Abstract
Eighty pupils of different academic levels (i.e. strong vs weak) were asked to make estimations about the different subjects taught at school. Gathered post-experimentally, the data allow specification of the relation to intelligence in which each school subject stands for the two different types of subjects. Evaluations of the significations accorded to performances in the different disciplines were also obtained. In accordance with expectations, analysis of these estimations reveals that pupils in a failure situation have an “original” conception of the field of academic comparison. However, the data obtained show that this originality (i.e. this social differentiation) stays within the dominant value system which sets the confines of the field of academic comparison. Taken in conjunction with more experimental results reported elsewhere, these estimations suggest that the cognitive attitude adopted by subjects towards an object of knowledge (here academic) can, in certain conditions, be formed independently of the social significations associated with this object but not independently of the nature of the social insertion which subjects undergo at the time of this interaction.
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Huguet, P., Monteil, J.M. Social comparison and cognitive performance: A descriptive approach in an academic context. Eur J Psychol Educ 7, 131–150 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172890
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172890