTICLE•Integrative Psychological and…•2017•Cited by: 1•References: 13

  • The spiral of conflict: Naïve realism and the black sheep effect in attributions of knowledge and ignorance

    Gordon Sammut, Frank Bezzina et al.•ARTICLE•Peace and Conflict Journal of…•2015•Cited by: 6

    Naive realism research has demonstrated the fact that individuals deprecate alternative \nperspectives to preserve their own. With reference to an outgroup, this bias may be \ncompounded by ethnocentrism. We present an operationalized measure of naive realism \nin terms of attributions of knowledge and ignorance. We hypothesized that \nrespondents would make higher attributions of knowledge to those who agree with \nthem than those who disagree w…

  • Social Values and Good Living

    Stavroula Tsirogianni, Gordon Sammut et al.•CHAPTER•Encyclopedia of Quality of Life…•2014

  • It's Only Other People Who Make Me Feel Black: Acculturation, Identity, and Agency in a Multicultural Community

    Open Access•Caroline Howarth, Wolfgang Wagner et al.•ARTICLE•Political Psychology•2014•Cited by: 28•References: 42

    This article explores identity work and acculturation work in the lives of British mixed‐heritage children and adults. Children, teenagers, and parents with mixed heritage participated in a community arts project that invited them to deliberate, construct, and reconstruct their cultural identities and cultural relations. We found that acculturation, cultural and raced identities, are constructed through a series of oppositional themes: cultural m…

  • Dialogue, Linguistic Hinges and Semantic Barriers: Social Psychological Uses and Functions of a Vulgar Term

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Marilyn Clark et al.•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2013•Cited by: 3•References: 34

    The present paper reports a study of conversational acts in dialogical interaction. Conversation in which the use of a vulgar term [à la bieb żobbi] in the Maltese language was used was recorded and analysed for the present purpose. The term is demonstrated to serve social psychological functions. We documented three modes governing its use in conversation, that is, (a) as a personality descriptor, (b) as a strategy for shutting down an alternati…

  • G.H. Mead and knowing how to act: Practical meaning, routine interaction, and the theory of interobjectivity

    Open Access•Paul Daanen, Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Theory & Psychology•2012

    The general aim of this paper is twofold. First, we evaluate Mead’s later efforts at developing a non-conscious theory of meaning that refutes the primacy of Descartes’s cogito as a foundational explanation of adult human understanding and social interaction. However, paired with this first goal, we also intend to use Mead’s theoretical framework as a paradigmatic example of a theory of intersubjectivity. We will show how Mead problematically rei…

  • Negotiating British Muslim identity: Everyday concerns of practicing Muslims in London

    Open Access•Mohammed Sartawi, Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2012

    In situations of cultural change and dislocation, and driven by both a desire to integrate and to preserve cultural identity, Muslims in Britain draw on several sources of cultural knowledge when making sense of their worlds and negotiating their identities. In this article, we present findings from an ethnographic study that demonstrate negotiations of Islamic identities in Britain as they resort to imams for religious advice to resolve everyday…

  • The immigrants’ point of view: Acculturation, social judgment, and the relative propensity to take the perspective of the other

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2012

    Immigration comes with potential for increased opportunities but poses multifarious challenges to social integration. The local perception that immigration is unsustainable fuels identity threats that lead to surges in nationalism rather than multiculturalism. This paper reports three case studies of Maltese migrants to the UK. Adopting the migrants’ points of view, the paper documents how acculturation takes shape in a situation where immigrants…

  • Perspective‐Taking and the Attribution of Ignorance

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Mohammad Sartawi•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2012•Cited by: 10•References: 41

    Ignorance has been both vilified and celebrated throughout the ages. However, the social sciences have had little to say about this topic over the years. In this paper, we argue that in an age of competing and contrasting worldviews, scholarly attention to ignorance can shed light on interpersonal processes and relational dynamics that occur in encounters between subjects holding different points of view. We discuss data from two studies document…

  • Representations from the Past: Social Relations and the Devolution of Social Representations

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Stavroula Tsirogianni et al.•ARTICLE•Integrative Psychological and…•2012•Cited by: 9•References: 15

Next
  • It's Only Other People Who Make Me Feel Black: Acculturation, Identity, and Agency in a Multicultural Community

    Open Access•Caroline Howarth, Wolfgang Wagner et al.•ARTICLE•Political Psychology•2014•Cited by: 28•References: 42

    This article explores identity work and acculturation work in the lives of British mixed‐heritage children and adults. Children, teenagers, and parents with mixed heritage participated in a community arts project that invited them to deliberate, construct, and reconstruct their cultural identities and cultural relations. We found that acculturation, cultural and raced identities, are constructed through a series of oppositional themes: cultural m…

  • Commentary: We Don't Share! The Social Representation Approach, Enactivism and the Fundamental Incompatibilities between the Two

    Open Access•Alison Chryssides, Parisa Dashtipour et al.•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2009•Cited by: 16•References: 7

    Underlying all theories are philosophical presuppositions that lend themselves to different epistemological approaches, which need to be unfurled when comparing theories and offering alternative explanations. Contrary to Verheggen and Baerveldt's (2007) promulgation that `enactivism' may be an adequate alternative for Wagner's social representation approach, this commentary outlines how this may be a misguided position. Enactivism, following an o…

  • Points of View, Social Positioning and Intercultural Relations

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, George Gaskell•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2009•Cited by: 14•References: 23

    The challenge of intercultural relations has become an important issue in many societies. In spite of the claimed value of intercultural diversity, successful outcomes as predicted by the contact hypothesis are but one possibility; on occasions intercultural contact leads to intolerance and hostility. Research has documented that one key mediator of contact is perspective taking. Differences in perspective are significant in shaping perceptions o…

  • Perspective‐Taking and the Attribution of Ignorance

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Mohammad Sartawi•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2012•Cited by: 10•References: 41

    Ignorance has been both vilified and celebrated throughout the ages. However, the social sciences have had little to say about this topic over the years. In this paper, we argue that in an age of competing and contrasting worldviews, scholarly attention to ignorance can shed light on interpersonal processes and relational dynamics that occur in encounters between subjects holding different points of view. We discuss data from two studies document…

  • Representations from the Past: Social Relations and the Devolution of Social Representations

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Stavroula Tsirogianni et al.•ARTICLE•Integrative Psychological and…•2012•Cited by: 9•References: 15

  • Globalization, demand of sense and enemization of the other: A psychocultural analysis of European societies’ sociopolitical crisis

    Open Access•Salvatore, T Mannarini et al.•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2019•Cited by: 8•References: 31

    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 spiral of conflict: Naïve realism and the black sheep effect in attributions of knowledge and ignorance

    Gordon Sammut, Frank Bezzina et al.•ARTICLE•Peace and Conflict Journal of…•2015•Cited by: 6

    Naive realism research has demonstrated the fact that individuals deprecate alternative \nperspectives to preserve their own. With reference to an outgroup, this bias may be \ncompounded by ethnocentrism. We present an operationalized measure of naive realism \nin terms of attributions of knowledge and ignorance. We hypothesized that \nrespondents would make higher attributions of knowledge to those who agree with \nthem than those who disagree w…

  • The Representation of Immigration. A Retrospective Newspaper Analysis

    Bruno Maria Mazzara, Evrinomy Avdi et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of Immigrant & Refugee…•2021•Cited by: 5•References: 30

    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…

  • Arabs in Europe: Arguments for and against integration

    Gordon Sammut, Sandra Jovchelovitch et al.•ARTICLE•Peace and Conflict Journal of…•2017•Cited by: 5•References: 3

    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 …

  • There’s no such thing as a good Arab: Cultural essentialism and its functions concerning the integration of Arabs in Europe

    Open Access•Luke J Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut et al.•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2018•Cited by: 3•References: 22

    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…

  • Dialogue, Linguistic Hinges and Semantic Barriers: Social Psychological Uses and Functions of a Vulgar Term

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Marilyn Clark et al.•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2013•Cited by: 3•References: 34

    The present paper reports a study of conversational acts in dialogical interaction. Conversation in which the use of a vulgar term [à la bieb żobbi] in the Maltese language was used was recorded and analysed for the present purpose. The term is demonstrated to serve social psychological functions. We documented three modes governing its use in conversation, that is, (a) as a personality descriptor, (b) as a strategy for shutting down an alternati…

  • The Minimal Model of Argumentation: Qualitative data analysis for epistemic speech, text and policy

    Open Access•Luke J Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2023•Cited by: 2•References: 100

    Social scientific work on argumentation is yet to address the perennial tension between social cognition and social constructionism. Moreover, argumentation‐based qualitative analysis protocols are needed for interview and textual data. Nonetheless, argumentation models remain too complex to reflect everyday argumentation and are not necessarily reflective of underlying cognitive processes. This presents the need for further theorising social beh…

  • Acts from the cracks: Representations and positions of the decolonial in the geopolitical (de)construction of power‐entangled knowledge

    Open Access•Ali Saeedi, Mauro Sarrica et al.•ARTICLE•British Journal of Social…•2025•Cited by: 1•References: 11

    This paper examines the geopolitical implications of knowledge production in psychology through two studies that respond to the growing body of work on the 'Decolonisation of Knowledge' and the 'Decolonisation of Psychology' over the past two decades. By adopting a constructivist approach, particularly through the lens of Social Representation Theory (SRT), these studies explore the ways in which geopolitical contexts shape decolonial activism wi…

  • Worldviews, attitudes to science and science policy in Kuwait: The engagement and mobilisation effects

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Mohammad Sartawi et al.•ARTICLE•Research & Politics•2024•Cited by: 1•References: 1

    The relevance of policymaking stems from its utility in helping social systems manage the output of their constituent members by shaping behavioural and procedural processes. Whilst policymaking might be well-meaning, it does not always lead to satisfactory outcomes. Policy may fail in generating uptake or establishing intent. For this reason, the study of the psychological characteristics of citizens is pertinent in understanding reactions to po…

  • Minority arguments on integration: Arabs in the Southern European state of Malta

    Open Access•Luke J Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Journal of Community & Applied…•2023•Cited by: 1•References: 12

    Intercultural relations benefit from the social psychological study of arguments made by different groups about joint projects of mutual concern. This focus allows researchers to map representations of the project in question, among communities in different cultural milieus. This paper presents a study looking at Arabs' views on the project of integration. Arabs' perspectives revolved around six argumentative themes: cultural, economic, psycholog…

  • The motivational staircase: Evolutionary insights from reversal theory

    Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Peace and Conflict Journal of…•2019•Cited by: 1•References: 1

    This paper discusses key insights from Reversal theory in evolutionary perspective. Reversal theory proposes four motivational states that may serve to justify and motivate the act of fighting. Individual soldiers are variably motivated in combat. Consequently, they respond to different construals of war depending on their idiosyncratic motivations. This paper proposes that these variable motivations are rooted in our genetic baggage and that the…

  • The Sociocultural Determination of Planned Behaviour

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Luke J Buhagiar•ARTICLE•Integrative Psychological and…•2017•Cited by: 1•References: 13

  • Points of View, Social Positioning and Intercultural Relations

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, George Gaskell•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2009•Cited by: 14•References: 23

    The challenge of intercultural relations has become an important issue in many societies. In spite of the claimed value of intercultural diversity, successful outcomes as predicted by the contact hypothesis are but one possibility; on occasions intercultural contact leads to intolerance and hostility. Research has documented that one key mediator of contact is perspective taking. Differences in perspective are significant in shaping perceptions o…

  • Commentary: We Don't Share! The Social Representation Approach, Enactivism and the Fundamental Incompatibilities between the Two

    Open Access•Alison Chryssides, Parisa Dashtipour et al.•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2009•Cited by: 16•References: 7

    Underlying all theories are philosophical presuppositions that lend themselves to different epistemological approaches, which need to be unfurled when comparing theories and offering alternative explanations. Contrary to Verheggen and Baerveldt's (2007) promulgation that `enactivism' may be an adequate alternative for Wagner's social representation approach, this commentary outlines how this may be a misguided position. Enactivism, following an o…

  • Interobjectivity: Representations and artefacts in Cultural Psychology

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Paul Daanen et al.•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2010

    This paper revisits the emerging concept of interobjectivity and furthers Moghaddam’s (2003, 2006) proposal to prioritize this concept in Cultural Psychology. We argue that Heidegger’s phenomenology provides insights into a foundational understanding of what interobjectivity entails. We argue that human relations are not essentially characterized by intersubjective relations but rely on the non-conscious engagement in practices that occur within …

  • G.H. Mead and knowing how to act: Practical meaning, routine interaction, and the theory of interobjectivity

    Open Access•Paul Daanen, Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Theory & Psychology•2012

    The general aim of this paper is twofold. First, we evaluate Mead’s later efforts at developing a non-conscious theory of meaning that refutes the primacy of Descartes’s cogito as a foundational explanation of adult human understanding and social interaction. However, paired with this first goal, we also intend to use Mead’s theoretical framework as a paradigmatic example of a theory of intersubjectivity. We will show how Mead problematically rei…

  • Negotiating British Muslim identity: Everyday concerns of practicing Muslims in London

    Open Access•Mohammed Sartawi, Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2012

    In situations of cultural change and dislocation, and driven by both a desire to integrate and to preserve cultural identity, Muslims in Britain draw on several sources of cultural knowledge when making sense of their worlds and negotiating their identities. In this article, we present findings from an ethnographic study that demonstrate negotiations of Islamic identities in Britain as they resort to imams for religious advice to resolve everyday…

  • The immigrants’ point of view: Acculturation, social judgment, and the relative propensity to take the perspective of the other

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2012

    Immigration comes with potential for increased opportunities but poses multifarious challenges to social integration. The local perception that immigration is unsustainable fuels identity threats that lead to surges in nationalism rather than multiculturalism. This paper reports three case studies of Maltese migrants to the UK. Adopting the migrants’ points of view, the paper documents how acculturation takes shape in a situation where immigrants…

  • Perspective‐Taking and the Attribution of Ignorance

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Mohammad Sartawi•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2012•Cited by: 10•References: 41

    Ignorance has been both vilified and celebrated throughout the ages. However, the social sciences have had little to say about this topic over the years. In this paper, we argue that in an age of competing and contrasting worldviews, scholarly attention to ignorance can shed light on interpersonal processes and relational dynamics that occur in encounters between subjects holding different points of view. We discuss data from two studies document…

  • Representations from the Past: Social Relations and the Devolution of Social Representations

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Stavroula Tsirogianni et al.•ARTICLE•Integrative Psychological and…•2012•Cited by: 9•References: 15

  • Dialogue, Linguistic Hinges and Semantic Barriers: Social Psychological Uses and Functions of a Vulgar Term

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Marilyn Clark et al.•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2013•Cited by: 3•References: 34

    The present paper reports a study of conversational acts in dialogical interaction. Conversation in which the use of a vulgar term [à la bieb żobbi] in the Maltese language was used was recorded and analysed for the present purpose. The term is demonstrated to serve social psychological functions. We documented three modes governing its use in conversation, that is, (a) as a personality descriptor, (b) as a strategy for shutting down an alternati…

  • Social Values and Good Living

    Stavroula Tsirogianni, Gordon Sammut et al.•CHAPTER•Encyclopedia of Quality of Life…•2014

  • It's Only Other People Who Make Me Feel Black: Acculturation, Identity, and Agency in a Multicultural Community

    Open Access•Caroline Howarth, Wolfgang Wagner et al.•ARTICLE•Political Psychology•2014•Cited by: 28•References: 42

    This article explores identity work and acculturation work in the lives of British mixed‐heritage children and adults. Children, teenagers, and parents with mixed heritage participated in a community arts project that invited them to deliberate, construct, and reconstruct their cultural identities and cultural relations. We found that acculturation, cultural and raced identities, are constructed through a series of oppositional themes: cultural m…

  • The spiral of conflict: Naïve realism and the black sheep effect in attributions of knowledge and ignorance

    Gordon Sammut, Frank Bezzina et al.•ARTICLE•Peace and Conflict Journal of…•2015•Cited by: 6

    Naive realism research has demonstrated the fact that individuals deprecate alternative \nperspectives to preserve their own. With reference to an outgroup, this bias may be \ncompounded by ethnocentrism. We present an operationalized measure of naive realism \nin terms of attributions of knowledge and ignorance. We hypothesized that \nrespondents would make higher attributions of knowledge to those who agree with \nthem than those who disagree w…

  • Arabs in Europe: Arguments for and against integration

    Gordon Sammut, Sandra Jovchelovitch et al.•ARTICLE•Peace and Conflict Journal of…•2017•Cited by: 5•References: 3

    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 …

  • The Sociocultural Determination of Planned Behaviour

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Luke J Buhagiar•ARTICLE•Integrative Psychological and…•2017•Cited by: 1•References: 13

  • There’s no such thing as a good Arab: Cultural essentialism and its functions concerning the integration of Arabs in Europe

    Open Access•Luke J Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut et al.•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2018•Cited by: 3•References: 22

    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 motivational staircase: Evolutionary insights from reversal theory

    Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Peace and Conflict Journal of…•2019•Cited by: 1•References: 1

    This paper discusses key insights from Reversal theory in evolutionary perspective. Reversal theory proposes four motivational states that may serve to justify and motivate the act of fighting. Individual soldiers are variably motivated in combat. Consequently, they respond to different construals of war depending on their idiosyncratic motivations. This paper proposes that these variable motivations are rooted in our genetic baggage and that the…

  • Globalization, demand of sense and enemization of the other: A psychocultural analysis of European societies’ sociopolitical crisis

    Open Access•Salvatore, T Mannarini et al.•ARTICLE•Culture & Psychology•2019•Cited by: 8•References: 31

    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…

  • Attitude Measurement

    Open Access•Luke J Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut•OTHER•The Blackwell Encyclopedia of…•2020•References: 1

    Attitudes refer to evaluative stances held toward social objects. Earlier writings sought to position the attitude construct in its rightful place among other social psychological concepts. Being at the intersection of sociology and psychology, attitudes have been measured using a variety of methods, at times overlapping and occasionally contrasting in nature. Moreover, some methods are more sensitive to context than others. Major topics of discu…

  • The Representation of Immigration. A Retrospective Newspaper Analysis

    Bruno Maria Mazzara, Evrinomy Avdi et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of Immigrant & Refugee…•2021•Cited by: 5•References: 30

    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…

  • Minority arguments on integration: Arabs in the Southern European state of Malta

    Open Access•Luke J Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Journal of Community & Applied…•2023•Cited by: 1•References: 12

    Intercultural relations benefit from the social psychological study of arguments made by different groups about joint projects of mutual concern. This focus allows researchers to map representations of the project in question, among communities in different cultural milieus. This paper presents a study looking at Arabs' views on the project of integration. Arabs' perspectives revolved around six argumentative themes: cultural, economic, psycholog…

  • The Minimal Model of Argumentation: Qualitative data analysis for epistemic speech, text and policy

    Open Access•Luke J Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2023•Cited by: 2•References: 100

    Social scientific work on argumentation is yet to address the perennial tension between social cognition and social constructionism. Moreover, argumentation‐based qualitative analysis protocols are needed for interview and textual data. Nonetheless, argumentation models remain too complex to reflect everyday argumentation and are not necessarily reflective of underlying cognitive processes. This presents the need for further theorising social beh…

  • Introspective Projection: Prototypical Representations of Policing in the Service of Rule of Law

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Rebekah Mifsud et al.•ARTICLE•Integrative Psychological and…•2023•References: 16

    Mass protests that have taken place over the past decade in various Western democracies have called into question the role of police in society, as officers have employed measures to contain rallies protesting for or against various issues. A number of these protests have resorted to violent means, resisting the police or protesting directly against their role and methods. The present study sought to investigate the prototypical representations o…

  • Worldviews, attitudes to science and science policy in Kuwait: The engagement and mobilisation effects

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut, Mohammad Sartawi et al.•ARTICLE•Research & Politics•2024•Cited by: 1•References: 1

    The relevance of policymaking stems from its utility in helping social systems manage the output of their constituent members by shaping behavioural and procedural processes. Whilst policymaking might be well-meaning, it does not always lead to satisfactory outcomes. Policy may fail in generating uptake or establishing intent. For this reason, the study of the psychological characteristics of citizens is pertinent in understanding reactions to po…

  • Politics and the New Challenge of Migration: Bridging Cultural, Social and Political Divides

    Open Access•Gordon Sammut•BOOK•Politics and the New Challenge of…•2025

    This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the social psychology of conflict rooted in human evolution, with a particular focus on migration and its challenges in a globalized world. It examines theories for how conflict emerges between cultural, social, and political groups striving to advance their own interests and agendas and considers their impact on democratic systems that guarantee human rights and freedoms. Building on the study of …

  • Conflict and Change: Integrating Social and Developmental Psychology

    Open Access•Ivana Markova, A Gillespie et al.•BOOK•Conflict and Change•2025

    Social and developmental psychology are often viewed as distinct subdisciplines, each with its own theories and methodologies. However, this book seeks to bridge that divide by proposing an integrative framework that considers various levels of analysis, from the individual to the societal. It emphasizes the interplay of fundamental concepts such as intra- and inter-group conflict and change across these levels. By revisiting and renewing foundat…

Sociology (21 works) · Psychology (20 works) · Epistemology (18 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Social Representations and Identity (15 works) · Philosophy (13 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (11 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Political science (10 works)

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